Balboa Park at its BEST

Balboa Park was more of a park when I was a kid.  Now it's a fascinating maze of shops and museums and developed gardens...and so of course we lost Arden right off the bat.   Upon finding him, we decided to confine his explorations to a museum.

San Diego Natural History Museum - Manatee Section

What's better than doing Science with Beatrix and Arden?

 

We were excited to find a mini version of the giant sculptures that greet you at the Birch Aquarium.  Tabitha missed getting in the photo, so we took another.  What kind of whale is it? ....a gray.  We decided to try the movies in the 3D theater.  "Ocean Oasis" turned out to be a gem, as it showed aerials of where we were headed next:  The BAJA!  It explained why The Sea of Cortés is so rich with life and the Baja California desert struggles to support life.  We also watched "Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World"...which was a bit tedious after the brilliant photography of  "Ocean Oasis". 

“The Sea of Cortez is a marine aquarium with the largest diversity of life we can find on earth.” -- Jacques Cousteau  

This sea is considered to be the richest body of water on Earth.   So why is it such a highly productive ecosystem?  One reason you would not guess is the softer, more porous rocks such as Coquina limestone, rhyolites, granite, or diorite (igneous rocks) support sea life.  But the big reason is the geology of the past 5 million years, which has resulted in the upwelling of cold, nutrient rich waters.  Nerd Stuff:  The Sea of Cortés is too small to have much of a real lunar tide of it's own. Even though it has no tides the sea does produce a very strong tidal flow. The lunar tides of the Pacific cause strong currents in the sea which actually occur as a lifting motion. The speed of these currents is determined in part by the width of the shore, the depth of the water and the contour of the bottom. 

Near the Midriff islands, in very deep water this lifting action creates vertical currents know as upwellings. A funnel like effect can be caused also, depending on the bottom and the currents. Because of severe changes in the bottom contour there can be an upwelling and a whirlpool very close together. These radical movements move fish, plankton and other nutriments around as if in a washing machine. The nutriments are affected by different currents and movements throughout the sea, keeping the fish population very well fed and very happy to be in the Sea of Cortés. Happy fish make for happy fishermen!    The fish stories that have come from this sea often seem unbelievable, when in fact, most are true.
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15-foot Oar Fish, taken Sea of Cortés

Back to the Museum....please.   Sorry...Geology is such a favorite topic for me.  We went outside for lunch, and then dived back in for more. 

Arden simply loves bugs, so we had to have a picture of him impaled by a giant rhino beetle.  And Beatrix wanted the above picture of an ice-aged giant beaver skull (Castoroides) that was probably once as big as Paka!
Kristen found her "best spot" at the Spanish Village Art Center.  Craftsmen had made the perfect jewelry for her of Brecciated Jasper...and each shop had even more artistically presented gems.  There was even a pure gem shop.  The kids took off and enjoyed the mini-railroad so we could concentrate on shopping.  Delicious!

Look on the bench for a hint of what the rest of the team was up to during our art appreciation time.  Newel has actually gotten very good at making raps with his new i-Pod ap. 

Ohhhhhh, yah.....   

Then we remembered the old Balboa Park Carousel with its original military band music.   This 1910 hand-carved example of European craftsmanship had a brass ring you could grab for.  Arden tried!  ...and he tried...!!!  It is one of the few in the world still offering the brass ring game for everyone taking the 5-minute ride.

Arden was a good sport about almost getting the ring...and it was time to say "Good-Bye".  (If you catch the ring you get another ride.)  We wandered through the main avenue of architectural wonders, and stopped to see the performers (juggling, joking and amazing all)...and sad, sad, sadly said farewell to half of our contingent.  I think they were somewhere amonst the tons of travel necessities in that van!

Hasta la Vista...vaya con Dios