Any way you add it up, it always comes out the same:

39 Museums + 28 Days – 50% of Admission Price = No Brainer!

That’s right! Visit 39 of the most prominent museums in San Diego County during the month of February (a.k.a. Museum Month) and receive a 50% discount off regular admission prices.

The catch? Just head over to any Macy’s Department Store in San Diego County to fetch a free Museum Month pass, which is valid for up to four people.

This is the perfect opportunity to pack up your pack and bring them to Balboa Park where 13 of those 39 participating museums are conveniently located. Balboa Park is also where you can visit such noteworthy exhibitions as Darwin: Evolution\Revolution at the Natural History Museum, San Diego Style at the Museum of San Diego History, the newly opened Science of Aliens exhibition at the Air & Space Museum, and the soon to close Oceanic Art: A Celebration of Form at the San Diego Museum of Art, to name a few.

In addition to these special exhibitions, this is also a great time to acquaint yourself with some of the remarkable treasures housed permanently in your own backyard and to discover all the family-friendly programs (many of them free with admission) Balboa Park museums offer year round.

But don’t take my word for it. I usually just bury any treasures I find in my backyard.

You don’t have to be a PGA Tour pro to enjoy a great game of golf this weekend on one of the City of San Diego’s finest golf courses. That’s because, in addition to everything else Balboa Park has to offer, it is also home to a very affordable 18-hole championship course.

Located on the Park’s East Mesa, the Balboa Park Golf Course features undulating greens with steep canyon drop offs, spectacular views of the San Diego skyline and Pacific Ocean, and an historic club house. Play on the par 72 course is often described as both fun and challenging, though three different tee settings make the course manageable for duffers and seasoned pros alike.

It’s generally easier to get tee times on this well-maintained municipal course than on its Torrey Pines counterpart, and local residents can take advantage of a special discounted greens fees program. There are also discounts for twilight times, seniors, and juniors. And while the 9-hole Executive Course may sound like a pricier option, it’s actually an even less expensive way for time-challenged worker bees to get a few holes in.

On-site club and cart rentals and lessons with the resident pro make taking up this relaxing sport accessible to anyone—anyone with opposable thumbs that is.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that I am a huge fan of anyone that can make a career (and revolutionary scientific discoveries along the way) of digging for bones. Thankfully the current exhibition at the Natural History Museum, titled Darwin: Evolution\Revolution, gives such a person, Charles Darwin, his just due.

The exhibition represents the largest showcase on the famous 19th-century English scientist ever assembled on the 200-year anniversary of his birth. It traces Darwin’s life story, starting with his early education and the events that led to his fateful decision to accept a position as the ship’s resident naturalist (a.k.a. bone digger) on the aptly named HMS Beagle.

Darwin: Evolution\Revolution features many original items Darwin unearthed and collected during his five-year research trip, including plant and insect specimens, bones, and fossils (which are basically really old bones and other organic materials that have been turned into rocks). Also on display are live animals, like my friend Verdi the iguana, who presides over the central exhibition space.

Even more important, the exhibition reveals how Darwin came up with his revolutionary theories on evolution and natural selection, which he published in his groundbreaking study, On the Origins of Species, in 1859. These theories have since formed the basis of all biological sciences, proving once and for all that not only are all animals, including humans, related, but some of us are just more evolved than others.

Cash and Georgia write: Dear Cosmos, two weeks into the New Year and my family is already neglecting their New Year’s resolutions. What should they do to stay on track?

Cosmos: New Year’s resolutions, particularly those involving a fitness program or spending more time outdoors with loved ones, are hard to start and keep up given the wintery time of year. However, anyone living in sunny San Diego, which boasts the continent’s largest urban park, has little excuse, I’m afraid.

Any fitness regimen begins one step at a time. And what better way to move your body than by exploring miles and miles of trails that wind through Balboa Park’s 1,200 acres? From short strolls on pavement through lush gardens to long hikes on dirt trails in steep canyons, there is an endless variety of challenge and scenery for you to work up a good pant.

For any bipeds wishing to pick up a new sport or revisit an old one, Balboa Park also offers excellent facilities for swimming, tennis, golf, archery, cycling, and softball at the Morley Field Sports Complex. They can even work on their throwing skills playing fetch with you in one of the Park’s three off-leash dog parks.

But getting outside and exercising is always more fun with friends and family, especially if food is involved. Fortunately, Balboa Park has numerous parks within the park that feature large open grassy spaces and picnic tables, including Pine Grove, Redwood Circle, Bird Park, and Golden Hill Park.

That should be plenty to keep anyone from getting off track.

In my unending quest to dig up Balboa Park’s must-see attractions, I’ve unearthed quite the hidden gem in a most unexpected location. Tucked behind the Park Administration Building — a site likely not on most visitors’ itineraries in spite of its historic architecture — is a beautifully designed courtyard garden that is well worth a look next time you park in the Inspiration Point lot.

Directly behind the building, four domed gazebos with colorful tile roofs help delineate the southern half of the garden. Here an oval-shaped walkway, palm trees, flower beds, benches, and areas of lawn surround a large bubbling fountain.

Just to the north, toward the Balboa Park Activity Center, two arbor-covered walkways, ornamented with flowering vines, flank another open courtyard area, punctuated with tall cypress trees, flower beds, and another fountain.

So what’s this charming, peaceful garden doing hiding back here? Well, the U.S. Navy emblems in the tile adorning one of the fountains give us our first clue. Commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1922, and designed by the Bureau of Yards and Docks to match the other Spanish-style architecture in the Park, the building and courtyard once formed part of the sprawling Navy Hospital campus.

Of the campus’s 42 buildings transferred to the City of San Diego in 1988, only three remain: the Administration Building, a medical library just to the south, and the Old Navy Chapel, which was ideally suited to become the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center.