When I arrived at the 2021 Balboa Park Pow Wow this afternoon, the Inter-Tribal Dancing was just beginning.
According to the event’s flyer, the Balboa Park Pow Wow, a project of the San Diego American Indian Health Center, is about dancing for healing and honoring heritage. It’s taking place this weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) at the corner of Park Boulevard and Presidents Way.
I missed the earlier Aztec Dancers and Bird Singing, but I did experience what you’ll see in the following photographs.
The rhythmic beat of the drums was like a steady heartbeat. As I watched the different dancers, young and old, I saw eyes filled with dedication and pride. And I saw smiles like sunshine, too.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Many cool events could be experienced in San Diego five years ago!
Looking back at photographs I took in October 2016, I see an amazing Maker Faire was held in Balboa Park, and a Festa with lots of chalk art was held in Little Italy.
Five year ago I also enjoyed two very unique museum exhibits, took a walk through beautiful Los Peñasquitos Canyon, and had my mind blown during a special tour aboard an oceanographic research vessel!
If you’d like to see lots of colorful photos, click the links that are coming up!
Click the following links to revisit fun old blog posts!
This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Oh, and by the way, see my photograph above? Yes! Nikigator has made its long-awaited return!
Nikigator stands once again outside the front entrance of the recently reopened, beautifully renovated Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. Wouldn’t it be fun to sit on that!
While I’m mentioning the Mingei, families should definitely head inside. The ground floor is now free to everyone, whatever your age. And one big display case holds all sorts of craft toys from around the world! Another contains carousel horses!
And one more thing. If your kids haven’t been to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park, they are missing out on some of the most incredible, spectacular toy train layouts anywhere in the world! And it’s free in October for kids, too!
Click here for all the museums and attractions that are participating this month in Kids Free San Diego!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Bronze plaques near the foot of the Imperial Beach Pier recall the legendary slough surfers who once trekked from far and wide to the Tijuana Sloughs, where the Tijuana River meets the Pacific Ocean, just north of the Mexican border.
During much of the 20th century, the Tijuana Sloughs was considered the preeminent big surf break in California. There’s a great article concerning the history and geology of the Sloughs here.
If you walk around Portwood Pier Plaza at the foot of the IB Pier, you’ll see a bunch of colorful surfboard benches where you can rest and gaze out across the beach. Look down and you’ll discover plaques next to each bench.
The plaques recall those who rode the big waves at the Tijuana Sloughs and honor bits of Imperial Beach surfing history.
Surfhenge public art welcomes people to the Imperial Beach Pier and Portwood Pier Plaza. The plaza is located next to the beach between Surfhenge and the lifeguard tower to the south.Visiting slough surfers 1940’s.Regular slough surfers 1940’s and 1950’s.Most of California’s finest surfers were lifeguards at some stage in their careers…Dean of the Sloughs. In 1937 the Sloughs were first surfed by the legendary waterman Dempsey Holder. Over the years surfers from all over California showed up at Dempsey’s lifeguard station at the end of Palm Avenue.Visiting slough surfers 1950’s.Father of the Modern Surfboard. In the 1940’s Bob Simmons applied the principles of hydrodynamics to surfboard design and forever changed the sport of surfing. In 1950 he moved to Imperial Beach.…From 1930 to 1950 the total number of California surfers grew from under 70 to over 1500.In the 1940’s surfers from all over Southern California made the journey to what is now Imperial Beach to surf the then-known biggest waves off the continental United States.The Tijuana Sloughs became the testing ground for mainlanders going to Hawai’i. Before Malibu, San Onofre and Windansea groups surfed Makaha and the North Shore of O’ahu, they experienced the thrill and fear of big waves at the Sloughs.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Giant, menacing skeletons have invaded the Target parking lot at Westfield Mission Valley!
This afternoon I noticed a pair of monstrous skeletons have leapt up onto the roof of a large truck in order to terrify motorists passing the shopping mall.
Careful they couldn’t see me, I circled the skeletons and was bewildered to observe a legion of other ghouls, ghosts and ghastly creatures lurking nearby. Some were even peering through windows!
Have you ever wondered what the Rose Creek Bikeway is like just north of Mission Bay?
I did, so I walked along the bike and pedestrian path a few weekends ago. I started at a point near the In-N-Out Burger at Damon Avenue (just east of Mission Bay Drive) and headed south under Garnet and Grand Avenue to North Mission Bay Drive. I then walked west over the Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge spanning the Rose Creek Inlet to the entrance of Campland on the Bay.
As you’ll see in the upcoming photographs, the path along Rose Creek features natural beauty but can be trashy in places. It cuts behind businesses, passes the ends of residential streets, and winds along the edge of several sporting facilities. I also saw evidence that homeless people use the path and camp near it.
The Rose Creek Bikeway is part of the much longer 44 mile Coastal Rail Trail which, when completed, will connect downtown San Diego with Oceanside, California. (Had I walked north up the path instead, I would have followed Interstate 5 toward La Jolla and Sorrento Valley, next to the tracks of the soon-to-open Mid-Coast Trolley extension.)
Looking north for a moment as I get started south.About to pass under Mission Bay Drive.Approaching Garnet Avenue.Approaching Grand Avenue.A couple walks dog under Grand Avenue.It appears someone lives under the bridge.Passing a basketball court.Walking between Rose Creek and the Mission Bay Youth Baseball field.Someone practices pitching.To the right beyond the fence is the San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club.Passing the Mission Bay Golf Course and Practice Center.Turning for a moment to look back north. Sign at North Mission Bay Drive, just east of the Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge, reads: Welcome To… The Rose Creek Bike Path.Now walking west, near a plaque at the east end of the Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge.Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge. October 4, 1947 – May 18, 2008. In memory of Mike’s commitment to creating the people’s playground, not just for today, but all generations to come. Dedicated April 20, 2012.Looking south toward Mission Bay. I see Fiesta Island in the distance.Passing behind Mission Bay High School’s sports fields.Approaching Pacific Beach Drive, where the dedicated bike and pedestrian path ends.Bicyclists start east along the path, near the entrance to Campland on the Bay.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
The House of Charm and California Tower in silhouette as day ends.
Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you already love Balboa Park. You know what a truly incredible place it is.
Well, Forever Balboa Park wants to take San Diego’s crown jewel to a whole new level. They want the park to be recognized as one of the premier urban parks in the entire world.
We’ve seen how Balboa Park has undergone numerous amazing enhancements during the past couple years: a reimagined Mingei International Museum, new International Cottages, a new Pan American Plaza with ongoing beautification of buildings in the Palisades area, an upcoming very popular Comic-Con Museum, a new viewing platform for the historic Moreton Bay Fig, and much more!
Now there’s a search for a leader who will transform our amazing park in the eyes of the world.
Forever Balboa Park is searching for a world-class leader. According to the job description: The President and CEO must be equally a visionary, diplomat, fundraiser, conservationist, and community leader who is influential beyond the confines of the park. Forever Balboa Park’s first CEO will unify the community around a shared, inclusive vision to transform this urban gem into one of the world’s premier urban parks.
Do you know a passionate, talented someone who can help to accomplish all this? Spread the word! Learn more here!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A wide variety of community programs are offered at Chollas Lake Park in San Diego’s Oak Park neighborhood. There are ranger-led wildlife “Meet the Neighbors” hikes around the small lake, Kumeyaay ethnobotany walks, youth fishing, fitness classes, crafts, an oral history project, archery and even a book club with its own scenic hangout!
Yesterday I went on a nature hike where I and a good number of visitors circled the shallow artificial lake while ranger Cary Goldstein identified and talked about the many birds and other animals we saw, some of which are feral.
The walk was level, about a mile long, easy, and very educational. We saw Chinese and African geese and learned how to tell them apart. We saw a turkey vulture circling high above the treetops. We saw blooming marsh fleabane at the water’s edge and California bulrushes where birds nest. We saw turtles swimming underwater and sunning on rocks. We saw mallards and coots and banded pigeons and Canada geese and curious California ground squirrels and a strange-looking Muscovy duck.
We learned so much I couldn’t begin to relate it all. Some very young walkers had hands raised and asked lots of good questions.
I was fascinated to learn Chollas Lake was created in 1901 as a source for drinking water when San Diego was rather small. Later it was used to cool United States Navy radio equipment back when the three largest structures in the city, at 600 feet tall, stood atop a hill above the lake. Those radio transmitter antennas were the first to receive a signal from Hawaii that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. (A blog concerning this will be coming up later.)
Today Chollas Lake Park is a place where nature thrives. It is also a place where people can recreate, relax and learn about this beautiful and interesting world we call home.
A wonderful new park officially opened yesterday in the Cherokee Point neighborhood of City Heights. The City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department, community organizations and many neighbors and families came together for the Park de la Cruz Grand Opening Celebration!
I swung by the new park during my walk in the late morning to check out some of the fun. I missed the welcome by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria but was able to catch the City Heights Steppers and Mariachi Victoria performing on the event stage. I walked through the extensive Resource Fair and met many people who are helping to enhance the life of this very diverse community.
Kids were enjoying a big outdoor play area across Landis Street and a Day of Play at the new community center, and many other activities could be enjoyed freely by the public, including a softball clinic at the beautiful green ball field and skating demonstrations at the nearby skatepark. The Fern Street Circus would also perform!
The public was invited to tour inside the new Park de la Cruz Community Center. Services offered at the center include Therapeutic Recreation and AgeWell Services. If you’re a senior in San Diego, check out this web page for information on staying fit and meeting new friends! I blogged about the program a couple years ago here.
The Park de la Cruz Grand Opening Celebration was sponsored by the San Diego Parks Foundation.
Enjoy a few photos!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The exterior of the historic Federal Building in Balboa Park, future home of the Comic-Con Museum, is currently being restored!
During my walk today I noticed the unique building, built in 1935 for the California Pacific International Exposition, is being patched up and painted to match several principal buildings in the Palisades area of the Balboa Park.
The Federal Building was designed by architect Richard Requa, who gave this and other nearby buildings a pre-Columbian appearance. According to this article, the ornamental detailing on the main entrance was unquestionably derived from the Palace of the Governor in Uxmal, Yucatan.
In one photograph you can see how the Federal Building was once home of the San Diego Hall of Champions.
The Comic-Con Museum will be opening this Thanksgiving weekend, in conjunction with the 2021 Comic-Con Special Edition to be held at the San Diego Convention Center.
After taking these photos I peered through the front windows, and I could see some preliminary construction going on inside.
The Comic-Con Museum already has 15,000 members. And I’m one.
I can’t wait for it to open!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Cool San Diego Sights! 