Botanical Building and Lily Pond
(Balboa Park)
About
This serene park within the park is one of my favorite hide-outs. Ferns, orchids, impatiens, begonias, and other plants -- about 2,100 tropical and flowering varieties, plus rotating exhibits -- are sheltered beneath a domed lath house. The graceful 250-foot-long building, part of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, is one of the world's largest wood lath structures. Kids love the "touch and smell" garden and the smelly bog of carnivorous plants. The lily pond out front attracts sun worshipers, painters, and buskers.
