San Diego Museums in Balboa Park and a Hard Rock Hotel Overnighter make for a perfect pairing of antiquities.

I love the classics...never looked at a Neanderthal man I couldn't identify with. But when you glide between museums filled with bones, skulls and body casts for several hours, it's time to take a break . By combining the San Diego Balboa Park Museums package with an overnight stay at Hard Rock Hotel, a friend and I traveled through time in a capsule passing by  human development and eventually s

 with the ease of a tune late blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughan once played on the priceless guitar on view at the Hard Rock Hotel, well, a midweek stay in San Diego really resonates.

Hell-bent on seeing Balboa Park museums, Connie and I arrived in San Diego just in time to eat. I left my home at 9 a.m. We left her house at 11:30, and by 1 we were watching little birds flit around a fountain at the Prado restaurant in Balboa Park.  the 60-minute lunch, two bathroom breaks and a wait in line at the special event, "A Day in Pompeii" curbed our enthusiasm. By closing time, we'd found our way into three museums and decided you really can't do them all in a day.   But we didn't qualify since we came from  It My leg of the drive was to Connie's house in South Orange County. From the northern border, it took me 50 minutes to reach her home. Then we piled our bags, cameras and guides into her SUV and off we went for an additional 70 minute journey.

She'd just gotten OnStar (free trial) with her vehicle, and it directed us to Balboa Park--precisely.