A Perfect Day in a Perfect Place: Balboa Park

Cymbidiums abound in Balboa Park's pleasantly shaded plant house

Land was set aside in 1868 by San Diego civic leaders for what was then called "City Park." The sandy, scrub-covered mesa that overlooked present-day downtown San Diego sat without formal landscaping or development for more than 20 years. It was renamed for Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in honor of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, held in the Park that year. Today Balboa Park's total land parcel is 1,200 acres, and is one of the city's major destinations for locals and tourists.

The 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition commemorated the opening of the Panama Canal and provided a major impetus for the creation of the Park as it appears today—it was the first of two major Expositions that created many of the cultural institutions as well as the stunning architecture in Balboa Park. The San Diego Zoo was established in 1916, the second year of this exposition.


Most of the arts organizations along Balboa Park's famous colonnaded El Prado pedestrian walkway -including a popular restaurant with outdoor seating, The Prado - are housed in Spanish-Renaissance style buildings constructed for the 1915 Exposition. It was one of the first times that this distinctive, flamboyant architectural style had ever been used in the United States. The park features numerous cafes and restaurants for all budgets and tastes.

The Park also features a large lattice-style botanical building and lily pond for exotic plants and the Alcazar Garden set in a fantastical building straight from Arabian Spain, an Art Museum (one of 17 museums and collections) and frequent cultural events. A visitor could easily spend more than one day wandering about.

Balboa Park was declared a National Historic Landmark, and a National Historic Landmark District in 1977.

The Roar Heard 'Round the World: San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo grew out of exotic animal exhibitions abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition,as did neighboring Balboa Park (more about this verdant and multiple-use setting in the next blog).

The temperate, sunny maritime climate of San Diego was well suited to many plants and animals. Besides an extensive collection of birds, reptiles, and mammals, it also maintains its grounds as an arboretum, with a rare plant collection. The botanical collection includes more than 700,000 exotic plants including some rare animal foods: 18 varieties of eucalyptus trees to feed its koalas, and when Chinese pandas were in residence, the zoo grew 40 varieties of bamboo for their dining pleasure.

The San Diego Zoo also operates the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which displays animals in a more expansive setting than at the zoo. Animals are regularly exchanged between the two locations, as well as between San Diego Zoo and other zoos around the world, usually in accordance with Species Survival Plan recommendations.

Exhibits are often designed around a particular habitat. The same exhibit features many different animals that can be found side-by-side in the wild, along with native plant life. Exhibits range from an African rain forest (featuring gorillas) to the Arctic taiga and tundra in the summertime (featuring polar bears). Some of the largest free-flight aviaries in existence are here and afford an amazing opportunity to view exotic species up close from the many benches and rest areas that dot the walkways. Many exhibits are "natural" with invisible wires and darkened blinds (to view birds), and pools and open-air moats (for large mammals).

The San Diego Zoo has had a number of notable escapees through the years, the most noteworthy of them is Ken Allen, a Bornean orangutan who came to be known as "the hairy Houdini," for his many escapes (undoubtedly related to Richard Parker, the stowaway tiger in Yann Martel's fabulous book "Life of Pi" (and the equally wonderful movie of the same name).

Off to the Sun: A Sad Day for Panda Fans

Say goodbye to Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu

Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu are the stars of the San Diego Zoo, a mother-son duo who spend their days the way I wish I could: eating, climbing things, and taking naps, all in front of their adoring fans. Giant pandas have been a staple at the zoo since 1996, and Xiao Liwu — also known as Mr. Wu — is the sixth cub to be born and raised in San Diego.

He may have the United States listed on his birth certificate, but Xiao Liwu is the property of China. In spring of 2019, the zoo announced it was time for him and Bai Yun to return to their ancestral homeland, leaving San Diego without pandas for the first time in more than two decades.

In 1996, not much was known about panda behavior, and pandas were struggling to breed in zoos. Staffers at the San Diego Zoo and their Chinese counterparts came up with a conservation strategy, and started learning all they could about pregnancy, birth, and maternal care, through Bai Yun.
Bai Yun was a gift to researchers. She gave birth to Hua Mei in 1999, the first surviving giant panda born in the United States.

While there are still only about 2,000 pandas in the world, they have been downgraded from endangered to vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.