Author: Richard Schulte

Downtown San Diego has been my home for many years. My online activities reflect my love for writing, blogging, walking and photography.

Augmented reality outside the Museum of Art!

The San Diego Museum of Art recently installed a unique new outdoor exhibit in Balboa Park’s central Plaza de Panama. The surprising exhibit is titled Augmented Reality al Fresco. Using your cell phone, you can bring seven works of fine art to life with augmented reality!

Download the SDMA app, select the AR feature, point your phone’s camera at any of the displayed artwork reproductions and suddenly they begin to move!

A painting of the Molo in Venice, Italy by Bernardo Bellotto suddenly comes to life! Gondolas drift dreamily across the water, and flocks of birds rise among moving clouds!

Kilauea Calder, Sandwich Islands, by artist Jules Tavernier, begins to bubble and fume! Lava erupts! My San Diego Museum of Art docent friend showed me how the painting comes to life a couple years ago inside the museum. This innovative use of augmented reality is very cool!

Most of Balboa Park’s museums have closed again due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a little culture–with an unexpected and delightful twist! Walk toward the Museum of Art’s front entrance and turn left. Then pull out your phone for a unique experience!

Now that most of Balboa Park’s museums have been forced to close their indoor galleries again, you can help them survive this difficult COVID-19 situation with a generous donation.

Earlier this year, I posted links to the donation pages of Balboa Park’s museums here.

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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!

Beautiful photos of autumn on Mount Laguna.

It’s autumn on Mount Laguna, and the natural beauty this morning was breathtaking.

The leaves of oak trees are turning. Yellows shine brightly under the mountain sunlight. White snow lingers on the ground from past storms.

The sky is blue, the air is dry and chilly, the sunshine is warm.

I headed east on Interstate 8 from downtown San Diego shortly after the crack of dawn. The November sun was climbing well above the eastern horizon as I drove north up the winding Sunrise Highway. Seeking a little quiet, I arrived well ahead of most weekend visitors.

I pulled over at several turnouts as I gained elevation, just to look around me. I eventually arrived at Penny Pines, parked, put on a light jacket, and started a short distance down the Noble Canyon Trail. Then I turned about and slowly hiked a short distance up the Big Laguna Trail.

No particular destination.

Come with me…

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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 short walk north of the Maritime Museum.

Yesterday morning I took a short walk north of the Maritime Museum of San Diego. I headed up the boardwalk at the edge of San Diego Bay past the Hornblower fleet and Grape Street Pier and finally turned around in an area of the North Embarcadero called The Crescent.

The following photographs were taken as I walked from the Maritime Museum to a small dinghy pier in The Crescent. You’ll see many sailboats and other small vessels moored in the water. People live in them.

Should you continue north up the boardwalk, you’d pass the Coast Guard station, Harbor Island and San Diego International Airport, the beautiful and historically important Spanish Landing Park, and eventually reach Point Loma near Liberty Station. Four years ago I blogged about that long, interesting walk and posted photos here.

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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!

Bowsprit of Forester in front of Maritime Museum.

Have you ever wondered about that massive timber that lies in front of the Maritime Museum? The one people will sit on to gaze across San Diego Bay or at several of the museum’s nearby ships?

That’s the bowsprit of the old four-masted schooner Forester, built in 1900 to transport lumber from the Pacific Northwest to ports along the West Coast and destinations all around the Pacific Ocean, including China, India, Australia, South Sea islands and Peru.

The old ship, when her life of carrying logs of spruce and fir came to an end, was used as a tidal break near the northeastern end of San Francisco Bay. Eventually it was towed to a mudflat west of Antioch (the city stated in the plaque I photographed) and beached. There it became home of its long-time captain.

In 1975 fire swept through the abandoned ship and it burned to the waterline. The remains of Forester can still be seen along the shoreline of Martinez, California.

If you want to learn more about the history of the Forester, and see several interesting old photographs of the ship, there’s a great web page that you can check out by clicking here.

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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!

Light, reflections on Lane Field hotels.

This morning I walked toward, between and around the hotels that now occupy the site of old Lane Field, where the Padres played baseball when they were a team in the Pacific Coast League.

Bright, clear light reflected from the two very different buildings: the InterContinental San Diego building and the Marriott SpringHill Suites and Residence Inn building across from it. Perfect for intriguing photos!

You might remember that I documented how the site of old Lane Field was transformed into a public park and prime waterfront location for these hotels here.

If you’re curious about the rippling façade you see above and in several other photographs, it covers the Marriott building’s parking garage and is titled California Rain. The sculptural artwork was created by artist David Franklin. I posted photos almost five years ago here. (Read that blog post’s comments to learn more about how the individual aluminum blades were assembled!)

Now on to this morning’s cool pics!

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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!

Unusual tower of the Quartermass-Wilde House.

The historic 1896 Quartermass-Wilde House, located in Golden Hill overlooking downtown San Diego, is one of the most fantastic, palatial old houses in our city.

Should you walk by Broadway and 24th Street, you might notice that this Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion, with a Classical Revival influence, has a very unusual tower. The top of the tower is shaped like a dome!

Why?

Because Louis J. Wilde, Mayor of San Diego from 1917–1921, loved architect Irving Gill’s elegant 1910 Broadway Fountain so much that he had the tower of his mansion altered to resemble it!

Louis J. Wilde was a controversial mayor, banker, oil tycoon, developer and part owner of the US Grant Hotel. His donation of $10,000 helped to build the Broadway Fountain in Horton Plaza Park, directly across Broadway from the US Grant. (He was also responsible for changing the name of D Street to Broadway!)

I’ve read the cupola under the tower’s dome provides an amazing panoramic view of downtown San Diego!

The 1910 Broadway Fountain at Horton Plaza Park. The fountain, with its unique watery dome supported by classic Corinthian columns, was designed by architect Irving Gill.
The top of the tower of the historic 1896 Quartermass-Wilde House in Golden Hill was altered by Mayor Wilde years later to resemble the Broadway Fountain that he loved in downtown San Diego!

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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!

Amazing sunset from Balboa Park’s West Mesa!

Would you like to see some amazing sunset photos?

I happened to be in the right place at the right time as the sun set this evening. I was walking along Balboa Park’s West Mesa, looking up at lace-like, brightly lit clouds, when color began to seep into the sky.

As I continued south the sun descended. When I reached Marston Point, the sun’s last red rays peeped over Point Loma in the distance.

In some of these photos you can see not only the nearby buildings of Bankers Hill, but distant Point Loma, and glimpses of San Diego Bay and even North Island. In one photograph you can see a small part of the downtown skyline.

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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!

More samples of street art in Normal Heights!

A couple weekends ago, as I walked east down Adams Avenue through the heart of Normal Heights, I took photographs of cool street art that I haven’t previously recorded.

Some of the artwork is newer, some older. What a person might discover in Normal Heights–or any dynamic community–is constantly changing. New art appears in front of your eyes one day, then fades or vanishes.

Cool San Diego Sights now features over 32,000 photographs, and it’s getting harder and harder to remember everything my camera has captured! But I believe the artwork you see here is new to my blog.

So just imagine you’re walking down the sidewalk on another sunny San Diego day, finding more and more colorful street art, making endless discoveries in the city…

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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!

Memories of past Veterans Days in San Diego.

I would like to express my appreciation to all Veterans who have served to defend our Freedom.

Thank you.

I don’t believe there were many Veterans Day events around San Diego this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation. So I thought it might be a good idea to link to a few old blog posts that feature photographs from past years.

You will see men and women who made sacrifices for you and me.

To see photographs from past Veterans Day events in San Diego, click the following links:

Historical reenactment on Veterans Day in Balboa Park.

Bells of Peace ring on a special Veterans Day!

Faces tell stories at Veterans Day parade.

Photos of the San Diego Veterans Day Parade!

Veteran’s Day celebrated in Balboa Park.

If you’d like to create a virtual tribute to a Veteran who is deceased, you can learn how to do so here.

Riding trains, streetcars, and San Diego history.

Like many American cities, San Diego’s dynamic past is filled with all sorts of fascinating trains and streetcars.

Over the years, while exploring San Diego County, I’ve learned much about the local history of rail transportation. I’ve taken photographs while riding an old train through the mountains east of San Diego, while riding a restored streetcar downtown, while visiting several historic stations and depots, and at amazing railroad museums. I even attended the big centennial event of the San Diego and Arizona Railway!

If you love old trains and streetcars, be sure to check out the following blog posts! They contain all sorts of unique photos, and you’ll find a fair amount of interesting historical information.

Click the following links to see many past photographs!

A ride on the San Diego and Arizona Railway!

Photos of San Diego and Arizona Railway centennial!

Cool pics of old La Mesa railroad depot and train!

A short architectural tour of the Santa Fe Depot.

Historical exhibit inside San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot.

Hundred year old photos of Santa Fe Depot.

Photos of National City Depot museum and streetcars!

A peek inside National City’s Historic Railcar Plaza.

Take a cool ride on an old, restored streetcar!

Art and history at Lemon Grove Trolley Depot!

A walk around the Escondido History Center.

Beauty and history in Carlsbad Village.

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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!

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