27 Secret San Diego Spots:
This was sent over to us for possible different things to do in San Diego. A few weird ones but an interesting read.
Electriquettes in Balboa Park
StaycationerJoJo is back at it finding some unusual things to do in California. We have driven in Nascars, skydived, and flown jets in flight simulators, but this week she slows it way down for a ride in an Electriquette.
So what the heck is an Electriquette? An Electriquette is a motorized cart first made in 1915 for an exposition in Balboa Park. Based on wicker chairs, they were invented by Clyde Osborn and were originally pushed by hand.
No surviving carts are known to exist and there is no info on what happened to them. However, the 2016 versions are alive and well in Balboa Park! They officially returned to Balboa Park in March of 2016 and you can rent them at the kiosk in front of the Rueben H. Fleet Science Museum.
We rented one for an hour and bypassed the umbrella rental of $2.00 which was a mistake since it was quite hot that day.
I was o.k. but they let you take your dogs so we had to find shade frequently for them during the ride.
An Electriquette with an umbrella breezes by the Natural History Museum.
Basically, the electric wicker cart allows you to cruise down the streets of Balboa Park at the pace of a fast walker. Depending on how much time you have, you could easily stop at the museums and when finished, continue on in your own personal chariot. Mostly they are for someone who wants to see what Balboa Park is all about. Like me, I didn’t realize it housed so many museums.
Along with the Rueben H. Fleet Science Museum, there is the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Man, just to name a few. There are restaurants, the Old Globe Theater, Botanical Building and Lily Pond, plus much more.
California Sea Glass
Sea Glass
After I visited Fort Bragg a few years back I became mesmerized by sea glass. While visiting there, I was lucky enough to visit “Glass Beach” where 100 year old glass is strewn across the rocky beach in three different areas. The sparkling, smooth, and colorful gems were an amazing foreground against the rugged coastline and the crystal blue water of the Pacific.
Because “Glass Beach” is in a state park, they are now more than ever trying to protect the glass from being taken off the beach as it is illegal to remove a natural or cultural object.
Even back then before they enforced it more, I was hesitant to take any glass away because I felt that it should stay there for future generations to enjoy. Lucky for me glass was laying on the walking trails up on the cliffs. Evidently people dropped it on the way to their cars so I was able to bring back a few pieces. In retrospect, the cliff trails might have been part of the state park too but I won’t tell if you don’t.
One hundred year old glass. Note how smooth most pieces are.
I like how you can see the glass in the water too. Here at this site, the glass was 3 inches deep. I hear at the inaccessible site that the glass is three feet deep.
Summer isn’t Over Yet!
Here is a list of festivals and events still going on for summer:
| tival | city | web / contact |
| All Food Festivals – August | California | seecalifornia.com |
| Accordion Festival | Cotati | cotatifest.com |
| Arts, Crafts & Music Festival | Gilroy | casadefruta.com |
| Art on the Lake | Big Bear Lake | bigbeararts council.org |
| Big Bear Cowboy Gathering | Big Bear Lake | bigbearcowboy gathering.net |
| Burning Man | Black Rock Desert | burningman.com |
| Burlingame Art Festival | Burlingame | burlingame chamber.org |
| Bodega Seafood Art & Wine Festival | Bodega Bay | winecountry festivals.com |
| Casparfest | Caspar | casparfest.org |
| Corn Festival (1st Friday in Aug) | La Habra | lahabracorn festival.com |
| Corning Olive Festival | Corning | corning chamber.org |
| Summer Festival | Culver City | culvercity music.org |
| Fairfield Tomato Festival | Fairfield | fairfield downtown.com |
| Huck Finn Fishing Derby | Huntington Beach | surfcity-hb.org |
| Lake in the Sky Air Show | South Lake Tahoe | lakeinthesky airshow.com |
| Lemon Festival | Chula Vista | thirdavenue village.com |
| Olive Festival | Paso Robles | pasorobles downtown.org |
| Festival of the Arts | Palo Alto | mla productions.com |
| Sawdust Festival | Laguna Beach | sawdustart festival.org |
| Scottish Games & Celtic Festival | Salinas | monterey scotgames.com |
| Tomato Festival & West Coast BBQ Championship | Fairfield | fairfield downtown.com |
| Monterey | Turkish Arts & Culture Festival | turkfestca.org |
| Brushes and Blues | Lompoc | |
| Taste of National City | National City | |
| Heritage Days | McCloud | |
| Mountain Top Days | Running Springs | runningsprings chamber.com |
| Festa Italiana | Sacramento | italiancenter.net |
| San Jose Jazz Festival | San Jose | sanjosejazz.org |
| Steinbeck Festival | Salinas | steinbeck.org |
| Summer Kite Festival | Santa Barbara | |
| Westend Celebration | Sand City | westend celebration.com |
| Scotts Valley Art Under the Oaks& Wine Festival | Scotts Valley | svchamber.org |
| Seal Beach/Los Alamitos Rotary Fishing Derby | Seal Beach | losalrotary.org |
| Tomato Festival | Woodland | woodlandtomato festival.com |
| IRL Grand Prix of Sonoma | Sonoma | infineon raceway.com |
| Mountain Festival | Tehachapi | tehachapimountain festival.com |
| Pow Wow – Indian Show | Three Rivers | |
| Scottish Games & Celtic Festival | Toro | |
| Pride by the Sea | Ventura | glccventura.com |
| Whitey Harrison Classic Outrigger Race | Doheny | dohenystate beach.org |
Beautiful
After posting a staycation article about the new musical at the San Diego Civic Center based on Carole Kings life, we decided to try and see it for ourselves.
It was a last minute purchase and last minute gets you seats way up in the balcony. I am talking way up! The guy next to me was surprised that it went up that
high and frankly I was too. It was about three rows short of getting a nose bleed.
We didn’t mind as the production wasn’t extremely elaborate as far as stage design. It was nothing like a Lion King or a production like that where you would want to be up close to see the amazing props.
Although the stage design was clever, it was something you could see from where we were sitting. Besides, they tell me the lower seats were in the hundreds of dollars.
We didn’t think $66.00 was cheap but we now know at least in this case, they were “El Cheapos.”
The production of “Beautiful” takes you mostly through the early days of Carole Kings career and how she met her first husband Gerry Goffen. That marriage was significant because he was the lyrics to her wonderful music. The song writing team wrote many hits for various artists including:
- Will You Love Me Tomorrow
- Take Good Care Of My Baby
- Chains
- The Loco Motion
- Up On The Roof
- One Fine Day
- I’m Into Something Good
- Goin’ Back
From her early days with producer Don Kirshner,she wrote music that was sold to any artist that Kirshner thought the song would fit. Gerry Goffen provided the amazing lyrics. There she met another songwriting team Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil who produced many hits themselves such as, “On Broadway” and “ You’ve Lost that Lovin Feeling.”
Staycations California 