I took these photographs this afternoon during a long, slow walk along the Embarcadero.
It’s early winter. On such a pleasant January day, during an ordinary year, one would expect to see more people about. But the COVID-19 pandemic has altered life on San Diego Bay.
Closed attractions. Fewer tourists. Few boats on the water. A quiet boardwalk and sleepy Seaport Village. An almost empty fishing pier…
A lone sailboat passes the presently closed Maritime Museum of San Diego.From the boardwalk I took a photo of Star of India’s cathead. This sturdy beam, used to raise and lower the ship’s anchor, has a cat’s head!Walking past a mostly closed Portside Pier.Many empty benches and tables can now be found along the Embarcadero.Light sparkles from the wake of a turning Coronado Ferry.Play of light on rippled water, reflected onto the hull of the USS Midway.Hanging out on the grass, gazing across the bay.I raised my camera to take this photo of the USS Midway aircraft carrier’s island. The USS Midway Museum is also closed now.Long shadows cast by the two figures in Seward Johnson’s sculpture Unconditional Surrender, which is now more often called Embracing Peace.Walking by the water.Cool photo taken of Tuna Harbor.Bright floats on a rusty fishing boat.A family walks along near Seaport Village. Few people are about this sunny January afternoon.A kite zips around making fast aerial circles, to the delight of both young and old.Quietly reading on the grass at Embarcadero Marina Park North.A fine day for riding bicycles!Marriott Marquis tower reflects bright sunlight into the hotel’s marina.I’m still getting used to Seaport Village’s new color scheme. It’s growing on me.Looking skyward.A snowy egret searches for dinner in shallow water at the edge of the Marriott Marina.More walkers, and a runner.Light makes for an interesting photo at the Marriott Marina.The San Diego Symphony’s new outdoor concert venue, The Shell, seems nearly complete. I believe you’ll walk up here to buy tickets.Beyond the ticket office you can see the acoustically designed structure where the musicians will play.Walking out on the pier at Embarcadero Marina Park South. Not much fishing activity today.From one end of the pier I took this photo of The Shell. A grassy slope descends toward the concert stage. Structures for lighting and speakers have also been erected.Turning on the almost empty pier, facing the Coronado Bay Bridge.Another guy quietly walking along. A perfect day for that.But this pelican will have to wait a long time if it’s expecting a free morsel!
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Santa’s reindeer have decided to remain in sunny San Diego after Christmas, it seems. I saw all nine reindeer, including Rudolph with his shining red nose, at Seaport Village today!
A couple weeks after the holidays, this chalk art drawn on a Seaport Village wall is still visible. I see the artist is @sidewalk_chalk_dad, otherwise known as Erick Toussaint, the current Design Director at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
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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!
Many fascinating old buildings stand in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter. Many were built in the late 1800’s during one of the city’s early booms.
I always enjoy looking at the 1886 Woolworth Building as I walk along Fifth Avenue south of Broadway. Not because its architecture is particularly unique or interesting. No, I see that word Woolworth near the rooftop and vague memories from my very early childhood flash inside my aged brain.
I recall how my parents would take me shopping at a Woolworth’s, and how I would always be treated to an ice cream at the store’s stainless steel lunch counter and soda fountain. Memories can be funny. Don’t ask me where this Woolworth store was. All I really remember is standing before all that ice cream, and always choosing Rocky Road.
So what happened to the F. W. Woolworth Company and their immense chain of retail stores? They morphed into Foot Locker! (Regrettably, I’m pretty sure most Foot Lockers don’t serve ice cream.)
Since you might have some difficulty reading the weathered plaque near the entrance to the Woolworth Building, I’ve tried to transcribe it correctly:
Woolworth Building, 1886. Originally Victorian in its architecture, this brick and wood frame building was used for retail stores on the first floor, offices on the second, and furnished rooms on the third. In 1922, Frank W. Woolworth, founder of the five-and-dime stores, had the building remodeled. The original Victorian bay windows were removed, and four Corinthian pilasters were added to a gray granite facade. Woolworth leased the structure for 50 years.
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A row of Beach Castles protects the South Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower from surging water and other Pacific Ocean invaders!
This public artwork, which is indeed titled Beach Castles, was created out of concrete by San Diego artist Roman de Salvo in 2019. The “sandcastles” resemble Mission Beach’s long line of beachfront homes and condos, which I assume was the humorous intention.
Sadly, as you can see in some photographs, this playful art outside the lifeguard station has been defaced by graffiti.
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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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Very colorful public art decorates two sides of the Mission Beach boardwalk restrooms that are located just south of Belmont Park. These two photo montages on tile are titled Pixelated Summer. They were created by Southern California artists Sarah Lejeune and Angelo Camporaso in 2008.
Looking at this artwork is like tumbling through many bright kaleidoscope memories. There are bits and flashes from endless summers at the beach, combined with glimpses of the Belmont Park amusement park, its wooden Giant Dipper roller coaster and The Plunge indoor pool.
My first photos show this unique public art installation on the restroom’s north side.
The next two photos are of a nearby marker commemorating the one hundred year anniversary of Mission Beach. It was placed here during a centennial ceremony in 2014.
It’s worth a quick look..
Now we’ll take a look at the south side of the public restroom, where the other watery half of Pixelated Summer is installed…
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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!
I took these moody photos yesterday afternoon near South Mission Beach Park and the Mission Beach Jetty. You can see the volleyball courts on the sand. You’ll also see the nearby lifeguard station.
The lowering sun had vanished behind a gray bank of fog drifting in from the Pacific Ocean. I thought I’d snap a few photos to see how they’d come out.
They seem to tell a mysterious story about life.
And about silver that lives in the gray.
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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!
Back in 2015, a mural depicting two surfers and sea birds was painted on both sides of a gas station wall at the entrance to Ocean Beach. You can see it as you drive into OB, at the corner of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and West Point Loma Boulevard. The eye-catching mural was painted by Southern California artist Henry Goods.
A couple days ago I finally walked past it.
When I read this great article concerning the mural’s creation, I learned another San Diego gas station features more artwork painted by Henry Goods. It’s that long, very colorful mural on First Avenue between Cedar Street and Elm Street, featuring sharks, fish, sea lions and other marine life. I checked out that mural and posted photos here, here and here, over seven years ago when my blog was just getting started!
Funny how walking is a travel though time.
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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!
Yesterday I headed to Point Loma to walk by Famosa Slough, a protected wetland I have driven past on many occasions. This was my first time walking the trails of the slough south of West Point Loma Boulevard, and along the channel that runs north toward Interstate 8 and the San Diego River.
The more I walked along the water and natural vegetation of the Famosa Slough State Marine Conservation Area, the more birds I saw! There were bright white egrets, and gulls and cormorants and ducks and various shorebirds. As you’ll see in one photo, I also spotted an osprey!
My photographs begin beside the slough that motorists see from West Point Loma Boulevard, then I crossed the street and followed a dirt pathway north up the channel to the end of the path.
Famosa Slough is part of a statewide network of Marine Protected Areas. It includes open shallow water, riparian habitat, wetland upland transition habitats, and four treatment basins to protect water quality.
Here is where I crossed over West Point Loma Boulevard. First I checked out the following information signs near the path up the Famosa Channel.
Birds one can see at Famosa Slough include the great egret, American wigeon, black-necked stilt, snowy egret, little blue heron, California brown pelican, and blue-winged teal.Famosa Slough is a 37-acre coastal wetland owned by the City of San Diego and cared for by the Friends of Famosa Slough. It is home to many rare and endangered local and migratory bird species.Looking north up the channel through the remains of an old bridge.A kiosk. I couldn’t read the weathered words, but enjoyed the image of two gulls.Heading up the dirt path.I could see many birds in the distance.A snowy egret.A nice bench for resting and birdwatching.An osprey soars high overhead!
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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!
In Shelltown, a community southeast of downtown San Diego and north of National City, you’ll find fantastic public art at Southcrest Trails Park.
As one walks through the neighborhood park, one comes upon a large mosaic-like disk that contains many expressive faces. The public art, made of concrete pavers and bronze set in a small plaza, is titled A Place to Call Home. It was created in 2018 by San Diego artists Ingram Ober and Marisol Rendón-Ober.
The faces represent residents of the community speaking four names associated with the site: Chollas Creek, Shelltown, Southcrest and Home. As one circles the plaza, many mouths appear to speak.
The plaque at the center includes the words: Home is a place that helps us define who we are, and although we may leave that place, it never leaves us.
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I learned of another improvement to Balboa Park this afternoon!
I was walking through the Plaza de Panama when I noticed several banners on a construction fence in front of the Timken Museum of Art.
One banner states the Timken will be the first museum in the world to install revolutionary antiviral and dehumidification technology. According to a museum web page, here, this new technology “originally engineered in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense” is considerably more effective at eliminating airborne pathogens than systems presently used in hospital operating rooms!
They hope to demonstrate this technology can be used in other museums, and for common everyday use. (Air that’s much safer than a hospital operating room? Sign me up!)
Other banners on the fence direct interested people to the Timken Museum of Art’s website, where they will find online educational experiences, including virtual tours and art tutorials, plus lots of other activities.
The museum, presently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is scheduled to reopen in Summer 2021 with this revolutionary antiviral system installed and ready to go!
If you’d like to learn a more about the Timken Museum of Art, you might enjoy viewing an old blog post here. It includes photographs and notes that I took during a special architectural tour of the Timken’s uniquely beautiful building.
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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!
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