Balboa Park

I just loved this huge, very cool tree!

Balboa Park is open late on Friday nights in the summer.  So we headed there on Friday evening.  We walked around the park for just a bit, enjoying the architecture and the lovely park.

 Then we headed to the Mingei International Museum.  It has art from a variety of cultures around the world.  Downstairs there was a display about Japanese store signs called kanban.

 There was also a display on Indonesian shadow puppets.  They were pretty intricate...quite amazing!

 Upstairs we found a variety of objects from all over the world.  Chihuly glass.  Quilts.  Art made out of garbage.  So many interesting things to see.

Traditional Clothing.  I didn't take a photo of it but there was even an outfit made out of the bands that came around cigar boxes.

Noah's Ark

 A docent talked to us for awhile.  She told us about her favorite pieces.  One of them was this really incredible fairy house.  It is so full of detail.  It includes so many creatures.  It was one of my favorite parts of the museum also.

This display was beautiful...amazing metal work!!

 Then, after some deliberation, we went to the Museum of Man.  I'm so glad we did.  I ended up really LOVING it!  There was an exhibit about monsters...real and imagined.

 Then there was an awesome display about the Mayans and their ruins.

 The part I loved the most, though, was an exhibit on race.  It was pretty fascinating and touching.  Race is really a social construct...and a relatively recent social construct.  Genetically, there is very little difference among races.  Yet we use race to see people as "other" and to feel that one group is superior and another inferior.  We use race to discriminate and separate.

I found this scientific explanation for the reason humans developed darker/lighter skin really interesting, especially when combined with the map below which shows that race is really primarily a geographic adaptation.

 There was a display on being biracial or of mixed racial backgrounds and how challenging that can be...often individuals don't know quite where they fit in.  There were explanations of how race has been used to advance educational, economic and other advantages for one group over another.  It really was a fascinating exhibit...and such an important one.  I really thought I took more pictures in the museum, but it was such a great exhibit.

Finally, we visited the exhibit on Egypt.  There were a few other exhibits there that we didn't visit.  But I loved the museum and could really have spent another hour there if we weren't all so tired and hungry.  What an amazing day!!