Balboa Park, San Diego

You could probably spend a weeks exploring San Diego's Balboa Park and still not see everything.  The park is home to many museums, gardens, and the San Diego Zoo.  And it is absolutely gorgeous.  We spent one afternoon walking around a few of the beautiful gardens, museums and theaters.

 The Casa del Prado Theater is a historic reconstruction used by the San Diego Junior Theater.

  The Museum of Man sits under the 200-ft California Tower and this beautiful dome.

The lily pond is surrounded by the botanical building and several buildings used by community arts groups. .

Obviously, there were fish in the lily pond that this guy was checking out.  The botanical building is pictured in the back.  The gardens within the botanical building are free to tour, but be aware, the building closes it's gates at 4 PM.

The Organ Pavilion was just the coolest thing to me and probably my favorite bit of architecture we saw.  I associate organs with old churches and very traditional religious services and had honestly never heard of an outdoor pipe organ.  That only made the Spreckels Organ Pavilion (one of the largest outdoor pipe organs) that much more amazing to me.  I wasn't able to attend one of the free concerts, but luckily the Spreckles Organ has it's own UStream. 

Have you ever been to Balboa Park? What was your favorite site?