December Nights is a tradition in San Diego where everybody gathers in one of my favorite places of all, Balboa Park, for a night of lights, festivities, entertainment, food, and the best part is…the museums are all FREE! I was very excited about going especially for the museum action. I have been to a couple in Balboa Park, such as the Museum of Man, and The Natural History Museum? I really wanted to see the Air and Space Museum and the Mingei Museum as I had heard great things about both.

Well, our plan to leave around dinner time turned out to be very popular. It turned out that everyone else in San Diego that night was also going to December Nights in Balboa Park. It took nearly an hour to get there and also to find parking. I literally had to throw Jason out of the car when I spotted someone getting in their car on the side of the road. We were in dead lock traffic and I was honked at in envy for a good minute as I gleefully parallel parked.

Once Jason and I arrived in Balboa Park, I couldn’t believe the amount of people. It was unbelievable. You had to dodge back and forth to get from Point A to Point B. The Museum of Man was on our left as we walked up and Jason really wanted to go. However, the line was unbelievably long. At least 50 people deep. So we started to walk a little longer until we saw that the Mingei Museum had no lines. We walked right in. The Mingei Museum is a culturally ecclectic collection of different ethnic backgrounds and cultures/or time periods. We walked through a Latin American/Mexican exhibit on the first floor that had amazing pottery, hand woven tapestry, masks, and other historical pieces.

On the second floor it was also very interesting.

First, they had a collection of modern European fashion from I believe late 60s-present? I took a picture of these dresses on display:
Next was a Eastern European exhibit. They had clothes and rooms/furniture on display to show what life was like in Romania/ Transylvania/ Eastern Europe. My favorite part of the exhibit was was when they displayed icons and masks to show how christianity and traditional/pagan beliefs intermingled in certain respects . Here is a pictures of one icon:

So after all the excitement of the museum we went down to the main courtyard area. There were lights everywhere, food everywhere. There was international food at the international cottages from all over the world. I tried the Glogg from Sweeden? Which is hot spiced wine. Jason wanted to meet up with his buddy from work at the International Beer Garden. I enjoyed it, I was a happy girl. I had my popcorn and their was a band playing. After that things were starting to wind down. We left to meet his other friends from work who were celebrating one of his buddies’ birthday.

So later on we caught up with his other buddies from work. It was Matt’s Birthday and we wanted to help him go out in style. He did anyway. Here he is:

So we went to a couple places, and then back to the first place. We were hopping around the North Park area, which I haven’t really done much of, even though I work in the North Park area. The bars were packed and the dance moves were great. I took a picture of the group here.

I had a great time I danced, drank and was merry. Afterward a couple of us went to Ruderfords (24 hour 50s style diner) in the wee hours of the morning to get some good breakfast.

• Uncategorized