I was going to title this post: Part-Time Perks, but that might confuse people into thinking I’d gotten yet another job this year. This is about the benefits of Caleb’s job; sometimes a one-time pass to a theme park or event, stores and restaurants that offer discounts, the travel savings and access to medical care, and being surprised with a one-year Balboa Park Explorer Pass that gets us into most everything but the Zoo and Comic-Con Museum.

The museums don’t open until 10am so we went to the store first so Caleb could get yogurt-making ingredients and we could leave them to incubate for eight hours while we were gone. The parking available on Park Blvd. has changed as the city works to increase access for bicycles, but we get there early enough to quickly find an open spot near the Carousel. We arrived at the park without a plan, but seeing the Natural History Museum, we knew where we were going first.

We save the $20 entrance fee each, and probably $4 more as some places don’t apply Caleb’s active-duty ID benefits to my civilian status and I’m ok with that. I’m no longer required to report to work without knowing how long my day will be — a few hours or many months as the Navy decides which country he should be in and for how long. As Caleb finally nears military retirement and has to work through medical screenings, applying and interning through skill bridge, and enjoying terminal leave, we can be relieved that our long separation periods are behind us.

Anywho, we don’t share this with the women behind the booth, we just appreciate the acknowledgement of the long hours Caleb has put in fixing engines and filing paperwork to maintain the twelve percent of federal spending on America’s defense budget. Caleb puts our stickers on so that staff knows we checked-in and directs us clockwise around four floors of exhibits since the basement is currently closed. Inside the Living Lab we get to meet a toddler who, when exposed to his first snake, put it in his mouth without hesitation. Today, he will have to settle for watching the ants through a pane of glass.

Caleb focuses on the exoskeleton of a tarantula, which I agree looks weird at first, but these spiders can spend a day “moving out” after popping their carapace off and then have to pull their seven-segmented legs out of the old sleeve. This process happens monthly at first and then once or twice yearly for older spiders. There’s a Pixie frog, not in San Diego County, but it creates a plastic-like skin that can keep it hydrated in a drought for up to two years. Learning about how amazing and adaptable animals are reminds me that humans are just a tiny fraction of the Earth, even if our impact is substantial.

In the citizen science exhibit, which is always-on-view means we’ve been here before too, but as anyone who loves visiting museums knows – there is only so much you can take in on one visit. It’s the recurring returns that show you a missed detail or an artifact you didn’t notice before. For me, that object will be the double elephant (26” x 40”) folio of J.J. Audubon with his life-sized North American bird illustrations. His art and history were such an inspiration to a tutee, among others, of his widow that his name would be used in the now popular Audubon Society decades after his passing to remember the man who created the standard on ornithology.

We turn our attention next to the Japanese Friendship Garden, saving the $26 entry fee, to find some serenity in the city. I see a neat origami swan dress (didn’t get a good photo of it) and find the waters outside calming. Others seem to be enjoying the quiet respite this park has to offer too, but I’ve made the mistake of remembering this place larger than it is, so our time is shorter than the couple getting wedding photos or the two old friends talking by a waterfall until they are interrupted by the jubilations and boredoms of youth – the kids who love outside and the others being forced to follow their mom on her day out.

Instead of taking selfies by the koi pond I think about swimming with the fish and getting a closer look at the depths of their world. Now that I’m a scuba diver I look at the water differently; as a place to be respected of course, but also to explore endlessly and appreciate always. I don’t have any of the skills of the sea creatures and I’m also not adept at being an insect or a plant but I can gaze into their beauty and pause just a moment to take in how spectacular this world is and how lucky I am to have the capability to be in so many environments, especially with the help of science and technology.

We zig-zag our way back to the entrance which only seems to make the garden shrink in the distance. We’ll finish our day in Balboa Park with a stop at the Timken Museum of Art which always has free admission. Two paintings will catch my attention – Saint Francis in Mediation (ca. 1635) by Francisco de Zurbarán and Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tommaso of Savoy-Carignan (2015) by Kehinde Wiley. The former is an Italian friar painted by a Spaniard in a religious style in the middle Baroque period; the latter is a modern American adaptation of Prince Tommaso Francesco of Savoy-Carignan (1634) by Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck of a war equestrian portrait.

There are sci-fi films about time travel that are mostly concerned with disrupting the past, destroying the future, not denying the present but on a mission to survive the Renaissance or the 80s or our fears of what the next generations will come to bear on our society. Imagine if we could introduce the internet or even the phone to these two artists so that they could collaborate or be inspired by each other (and perhaps they were if they had the chance to travel). Then the thought of that makes me realize how many letters and other historical communications would be lost and the slow growth of other industries that might be destroyed (that give their own inspiration today) with only the intent to help spread their creativity and message.

With our viewing of others’ intellectual achievements passed through the afternoon it was time to return home to check on our yogurt cultures’ growth. With efficient thickness achieved we messily poured our pot of yogurt into eight small jars and three mini jars. As with any plain yogurt, it’s best not had alone. I add some date syrup to our test sample and it passes. Caleb has successfully made yogurt and can add that to his list of skills in the kitchen.