People play on the sandy volleyball courts at South Mission Beach, north of the jetty.
Yesterday I walked through South Mission Beach near the jetty. I got lots of fun, sunny photos for you to enjoy!
Riding a bike through South Mission Beach on a perfect San Diego day.The Mission Beach boardwalk, which passes many small colorful houses and condos, is popular with bicyclists and pedestrians.One of the cool beachfront properties on South Mission Beach. Many are available as vacation rentals.A row of lifeguard towers. It’s winter in San Diego. During the summer these lookouts will be arranged at intervals along the beach.Heading south along the path, approaching palm trees and the parking lot at the jetty.A beautiful day for a bike ride.These people have paused to look at the nearby grass.Guys play in the sun at the basketball court.On the beach, a lifeguard building with flag flapping in the sea breeze. Pacific Beach and La Jolla rise to the north.Families walk and play on the shore. The surf is gentle today.A seagull hangs out on a dune as surfers come in. The South Mission Beach jetty juts into the Pacific Ocean.Someone approaches the foot of the rock jetty, which guards the channel into Mission Bay. This cape is called Point Medanos.I stopped at the lifeguard emergency sign. Halfway down the jetty stands an old, abandoned bait shack, which appears like an arch that is covered with graffiti.Gulls wheel over the entrance channel as a boat comes into Mission Bay.Beyond this sailboat I see the long Ocean Beach Pier.Point Loma rises beyond a second jetty that juts from Hospitality Point, separating the Mission Bay entrance channel from the San Diego River.People are also out and about in Ocean Beach enjoying the sunny day. I see a few pooches running freely about Dog Beach.Several fishermen were casting into the blue water from the rocks.Now I’m circling back on North Jetty Road heading for the boardwalk. A cool windblown tree and flowers in the sand.Like paradise on Earth.I love this place!
…
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.
People enjoying the annual Bird Festival at Marina Village have walked to the San Diego River Estuary where many aquatic birds congregate.
Today during my walk I encountered of group of enthusiastic birders at the San Diego River Estuary. These folks were all participating in the San Diego Audubon Society’s annual Bird Festival, which takes place this weekend at the nearby Marina Village Conference Center.
Later during my walk I visited the Bird Festival’s registration room, where anyone can purchase dozens of different birdwatching and reference books, plus other gifts. A friendly lady informed me that the San Diego Audubon Society has about three thousand members! During the Bird Festival and throughout the year, members can go on all sorts of field trips around San Diego County, and take every sort of bird-related class imaginable.
Members and volunteers are also involved in working to restore critical bird habitat in Mission Bay! I blogged about that a couple years ago here!
Do you make your home in San Diego? Do you love birds? Then you probably should join the Audubon Society! Here the local chapter’s website, where you can also learn more about the very cool Bird Festival, which continues through tomorrow!
The San Diego Audubon Society offers many birdwatching opportunities. The organization also has a vital conservation program.If I joined the Audubon Society, maybe I’d learn what sort of behavior these birds are displaying!Poster at the Bird Festival shows how the San Diego Audubon Society is helping to restore the nesting habitat of the endangered California Least Tern in Mission Bay.I believe this little guy on the bank of the San Diego River is a snowy egret.Members of the San Diego Audubon Society enjoy a perfect sunny day and identify lots of birds!
…
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 group of great egrets in the San Diego River Estuary.
I was super lucky today! During my walk along the San Diego River Estuary, as I approached the West Mission Bay Drive Bridge from the east, I spotted two groups of beautiful white birds!
First I watched ten great egrets hunting small fish in the shallows near the shore. Next I watched a group of four white pelicans, just cruising around together on the water’s surface, looking for an easy meal.
I got some good photos!
I saw ten great egrets in a loose grouping in the river. They were hunting for fish. At times they would engage in brief, rather harmless scuffles.Graceful white egrets stand in the shallow blue water.Great egrets flap their wings among river ducks.A beautiful great egret stalks through the estuary near a mudflat.Four white pelicans were cruising along the San Diego River not far from the Pacific Ocean looking for fish.This tight group of pelicans would thrust their heads simultaneously into the water.White pelicans only appear in San Diego during their migration. Brown pelicans are the ordinary residents.Big pelican beaks dip into the river.Another very cool sight on the San Diego River!
…
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!
World Rare Disease Day is February 28, 2018. Show you care by spreading the word.
I learned something important today. This coming Wednesday–February 28, 2018–is World Rare Disease Day.
I wouldn’t have known this had I not walked through Mission Beach’s Belmont Park and met some smiling volunteers. They are working to raise awareness about rare diseases. They had a table set up near the carousel and told me a little about this often overlooked problem.
Rare diseases are usually caused by faulty genes, and about half of the people affected by rare diseases are children. Almost a third of these children will not live to see their fifth birthday.
Sadly, about half of all rare diseases do not have a specific foundation supporting or researching the condition. As you can see, it’s critical for many kids that we spread the word and provide support for those who are sick, and fund research in the search for effective treatments.
Two websites where you can learn more and perhaps help are here and here.
Please click my photo of the information chart, and it will enlarge so you can read it. Feel free to share any of these images.
These cool volunteers at Mission Beach’s Belmont Park were informing the public about rare diseases.Rare diseases are often caused by faulty genes. They impact more people than cancer and AIDS combined. Only 5 percent have an FDA approved drug treatment.Help fight rare diseases by learning more and spreading the word.
In late February, trucks haul in rolls of turf to resod the grass playing field at Petco Park!
I was walking past Petco Park this morning when I noticed a long line of trucks waiting next to the ballpark. Each of the trucks was transporting rolls of sod.
It must be that time of year–about a month before the start of the season–when the field receives its brand new turf!
Beautiful new grass fits perfectly with the promise of a brand new season. Not only do the Padres have a team full of talented, hungry young players, but they recently signed baseball phenom Eric Hosmer.
Many of the people I speak to are dreaming of a much improved year ahead. Is it possible that the Padres will contend in 2018?
I can’t wait to find out!
Rolls of sod are lifted up and brought into Petco Park. Spring can’t be far away now!I took this photo a couple weeks ago from the Park at the Park. Workers were busy preparing the baseball field for the Padres’ 2018 season.Numerous trucks were lined up all around Petco Park this morning. A promising new season is around the corner, and the ball field is getting some fresh new turf!
…
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 friendly dog welcomes people walking past the front door of an East Village business.
Just a quick, fun blog post!
I snapped these four photos during various walks–don’t ask me when. Without further ado, meet eight friendly dogs!
Bum, San Diego’s official town dog in the late 19th century. You can find this small sculpture inside the House of Scotland cottage in Balboa Park.A friendly dog in the passenger sear of a cool hot rod in Ocean Beach.Five dogs ride in a car in an Ocean Beach community mural.
…
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 barely visible SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 rises above Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship!
My plan this cold, partly cloudy morning was to head down to San Diego’s Embarcadero to hopefully photograph today’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch.
I did manage to catch an image of the rocket’s flight, but it’s so tiny you can barely make it out! I suppose I should get a fancier, more powerful camera. Can you see the faint white streak in the above photo?
The Falcon 9 launch was from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Santa Barbara, about 280 miles from San Diego. To my naked eye, for a few seconds, I could see the minuscule rocket soar into the sky, through the rigging of the world’s oldest active sailing ship, Star of India!
Star of India, originally named Euterpe, is an iron-hulled merchant ship that was built in 1863. Driven by capricious winds, the tall ship circumnavigated the globe 21 times during her storied history.
Falcon 9 is a technologically impressive space launch vehicle. During today’s mission a reused Falcon 9 lifted Spain’s advanced radar satellite Paz into a Sun-synchronous orbit of Earth.
As the satellite effortlessly orbits our planet, it will track ships that ply the ocean–ships that trace their own proud history back to the Age of Sail, when brave vessels like Star of India pushed forward to new horizons.
…
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!
Mosaic on Walgreens building in Coronado depicts an old ferry crossing San Diego Bay.
Last weekend during my walk through Coronado I noticed a really beautiful work of art. A colorful mosaic, set into the travertine exterior of the Walgreens building on Orange Avenue, depicts a ferry crossing San Diego Bay crowned by a flock of seagulls.
According to my limited research, it appears that the mosaic was created in 1985 by Susan Hertel and Denis O’Connor, in collaboration with Millard Owen Sheets, who designed many Home Savings of America bank branches in California. The mosaic represents one of the historic ferryboats that once transported cars between Coronado and San Diego. Ferries for cars operated until 1969, the year the San Diego–Coronado Bridge opened.
When the artwork debuted, the building at 925 Orange Avenue was a Home Savings branch. Subsequently it became a Petco. As building occupants have come and gone, the extraordinary mosaic has been preserved.
…
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!
Plaque on a bench. In loving memory of Linda Sanford Fleming our Coronado Queen. July 4, 1938 – May 6, 2005. From her devoted family and friends.
During my walk last Saturday I rested for a bit on a bench near Coronado’s City Hall. After looking about the beautiful place, I noticed most of the nearby benches featured memorial plaques. I read a few and was touched by words of love and optimism.
Perhaps you’d enjoy seeing a few of these plaques…
A few tranquil paths near Coronado’s City Hall feature benches where one can rest and enjoy the day’s sunshine.A plaque on another bench. In loving memory – Clarence and Mary Muirhead – 65 year Coronado residents fondly remembered by their family.Bicyclist rides past City of Coronado City Hall, next to San Diego Bay. Coronado Shores buildings, near the Pacific Ocean, rise in the background.In memory of June Lenz, founder of Crown Garden Club, whose legacy was to encourage the love of flowers and the beautification of Coronado.In honor of Sue and Bill Williams. Look at the sunny side and make your optimism come true.More benches offer a view of boats in the nearby Glorietta Bay Marina.In memory of Kathy Griffin, beloved daughter and sister. July 25, 1959 – July 28, 2006. What we have lost Heaven has gained. Love family and friends.In loving memory of Lloyd McKinley Harmon. August 1, 1891 – September 16, 1968. Mayor of Coronado in 1952 and 1953 … and Olive Genevieve Harmon. July 4, 1907 – April 3, 2005. Absent but Dear.A sailboat out on the wide blue water.Ensign Van Andrew Wilson, U.S. Navy SEAL. September 3, 1982 – January 26, 2006. His training was finished here. He achieved his goal. The greatest mission lies ahead.
…
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! 