When we visited San Diego, one of the places I was most excited to visit was Balboa Park. Balboa Park is the largest urban cultural park in the United States and is home to 15 museums, the San Diego zoo, and several varieties of gardens. We spent a morning at the zoo and then strolled over to the Spanish Village Art Center. The center was absolutely one of my favorite places we saw in San Diego! It is so full of color and is just so happy!

We walked further into the park to experience some of the park’s architecture. Many of Balboa Park’s buildings were built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, which was meant to celebrate and recognize San Diego’s port of call as the first stop in the United States, after a ship’s passing through the Panama Canal.

The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture is absolutely stunning and incredibly detailed. Prior to the construction of the buildings in Balboa Park, the term Spanish Colonial Revival did not exist; it was coined in San Diego and after the styles utilized on the buildings in Balboa Park. The Spanish Baroque and Islamic and Persian Moorish Revival architecture styles were the inspiration for the now iconic style of architecture which became widely-used and recognizable in the state of California.

House of Hospitality

Casa de Balboa

Lunch with a view

San Diego Museum of Man

Botanical Building