A DAY IN BALBOA

            September is a good month to visit Balboa after the summer visitors have left and the weather is still pleasant.  

            We approached Balboa Island from Jamboree Road off Freeway 405 past the financial district and many company headquarters.

            Balboa Island was created in 1908  from sand dredged from Newport Bay. It is 1.7 miles around the perimeter.  These websites have some interesting background about Balboa Island.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balboa_Island,_Newport_Beach

www.balboaisland.com/history

Marine Avenue is the main street on the island and is lined with shops and restaurants.






 I used to live on Opal Ave. The house was sold about 15 years ago to the next door neighbors. The new owners, Pam and Larry had the houses demolished and built anew 2 story one on the combined lots. Ed and I had a nice visit with  Pam and Larry and they took us on a tour of their lovely, well designed home.  These are neighboring houses in the photo.


  

 

A view of the Pavilion from Balboa Island

  It is easiest to park on Balboa Island for the day and take the ferry to go to Balboa. 

Ferry landing at Balboa

We took a scenic harbor cruise to see the magnificent homes on several islands facing the bay. So many homes face the water that a boat is an ideal way to see them. 





The harbor photo below right shows a large catamaran with a small submarine on top. Go to this web site for more information about the Virgin oceanic super catamaran.    www.virginoceanic.com/vehicles/catamaran/

 We chose to have lunch at the Harborside restaturant in the Balboa Pavilion with bay views where we were able to watch the pelicans on the dock and the passing boats.

The Balboa Inn is located near the Balboa pier. It was just  a short walk to see the Balboa pier and admire the nicely landscaped area around the approach.




We had time to visit a small nautical museum with an emphasis on
local history and an excellent collection of model ships.

A good display of mounted local fish.  It was quite a surprise while watching a short film on Newport history to see a shot of my mother holding a large fish. She was an avid sportsfisherwoman and won may trophies for her prize winning catches.

A view of Newport Harbor from Corona del Mar

 The main beach in Corona del Mar with the adjacent jetty

 Then it was on to Laguna Beach to drive along Heisler Park overlooking the ocean

 Another view from Heisler Park.

 After diving through Dana Point it was back to the freeway to return to San Diego.  The day was topped off with dinner at Sammy's Woodfire Pizza for lobster bisque and pizza.