158 BALBOA PARK

So, I’m certainly running out of things to do and photograph, which is a good thing since the trip is ending in a few days.  So, on a Saturday, I initially decided to go to the Museum of Natural History.  It’s indoors and helps keep me out of the sun.  Except, I had spoken to staff at the restaurant and they suggested that I should check out the pond at Balboa Park.

So, I started wandering around and found all sorts of things going on in the park.  There were entertainers and bubble blowers, festivals and other things.  It was all rather interesting and lots of photo ops.  It’s another sunny, warm day and I’m still worried about too much sun with this burn.  So, I stuck to the shade as much as I could.

During my explorations I found a fully functional and working telephone booth.  Although, it now costs 50 cents to make a phone call.  I can remember the days when a call cost 10 cents.  I think the most amazing thing about this, is that the phone wasn’t trashed and covered in graffiti.

Balboa Park is huge.  It contains the San Diego Zoo and 17 different museums including the Air and Space Museum, A Car Museum, Model Railroad Museum, The Natural History Museum and many others.  It also has a neat reflecting pond with lily pads and ducks.

After wandering around and watching some of the entertainers, I decided to continue with my original plan and see the Museum of Natural History.  There were all sorts of exhibits ranging from prehistoric times to modern days.  There are some cool animal exhibits that are so very well done, they look like they are still alive.  I got a nice shot of a cougar, that could have been in the zoo.

So, after a nice break out of the sun, but still a lot of walking, I headed back outside.  After looking around a little more, I headed towards the old carousel to look.  On the way I was intercepted by another photographer, who was also a Nikon shooter.  Things took a bit of a weird turn though.  I will say, he seemed a bit "off"'.

I have my D4s with Tamron 150-600 clipped to my chest on my imitation cotton carrier. I had some other photographer stop me and ask me about the carrier. He had his camera clipped to his chest on some kind of carrier as well. This is where it got strange. He proceeded to tell me that his setup was much superior to mine for shooting. I didn't want to get into an argument and his wife was trying to drag him away.

His setup is the D7100 with a kit lens. I have no argument with the D7100, have one myself. Debating, which is better, is kind of non-productive. Heck, they're both Nikons and it all depends on what you can afford and what kind of shooting you do. I could understand debating Canon and Nikon, but... I will give him one thing, he did it to my face and didn't play keyboard warrior. But, holy cow, I would never dream of criticizing someone else's choice of gear, well, of course, unless they had Canon, and it was someone I knew, and it would be done in jest.

Anyway, once his wife managed to pull him away, I continued to wander.  I found a miniature railway train going by, so I stopped to photograph that.  By then though, I was getting pretty worn out and decided it was time to call Uber and head back to the hotel.

When I was sitting in the Uber, I noticed that my left knee looked kind of bumpy and I thought it looked kind of strange.  I couldn’t figure out what it was.  As soon as I touched my knee and several broke open, I realized my knee was blistered.  It didn’t hurt, it wasn’t itchy.

Once I got back to the hotel, I discovered that it wasn’t just my left knee.  Both legs and both arms that had been sunburned were now blistered.  It made me kind of concerned, thinking I wasn’t going to be able to go outside for the last few days in San Diego.

However, later in the evening, almost all the blisters had mostly disappeared.  So, that’s a good thing.  Other friends on Facebook told me that they get the same thing and it is nothing to worry about.  Anyway, that out of the way, I went and had dinner and then came back to the room to edit the days shots.