Fiesta de Reyes

This guide to Fiesta de Reyes in Old Town San Diego follows Juan Bandini, the wealthy rancher who built this adobe hacienda in the late 1820s and installed what was reportedly the city's first wooden dance floor just so he could use it. It traces the fandangos he threw as tecolero, the parties that made him famous with guests like sailor Richard Henry Dana, and the mounting bills that came with them, a single evening sometimes costing him close to a thousand dollars. Listen for the creak of the old wood floor beneath the noise around you.