As I waited for a trolley at America Plaza early this afternoon, I thought I’d peer into a window of the Museum of Contemporary Arts San Diego. A gentleman inside saw and motioned for me to come on in!
I was welcomed by Max, a super nice Gallery Educator, who was applying ink to a silk screen. He was using screen printing to create bold messages in the Sanctuary Print Shop!
The project titled Sanctuary Print Shop is the brainchild of artists Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari. The idea of this exhibition is to start conversations concerning the very topical and divisive issue of immigration. People are encouraged to write their thoughts about immigration, and messages are created to paper one wall.
Even though there’s a certain political bias to the exhibition, Max did agree that it’s a complex human issue. There are many different thoughts concerning it. And it’s an issue with many personal connections.
Human creativity and the written word fascinate me, so I enjoyed meeting Max, watching him at work, and reading what others have said!
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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!
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I walked slowly along the Embarcadero this morning. As I started along San Diego Bay, the February sky was gray and occasionally drizzly.
For a Saturday relatively few people were about. The popular Tuna Harbor Dockside Market was busy, of course, but the first part of my walk was rather quiet. A couple firefighters were jogging on the grass near their fire engine at Seaport Village. I saw some birds, including a beautiful snowy egret. A few fisherman were trying their luck on the pier at Embarcadero Marina Park South.
I said hello to some familiar people.
As I turned back north, I noted a bit more activity. Guys in scuba gear were at work cleaning the hulls of boats in the Marriott Marina. Workers were getting tables ready at various waterside restaurants. Vendors were setting up booths at Ruocco Park’s new Saturday farmers market. Tourists were gathering at the foot of the Embracing Peace statue (originally called Unconditional Surrender) and atop the flight deck of the USS Midway Museum.
And, best of all, the street performers were out and smiling.
As usual the sun came out.
San Diego is magical.
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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!
I was startled this morning during my walk through the Gaslamp Quarter.
Something peculiar was moving directly toward me along the sidewalk. For a split second I thought it was a person.
Then I did a double take.
A bundle of heart-shaped balloons was heading my way!
The cluster of balloons moved slowly down the sidewalk, propelled by a gentle breeze. Occasionally they’d float upward a foot or two, then quietly float back to Earth.
The travelling hearts came to a street corner. They seemed to hesitate. They turned decisively and began steadily down another sidewalk!
After venturing into a patio space in front of one building, they lifted with apparent delight and settled down. They leaned against the rail.
Perhaps they wanted to watch people–other travelling hearts–go by.
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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!
To read a few honest-to-goodness short stories that I’ve written, click Short Stories by Richard.
This morning I spent a few minutes in Balboa Park’s Desert Garden, enjoying a beautiful sunrise.
I had hoped to take photos of new snow on the mountains east of San Diego, but they were too distant for my small camera. What I did discover as I walked down one path was completely unexpected, and indescribably powerful…
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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!
If you’ve driven up Interstate 5 through La Jolla and University City, you’ve probably seen some impressive construction right next to the freeway. The extension of the San Diego Trolley’s Blue Line is now being built, and much of what is called the Mid-Coast Trolley will be elevated.
The new trolley line will turn from the freeway down Genesee Avenue and finally end at an elevated station at the recently renovated University Towne Centre shopping mall (now called Westfield UTC), adjacent to bus stops at the UTC Transit Center.
On Sunday, as I waited for a bus at the UTC Transit Center, I walked up Genesee Avenue to check out a short stretch of the trolley extension. My photos show what will be the north terminus of the Mid-Coast Trolley.
The project is impressive. Simulations of the UTC Transit Center station and other Mid-Coast Corridor stations can be found here. The trolley extension is scheduled to be completed in 2021.
As I took photos, I was fascinated by the strangely beautiful complexity. Layers of geometric shapes can be observed in the wood, concrete and steel supporting construction of the elevated tracks and station.
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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!
At the southwest corner of Del Mar, high atop cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean north of Torrey Pines State Beach, you’ll find a special seat. It’s called the Sunset Seat.
The Sunset Seat is a work of public art that was carved in the stump of a dead Torrey pine. The tree had been killed by bark beetles.
In 2015 this amazing public art took form. Inspired designer David Arnold and wood carver Tim Richards created a seat where anybody can sit and look out toward the ocean horizon, with a red-tailed hawk perched near their shoulder.
You can find the Sunset Seat a few steps west of a small parking area beside Camino Del Mar, a short distance north of Carmel Valley Road.
One day I will sit beside the beautiful hawk and watch a sunset.
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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!
Debris has been washed by the ocean under the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon bridge at Torrey Pines State Beach.
This morning, the day after a severe winter storm, I visited Torrey Pines State Beach and the ocean inlet to Los Peñasquitos Lagoon. Arriving at high tide, I found myself astonished by the incredible power of nature. Turbulent waves were crashing onto the pedestrian walkway under the North Torrey Pines Road bridge.
I spent some time exploring near the state park’s North Parking Lot and its entrance. I then headed north along a path at the edge of sandstone cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I took many photographs, striving to capture nature’s awesome power and beauty.
And more winter storms are on the way!
Please read the photo captions to learn a bit more about this special place.
A lifeguard keeps an eye on wild surf at Torrey Pines State Beach.The friendly lifeguard said that waves can wash over the walkway during high tide at this time of the year.The bridge over the lagoon inlet during a very high tide. The storm-disturbed water appeared very muddy.An information sign was pushed over by high winds from yesterday’s storm. The power of nature is displayed.Open to the Ocean. Over time, the lagoon mouth has filled in and reopened, changed shape and relocated many times.Across the lagoon to the south rises beautiful Torrey Pines State Reserve, home of the endangered Torrey pine, rarest pine tree in North America.Looking west along Los Peñasquitos Lagoon. Light shines on a sheet of water swollen by high tide.This coastal marsh in San Diego’s North County is a special place where wildlife is abundant.The sandy beaches, sand dunes, sandstone cliffs and bluffs, provides the habitat for the Coastal Strand plant community.A cheerful yellow bush sunflower.Looking across the wetland toward the train bridge near the beach.Life in the Lagoon. Birds are the most commonly seen animals in the lagoon. Ample food and nesting materials allow many to live here year-round.A great egret stands in Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, patiently watching for fish in the water.People walk west from Carmel Valley Road into the North Beach Lot of Torrey Pines State Beach.Sign includes map of the San Diego Trans County Trail, which runs east from the ocean along Peñasquitos Creek, through Los Peñasquitos Canyon.Closed lifeguard Tower 5 at Torrey Pines State Beach is splashed by wild winter waves during high tide.Gazing down at incoming Pacific Ocean surf on a winter day between storms.Coaster train moves along tracks north of Torrey Pines State Beach, heading atop scenic sandstone cliffs into Del Mar.A line of bicyclists head down Pacific Coast Highway from Del Mar toward Torrey Pines State Beach.Ocean waves crash toward the North Torrey Pines Road bridge over the entrance to Los Peñasquitos Lagoon.Mud and debris under the bridge. The result of a strong winter storm and the mighty ocean.
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A couple of heads are missing! I’ve discovered two strange, disembodied heads sitting on the ground by the sidewalk!
I observed that first rather fierce-looking head early this afternoon as I rode on a bus down Pacific Highway, just north of the Old Town Transit Center. (Why was I on the bus? I had several adventures this morning in North County! Stay tuned for more cool blog posts!)
The second head, which looks kind of like a painted Dia de los Muertos skull, was discovered beside a sidewalk about a week ago as I walked through Mission Valley on my way to work!
Has anyone out there lost their head? Or heads?
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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 (and have more fun) via Facebook or Twitter!
Flags whip about in the wind at the stern of the USS Midway. Signs of a coming storm on San Diego’s Embarcadero.
A big winter storm is set to dump a lot of rain on San Diego this afternoon. So I figured I’d get my walk in this morning.
All along the Embarcadero the wind had already picked up, as you can see in these photographs!
If you’re in San Diego, be safe!
Swirly clouds above downtown precede a severe winter storm.Paul my painter friend was beginning to have a bit of trouble with the increasing wind!Gulls circle beyond boats tied up to the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market pier.What’s a little wind and chilly weather when there’s freshly caught fish waiting!Some light in the distance beyond the Coronado Bay Bridge as clouds deepen.The wind on San Diego Bay was really picking up by mid-morning.A saw few people about during my morning walk. Everyone must be hunkering down safely inside.A Seaport Village banner twists in a gust.These colors were really whirling and flying outside the Kite Flite shop!
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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!
I got off work early today and headed into Balboa Park.
As I wandered through the Botanical Building, my eyes were captivated by brilliant sunlight filtering through the green leaves and surrounding lath. With my small camera I tried to frame patterns of beauty . . .
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 