Balboa Park is the Central Park of San Diego; so many beautiful spots to visit. The Botanical Garden is probably the most photographed, and rarely disappoints with its postcard-perfect views of the lily pond/reflecting pool in front of it. The first image here is from 1936, about twenty years after it was first built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Image #2 is from September 1960:
The earliest shot that I took myself, from 1986 when I was visiting San Diego on Spring Break:
If you can’t get to the Park in person, this Faux D© shot from 2012 is the next best thing!
The inside of the building is just as spectacular:
The building is one of the largest wooden lath structures in the world featuring more than 2,100 permanent plants, including collections of cycads, ferns, orchids, other tropical plants and palms.
Final one for today shows the building at its best during the golden hour:
See more San Diego Balboa Park photos at my main website.
A jewel of a place. I'd make day trips from mid-Orange County with a date carrying bikes so we could bike around and enjoy it all. Then head back for dinner in Laguna Beach before calling it a night. It would be a long day but was very doable in the summer. I think with today's traffic, it may be difficult to repeat what could be done in the early 70s. KS
ReplyDeleteI love that it really hasn't changed much from that 1936 photo - thank goodness. So many wonderful places being torn down for large, blah buildings!
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