SAN DIEGO, CA — Our Persian cat, Mutzi, sunned himself; a tow truck picked up our daughter's oil-leaking Chevrolet van, and I drove to Balboa Park for another day in the archives learning what I can about pioneer merchants Joseph Mannasse and Marcus Schiller.  I parked in a different area of the park than I did the day before, all the better to see new scenery, pictured below.

  
 Sunning Mutzi                                 Sandi's oil-leaking van is given a tow

En route to the archives of the San Diego Historical Society, I parked between the San Diego Zoo and the
Carousel, so that I could enjoy more Balboa Park scenery.  A lion, a stork, and a giraffe whirled by me as
I passed the old Carousel building, shown here from a vantage point to the south.  

 
  
The miniature train caught my eye on the way to the archives (top row) and on the way back (I took slightly
different routes) At top, photos are taken along eastern side of the tracks; bottom, the western and northern
sides of the tracks.  That is the Carousel Building in the background of the bottom right photo.


Walking south from the Carousel one passes the Natural History Museum (north entrance) and the 
Fountain and the Reuben Fleet Science Center.  The fountain is off, perhaps to drain it of all the soap
we saw in it the other day.   On the walls of the Natural History Museum one sees banners advertising
exhibitions—and these banners I felt my camera lens pulled to, as if by some magnetism.

                        
Natural History Museum banners, from left, advertised "Dead Sea Scrolls" which are coming in the 
second part of this year, and "Fossil mysteries" featuring dinosaur and mastadon bones.  


Another exhibit is called "Visions," and while I contemplated that, I thought I was having one, a parade
of Greyhound dogs.  You never know what you will see next in Balboa ark.  A banner for the Model Railroad
Museum announced I was at my destination, as the archives are next door to the Model RR Museum.

MUSIC TO THE EARS—A youngster tries out a harp on main pedestrian walkway of Balboa
Park, while nearby some unusual sounding Australian aboriginal instruments are demonstrated.
 
An African-American mime wearing white face and the Casa del Prado were among the sights
I saw in the afternoon as I left the archives of the Casa de Balboa.


Arches within arches—I am so glad that they are not golden.  This area is part of the Casa del Prado complex

Casa del Prado Theatre Building—This is the home of the Junior Theatre so nearly all the time one can
find excited children and camera-toting parents.  I fit right in.  Had I lingered, someone surely would have
asked "Which on is your grandchild?"  Or if they were extra polite, maybe, "Which child is yours?" These
exposures are from the southeast and from the east.
 

Across the street from the Casa del Prado is a lawn area with a giant fig tree and a Palm tree (in fore-
ground).  Then it is just a hop to the Spanish Village, where local artists have studios and visitors may
come in and watch them work (as well as buy their arts and crafts).  Walking through the area, I saw
why people say "dogs are chick magnets," enjoyed the tile pattern, and the play of sunlight on the 
courtyard, and then shot the village through the archway of the northern entrance.




HOMEWARD COMMUTE—The nice thing about going home in the afternoon is that traffic is slow 
enough, or the traffic lights are frequent enough, that one can observe the surroundings and even snap
a photo through the windshield.  The drawback is that the light sometimes gets a little dim, especially
through the windshield.  But on this day, I saw the University Avenue bridge near Florida Street from the
west; drove down the slopes of Texas Street into Mission Valley, and then after getting off the Interstate
8, had a chance to see the signs of the times--at least as they appeared in Grantville: a billboard promoting
cable news station CNN and one of its anchormen, Anderson Cooper, traveling with some military unit
somewhere; a man so intensely dreaming of Big Bear that he is surrounded by a snow flurry; and an
advertisement for Santee  townhouses in "the low $400,000," an indication that San Diego's super-heated
housing market is cooling down a bit.  On Mission Gorge Road, one can still see a gravel works, mining
rocks near the San Diego River.  And futher on are the familiar hills of Mission Trails Regional Park.