After two years of saving and planning, I finally went on the most amazing 15-day Panama Canal cruise in Dec. 2018! I’m home and still processing the more than 10,000 photos and video clips that I accumulated along the way. It’s going to take some time to sift through these images and videos, choose my favorite images and delete the rest.

Our journey began in San Diego where we (me and my travel buddy, Photographer Alisha W. ) were slated to board the Holland America Volendam for a 15-day cruise that included stops in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Columbia. Plus the amazing day-long transit through the Panama Canal. What an experience!

It’s always a good idea to fly to your cruise port the day before your trip. This is a habit that ensures that I don’t get delayed by my airline and miss the sailing. I’ve head horror stories and I just don’t want to put myself in that position.

Since we only had half a day in San Diego, we decided to go to visit just one sight-seeing destination. After talking it over and considering places like Old Town, Point Loma, Ocean Beach, and La Jolla, we decided on the venerable Balboa Park.

This lovely space has both free and paid attractions, with a wide variety of things to choose from. There are museums to visit, gardens to walk through, concerts at the organ pavilion, and street performers to watch. We decided to make our focus the gardens so we visited the free Botanical Building first.

We also took a wander through the Alcazar Garden. When we were there, the next season’s plantings were just beginning to open. I’m sure that in a few weeks, the main plantings of poppies in this zone will look fantastic.

The Alcazar Gardens were inspired by the original Islamic style palace in Saville, Spain. Inside this courtyard are beautiful fountains built for the 1915 exhibition. The tile work on the benches and fountains is bright and beautiful and worth a peek in this lovely little space within the park.

For more pictures from Balboa Park check out this past post. Over the next few weeks, I’ll continue on with the recap of my Panama Canal experience.
Dream Big, Plan Thoughtfully, Travel Safe
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Jan. 6, 2019