Our options were limited on Sunday due to the rainy weather, so we had a leisurely breakfast and used our 24 hours of internet-time to research some indoor options.

Eric suggested we look into Balboa Park which is a huge park of museums near downtown. After looking around at admission pricing and offerings, we decided on the Museum of Photographic Arts.

But first we took a damp stroll around the first (large) lathe building built in the US that houses several orchids, bromeliads, and other flowering plants. The grounds of Balboa Park are sprinkled with sculpture and fountains, including a huge ampitheatre for the weekly organ concert each Sunday.

Once the rain cleared up we walked over to the Spanish Village arts center to check out some local artists.

This is more or less what every building looked like, absolutely stunning detailed architecture…

It’s easy to see why locals and tourists alike flock to this place!

This evening we spent some time looking at works by Monet and others at the North Carolina Museum of Art. We prefer to go to these special exhibitions on Member Mondays when it’s not nearly as crowded.

While the Impressionism movement is not my favorite (we saw several dozen works by Monet last year), I can appreciate the style. I had two favorites. “The End of the Working Day” by Breton was incredible in person. The canvas is massive and the intense light of the sun and detailed shade was magnificent. This photo, frankly, doesn’t do it justice.

My other favorite was “On the Heights” by Curran. The play of light and darks in the girl’s faces is lovely and I really like the paint strokes in the sky.