Balboa Park is the center of museumland in San Diego with 18 museums ranging in everything from art to automotives and military to space. We picked two to spend some time balancing out our hours hiking the trails. 

1. Comic-Con Museum

Home of the San Diego Comic-Con International Festival, this museum is a shrine from pencils to pixels of superheroes, animation, and sci-fi history. The exhibits introduced the history of animation with important inventions and the beginnings of beloved classics with original cel animated sketches and 3D models. The displays were both informative and interactive as we skipped from one scene to the next. 

We even had the opportunity to join a free workshop where Derek created a functional phenakistoscope used in early animation and I drew an animation cel on acetate with paint markers.

Some of the upstairs exhibits were in the making for the following week’s annual Comic-Con festival where we got a sneak peek at life-size cardboard superheroes created by brothers ages 17 and 14 who began building these sculptures in elementary school.

This museum is a must-see for anyone who considers themselves a superhero fan! 

2. Museum of Us

What’s in a Name? According to the Museum of Us, “names hold memories, emotions, values, and legacies.” Known as the “San Diego Museum of Man” for decades, at its founding the museum was a place defined by “collections” of cultural resources in the traditional western European academic display. The San Diego Museum of Man has since then built trust with the Kumeyaay nation reintroducing itself as the “Museum of Us” in 2020 to represent the shared human experience and shift priority to Indigenous and community voices that redefined how their museum would steward cultural materials.

The new museum has been curated with the guidance of people they represent with elders, artists, ambassadors, and scholars within Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. Artifacts explained the cultural history from where they originated including those removed due to colonization. If the museum did not have an accurate provenance, it was taken off display. The exhibits provided unique human experiences in context such as the history of brewing beer across cultures, the secrets we hold onto, the myths and realities of cannibalism, and how some wild animals became pets and others dinner. 

We clocked over 20,000 steps daily while exploring the gardens, museums, and hiking so it was a nice change of pace to hop onto the free Balboa Park tram to get around the park. For all the museums we have visited over the years, these two were one-of-a-kind marvels off the beaten path.