If you’re like me and dread Black Friday mall madness, then consider shopping the most beautiful mall in San Diego this holiday season: Balboa Park. You can enjoy a leisurely stroll through the Park’s historic buildings and gorgeous gardens while browsing through a wide diversity of specialty gift stores, each carrying one-of-a-kind items you won’t find at the Best-mart.

A complete list of stores can be found on Balboa Park’s Web site, but to give you an idea of the scope: the Japanese Friendship Garden, Mingei International Museum, World Beat Center, United Nations Building, and Museum of Man feature exotic decorative items from many world cultures. The San Diego Museum of Art and Museum of Photographic Arts offer framed prints and glossy books, while the Spanish Village Art Studios and San Diego Art Institute sell original artworks. Plane, train, and automobile aficionados will find plenty to choose from at the Air & Space, Model Railroad, and Automotive Museums. Lastly, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and Natural History Museum have great gift ideas for science and nature lovers.

Museum-goers will love the Balboa Park Passport, which admits holders into 13 different museums for one low price. Memberships to individual museums also make great holiday gifts that an entire family can enjoy year-round, and current members enjoy discounts on most museum store purchases. So take it from me, ditch the malls this season and shop the Park!

In my never-ending quest to discover all of Balboa Park’s hidden treasures, I’ve recently fallen in deep puppy love with the elegant gardens that surround the historic Marston House. Located at the corner of Seventh Ave. and Upas St., the Marston House was built in 1905 for civic leader and Balboa Park activist George W. Marston by famed architects William Hebbard and Irving Gill in the Arts and Crafts style.

The extensive gardens that surround the house were developed over many years by a number of talented folks, including Balboa Park founder and horticulturist Kate Sessions. The formal English garden located to the north of the house bursts with colorful annuals and roses, serving as a perfect spot for weddings. Several stone-lined pathways wind down the canyon behind the house, offering a romantic walk for couples or an opportunity for kids and four-legged friends to explore a diverse range of trees, plants, and flowers.

Though the main house is only open for tours on weekends, the garden is always open and free. For an in-depth excursion of the gardens, be sure to check out “Elegant & Splendid: An Historic Garden and Landscape Tour” on Thursday, November 20, at 11:00 a.m. (reservations required). And then starting next week, November 28, take a Holiday House Tour to see the house’s interior fully decked out for the season.

As the unofficial spokesdog for the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center’s first-ever Doggie Lover’s Day, which I introduced in an Ask Cosmos post last month, I wanted to remind all my two-legged friends of what a fabulous event this promises to be for the whole family!

First off, you’ll get to meet me, in-the-fur, and find out why I’m so wild about blogging about Balboa Park. Secondly, you’ll get to see my good bud Tymer execute some amazing agility tests as well as watch some really pimped-up pooches strut their stuff on the fashion show dogwalk. In addition, there will be puppy puppet shows, experts to dish up the latest on pet care and gardening, a raffle for great pet-themed prizes, and much more. All activities are free with paid museum admission, which also gains you entry into the must-see Animal Grossology exhibition.

To help you plan your afternoon, I’ve posted the complete schedule below. See you then!

Event Schedule (in Community Forum room):

12:00 & 1:00 p.m. Judy Macomber (PetLoversHandbook)

“Planting with Your Pooch”

12:30 & 2:30 p.m. Rainy Aaron/Karla Perez (Fido & Co.)

Pet Wellness Center

1:00 & 3:00 p.m. Debbie Bax (Fido & Co. / Trainer)

Agility Center with dog Tymer

2:00 & 3:30 p.m. Fashion Show (Fido & Co. / Muttropolis)

Doggie Fashion Walk

Ongoing Exhibits and Opportunities (12:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.)

• “Ask a Trainer” with Debbie Bax and “How to Find the Right Pet for my Home” with a San Diego Human Society Representative (Main Gallery)
• Raffle Table (Main Gallery)
• San Diego Humane Society Pet Adoptions (Parking Lot at Space Theater Way)
• Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater (Kid City Exhibition) —Time TBD

(Times and participants are subject to change.)

Troubled by the bad economy? Then learn to appreciate all that you have at the free outdoor exhibition A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City. Organized by the heroic Doctors Without Borders, the 8,000-square foot exhibition at Park Blvd. and President’s Way recreates how 42 million displaced people live around the world and how Doctors Without Borders does everything they can to take care of them. But hurry, exhibition closes Sunday, November 9. (Pooches are welcome!)

Have you and your best friend grown weary of the same ol’ dog-walking routes along with their usual sights and scents? Well take heart my friends, because a newly marked trail system through Balboa Park offers hikers, bikers, joggers, and dog walkers plenty of new vistas to discover. The system lays out five pathways that encompass the full gamut of park topography, from roadways through charming neighborhoods that border the Park to steeply sloped canyon nature trails.

A good place to start is the new eight-foot trailhead gateway sign at Sixth and Upas, but if you download the map at www.balboapark.org/trails you can start your trek anywhere along the five clearly marked routes that vary in difficulty. Just looking for a brisk, easy walk on level pavement? Then start with the 1.5-mile-long trail number one. After mastering this one, you can successively increase your distance and challenge through trails two, three, four, and five, which all, incidentally, pass by Nate’s Point Dog Park. (I would like to take credit for that one, but the planners were way ahead of me.)

And just when you think you’ve seen it all, look for new paths and trailhead signs to be added sometime down the road, so to speak.