It was déjà vu this morning when, at 9:30am, the Little Drummer Boy started practicing. Considering he’s under 5 (maybe 4 from the looks of him), he’s really not bad. The other day Eric made me laugh because, as we were rudely awakened by his drumming, Eric said, “At least he’s improving!” That struck me as so funny.
Anyway, we did both fall back to sleep, which causes us to sleep in later than ever. Again, we woke up around 11:00am! We had breakfast (cold cereal) and then Eric said I could figure out where to go this afternoon and he’d agree, even if it meant missing his game. He asked me to record it, in case we weren’t back by 5:30pm.
I decided we'd go to the REUBEN H. FLEET SCIENCE CENTER, because it looked like something Eric would be interested in, and it looked like fun! It’s in BALBOA PARK, which is really amazing. There is so much to see and do there! It is the nation’s largest urban cultural park. There are 15 major museums, many different performing arts venues, beautiful gardens, and of course the Zoo!
The Science Center had lots of EXHIBITS on aging, sight and sound, and energy. There was also an IMAX theatre, but we saw a movie yesterday (and I don’t like 3-D – it gives me a headache), so we passed on that.
This is not the science center. It was just such a gorgeous building, I had to take a picture of it!
After we walked around all the exhibits at the Science Center, we walked through the park passing the Museum of Photographic Arts, the Museum of Natural History, and many other gorgeous buildings. The architecture is very ornate and the park is immaculate, with beautifully manicured gardens, and lovely fountains. There were big crowds today, with vendors selling food and drink, acrobats, mimes, artists, magicians, musicians and many other street entertainers.
There was a wedding going on (there is a beautiful reception hall there, too!) and we saw the bridal party taking pictures outside. It was the perfect day for a wedding – sunny, breezy, cool and comfortable.
We walked to the ART CENTER and ran into my friend Gili (of GILI ANNA’S) in the first shop! It is such a small world and we only know a few people in San Diego, so to run into someone we know is VERY unusual!
I thought the way they had painted the stones on the ground was so colorful, whimsical and fun. I just loved this place and took lots of pictures, because it was just so lovely!
A fun way to get around Balboa Park. You can rent these by the hour!
We went through all the shops selling hand-blown glass, oil paintings, watercolors, jewelry, hand-dyed clothing, lots of ceramics, pottery and many other crafts.
A piece of hand-painted silk really appealed to me, with its beautiful Asian designs.
When we got back in the car we were really hungry – it was almost 5:00pm, so we decided to go for dinner in HILLCREST, since we were very close by. We settled on a Japanese restaurant called ONO SUSHI on University Avenue. It is a super-trendy sushi bar and it was packed at 5:00pm! We were lucky to get a great seat by the window, so we could watch the crowds on University Avenue.
We started with Garlic Edamame, which was unbelievable! We love edamame, but this was drowning in a delicious garlic sauce. We really enjoyed that! Then, we tried Shrimp Spring Rolls, which were filled with shrimp and veggies. Lovely! Our next appetizer was called Seafood Dynamite and it was another hot dish with seafood, rice and a delicious sauce.
Finally, we shared two rolls – a Philadelphia Roll (one of our old favorites) and a Double Hillcrest Roll, which had avocado, eel, spicy tuna, and caviar. Yummy! We were so stuffed we didn’t have dessert, but on the way home we stopped at our favorite gelato place (Gelato Vero) and got a pint of Chocolate Hazelnut.
When we got home it was almost 7:00pm. I started watching TV in the bedroom, and Eric watched in the living room, but he didn’t watch the game, because he figured he’d watch the whole thing tomorrow and was just hoping he didn’t hear on the news or the radio which team won!
I watched EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, neither of which I had previously seen. The DH episode answered a few questions for me – things I had wondered about, since I came into the show after missing a lot of the last season (we were still traveling when the season started).
These gorgeous roses at the Art Center had such an intense color!
Tomorrow I am finally going food shopping (I’m pretty sure the supermarkets and grocery stores are open on Memorial Day!). I feel great that Eric and I went out two days in a row. He has been a bit of a “homebody” lately, and it was wonderful to spend the long weekend doing things together. We had fun yesterday and today and I really enjoyed myself!