San Diego at sunset

We hit San Diego fairly early in the morning yesterday. We headed directly to Balboa Park, one of my most vivid memories of the city. Along I-15, which we drove down from Escondido, we could still see huge patches of burnt ground from the wildfires that swept through here a few months ago.

Much of Balboa Park wasn't open yet when we arrived; we had anticipated that, and we found a parking space and started wandering around as we waited for the museums to open. We spent most of the day wandering through museums of anthropology and art; the most colorful exhibit we saw was of the woven silk Japanese costumes used in Japanese Noh plays. They were rich and beautiful, and I wished I could touch the elaborate kimonos.

At lunchtime, we ate in the art museum cafe. We both got veggie burgers, which were really yummy; handmade bread, avocado, roasted onions, and an aioli sauce made them better than the average veggie burger. So far, that's been the culinary high point of our time in San Diego.

We left Balboa Park at around 4:30, and I knew the sun would set around 5:00PM, so we took I-8 to Ocean Beach to see the sunset. Our timing was perfect; we arrived at Ocean Beach just in time to see the sun dip below the sky. It was chilly, but the clouds and sky were brilliantly warm, and we spent quite a while sitting by the Pacific, watching the surfers in their wet suits and the kids playing along the surf.

I took a zillion pictures, of course; the Pacific sunset looks like the second in a pair of bookends, like the end of our journey that began with a Gulf sunrise. It isn't really the end, though; there will be more updates to come.

After all, we haven't seen the saguaros yet, and that was the original point, wasn't it?