Playing in the rain...

We were thrilled when our friend, Natalie (with son, Duncan, and sister, Chantal) were able to make it out to San Diego for a visit.

Although we wanted to welcome them with some warmer and sunnier weather than what they were currently experiencing in Toronto, their first full day was met with unseasonal rain, San Diego's first rainfall in 4 months!

Undeterred, they were troopers and continued with a full day of indoor and outdoor activities.  With an early start of 3am, they had already made an hour long trek to Target and visited the Model Railroad Museum before Beth met them in the late morning!

Lucky for us, the outdoor Spreckels Organ Concert in Balboa Park was scheduled to play "rain or shine", an unusual clause negotiated as part of the funding donation for the concerts.  As such, Natalie and Beth made their way over to the concert as Duncan and Chantal headed back to the Model Railroad museum for a second visit.  The concert was understandably sparsely attended, with many guests actually invited to sit up on the stage in appreciation of their dedication to attending even in the wet weather.  Nonetheless, we opted instead to stand under a nearby covered walkway to listen.  Drier and with an easier escape route if necessary, this definitely seemed the best option!

We stayed for about half the concert, impressed by the organ's diverse sounds.  It was almost overpowering during its more dramatic moments but subtle and understated during its quieter times.  In between pieces, the organist spoke at length about the intricacies of the organ, noting that each organ is unique with different sounds and even a different number of keys, making each experience a completely unique one.

Despite the rain, we took the opportunity to walk around some of the enormous park, taking in the botanical gardens, the large fountain and peaking at the Japanese Friendship Garden before heading into the Museum of Photographic Arts to take a look.

The Museum itself was fairly small but it boasted exquisite old photos from around the world.  It is hard to imagine photographers in the 1850s travelling to Egypt and setting up their cameras to take photographs of the vast desert.  What a challenging, lengthy and involved process that must have been.

We met up with Chantal and Duncan and headed to the park for a short visit.  Duncan loved his new Target "sand pails" and a friendly-looking plastic panda sculpture and was totally unphased by the grey weather.  He also loved the bus ride home, pointing out the traffic signals and stoplights and making sure that everyone had their tickets.

After an afternoon of conference calls and football, Geoff met us and we headed to Little Italy for some dinner.  The weather had dried and so we took the opportunity to sit outside.

Being a Sunday, the area was much quieter than the Friday night buzz we had enjoyed a couple of days prior but was still much better than the pure quiet we had experienced earlier in the week.  We had expected that January in San Diego is not the busiest time for tourists or eating out but were taken by surprise at just how quiet the historic downtown and surrounding areas can be during the week here.  You can honestly have a table in any restaurant and get tickets to any event.  Earlier in the week, for example, Beth and Geoff had gone to see a recent release and until the movie started were the only two people in the 400 person theater!

At the end of the first day, although Natalie, Chantal and Duncan had been very good sports about the awful weather, we walked home that night hoping that we had seen the last of the rain!