Downtown San Diego

On Friday Dan and John toured the USS Midway.  I had done that a couple of years ago, so I was more interested in joining our other son Mike and Dan's wife Amanda for a tour of downtown San Diego.  Amanda was especially interested in seeing some art galleries, so the historic Gaslamp area of town was the first stop on our walking tour.  Pictured below is the sign which denotes the entrance to the Gaslamp area.  This area of town is a dining and nightlife center, interspersed with boutiques and art galleries.

Some of the buildings have Victorian design and date back to the late 1800s.  Just looking at those buildings was interesting,  but we also found some art galleries which proved quite fascinating.

The familiar figure of Wilie E, Coyote greeted us at the doorway of Chuck Jones art gallery.  Chuck Jones was the cartoon director at Warner Brothers from 1938-1962.  He had many requests to sell original artwork from his animated films, which brought about the creation of this particular studio.  Represented here is also the artwork of many other animation legends and pop culture giants.  Among the artwork we found a framed letter from Dr.Seuss, written regarding Chuck Jones, which notes: " I have been enthused about his work for the past forty years,and each successive year I have become more enthuseder".

From the Gaslamp area we walked over to the harbor of San Diego.  Sprawling alongside the bay is the convention center,  a portion of its roof line suggesting huge sails.  Mike has been to Comic Conventions  several times there over the years and is very familiar with the center.  Our last stop was at the Horton Plaza, which is a large shopping mall distinguished by its multi-colored buildings.

Dan and John were not finished touring the USS Midway by the time we were done with walking around downtown, so we then spent some of our afternoon at Balboa Park.  I believe that I have featured that park on this blog site in the past, and am not sure yet whether I will write about it again.