Wandering Around Balboa Park

In the middle of our visit to the Ethnic Food Fair, we took a little walk around the rest of the Park, rebuilding our appetites for the next round of food. Our first stop was the Botanical Building.

From the Botanical Building we wandered over to Spanish Village to see if anything might be happening there. It was pretty quiet except for this one little dog who was having his portrait taken by his owner. I managed to get one shot myself. I think his name  is Baxter.

    

Ethnic Food Fair - Balboa Park San Diego - May 29, 2011

The House of Pacific Relations, otherwise known as the International Houses or Cottages in Balboa Park, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. For over 30 years now they've been holding an Ethnic Food Fair, with booths from each of the member countries serving food from their home countries. Heather and I try to attend this every year, it's generally on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Lots of tasty food, and good music and folk dancing as well. It's actually pretty tough to get decent photos at this event, so this year I'm only going to post one, and a link to the rest. 


Somewhere in between the Irish shepherd's pie, the Argentine choripan sausage sandwich, the Norwegian waffles (and really good coffee), the Finnish cinnamon roll, the Swedish marzipan thing (Heather's description - I must have missed that one), the German struedel, and the Turkish baklava, we managed to squeeze in a bowl of Puerto Rican rice and pinto beans. It was all good.

Click here to see more images from the Ethnic Food Fair in Balboa Park today.
   

A Few From The Zoo - San Diego Zoo, Saturday May 28

I spent about an hour and a half walking around the San Diego Zoo late Saturday afternoon. One of the nice things about getting there after 5PM is that many of the animals that spend their days sleeping are just getting going in the late afternoon. Baby hippo Adhama and his mother Funani were out swimming in big circles around their pool. Adhama seemed like he wanted to ride on his mother's back (that's not a rock under him).

I think the hippos like watching the people as much as the people like watching the hippos. I've seen them right up against the glass like this many times.

I think this guy is still mad at me from the last time I took his picture.

The meerkats, on the other hand, seem to really like having their pictures taken.

The flamingos are always fun to watch, no matter what time of day (but early evening is still the best).

The San Diego Zoo has one of the best botanical collections around.

Click here for more images from my short walk around the San Diego Zoo on Saturday, May 28, 2011.
    

Some New Edits From The Bernardo Winery Group Shoot

I went back and converted a few of my images from the SD-DSLR May Group Shoot at the Bernardo Winery into black & white. I'm not sure why, but I think some of this old stuff just looks better in b&w.

   
See a few posts down for more images from our morning walk around the Bernardo Winery.
   

Wandering in the Desert - Anza Borrego - Sunday May 22, 2011

On Sunday I took a drive out to Anza Borrego Desert State Park with some friends. Robert rode with me in the Xterra and Mark drove his new Nissan Frontier. We were just out wandering, not looking for anything in particular, just enjoying what would likely be the last daytime trip to the desert until it cools off again after summer.

We started out by exploring Clark Dry Lake, which is north of County Road S-22. None of us had ever been there before. I've been wanting to check this area out for years, but in the winter there is generally a large herd of land yachts parked at the start of the trail, so I've never bothered. There is an unpaved road that runs a little over 10 miles, first along the edge of the dry lake bed, then up Rockhouse Canyon. At the very end it gets really rocky, at which point it pretty much ends, and you turn and come back out the same (and only) way. Just before the road heads up the  canyon it crosses the edge of the lake bed, and you can get a close look at the dried mud surface.

After exploring around Clark Dry Lake and Rockhouse Canyon for a bit we wandered over to 17 Palms Oasis in search of a shady spot for lunch. Here's the view from my chair.

We checked out the scenic overlooks at Vista del Malpais and Fonts Point, with a few stops in between to get a closer look at some of the desert geology. You can see Clark Dry Lake in the distance from our parking spot at Fonts Point.

It wasn't really all that hot for being close to the end of May, probably only in the very low 90's. There was lot of wind, and it was a fairly cool breeze, which kept it comfortable.

Click here for a few more images from the day.

    

One Little Seahorse

While on our way to La Jolla to meet up with friends Rae and Robert, Heather and I made a brief stop at the Scripps Birch Aquarium to check out the seahorses.

  

Bernardo Winery - SD-DSLR Monthly Group Shoot - May 2011

The San Diego DSLR Photo Group held its monthly Group Shoot for May at the Bernardo Winery this morning. The winery, in Rancho Bernardo, was founded in 1889. It's a fun place to wander around with a camera, and the restaurant, Cafe Merlot, has a great lunch menu.

Click here to see more images from our morning walk around Bernardo Winery on Saturday, May 14, 2011.