Super fast GC32 catamarans fly through and above San Diego Bay during an Extreme Sailing Series race!
Today I headed over to Harbor Island to check out the Extreme Sailing Series races out on San Diego Bay. The exciting Ultimate Stadium Racing Championship takes place over eight weekends, in eight international cities. Elite teams from countries around the world sail identical, super fast GC32 catamarans, which at their highest speed actually fly above the water!
I was amazed at how close some of the action was. A good crowd of people watched a sequence of relatively short races from the shore of Harbor Island, and from the Race Village, while announcers described exactly what was happening out on the water. When the catamarans flew by, many cheered for their favorite team!
The event continues through Sunday. Except for the VIP section, everything is free and open to the public!
I got a few decent photos!
Boy points toward fleet of high-tech foil-equipped catamarans manned by elite level teams. Another wild race is about to begin.A crowd watches the Ultimate Stadium Racing Championship event from Harbor Island’s temporary Race Village. Viewing is free!Some of the best sailors in the world, many who’ve won Olympic Gold, World Championships, and the America’s Cup, vie for supremacy in San Diego.The Extreme Sailing Series includes stadium racing competition in eight international cities. San Diego is Act 7.The race announcers add spice and sailing knowledge to an already exciting scene.The SAP Extreme Sailing Team out of Denmark seemed ahead of the pack in nearly every race. They’ve already been the winner in 3 cities.Once the catamarans attain sufficient speed, they become airborne, barely maintaining control with foils! Gusts of wind in the sails can really make these racing craft sway!Lots of people were enjoying the VIP section.The Race Village features many vendors and participating organizations. US Sailing has a fun scavenger hunt for kids.Young people compare how different sail arrangements can produce speed.A large diagram provides a guide to the amazing GC32 catamaran. Each team’s vessel is exactly alike. Skill and strategy determine ultimate victory.Legend beneath the diagram explains various key parts of the GC32, including the J-Foils, which create lift. (Click image to enlarge.)Our local Team Extreme San Diego was making a great showing! San Diego has produced many of the world’s top sailors. (Need I mention Dennis Conner?)Beautiful sailboats do battle on San Diego Bay, with the downtown skyline providing a picturesque background.The crew of each vessel includes many highly skilled athletes. The action is wild and fast-paced!A dance upon sparkling water.
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Someone in downtown San Diego’s Horton Plaza Park peers through a spy hole into a tiny Model Home.
The La Jolla Playhouse has invaded Horton Plaza Park! Several red houses have been placed inside the downtown San Diego park, and inside these tiny houses professional actors and actresses perform. A public audience can freely watch through spy holes!
Model Home is the name of this improvisational performance art concept, and anyone can check it out through Sunday. It’s a part of the La Jolla Playhouse’s annual Without Walls Festival which this year takes place in venues around downtown.
The genius behind Model Home is Mimi Lien, and I believe the idea is to inspire thought about what makes a home, and about those things in a home that individuals deem to be important.
A home is like an enclosed stage where humans act out much of their lives. As one nearby sign says, houses aren’t just structures, but contain human identity, memory and experience. Peering through the various spy holes in these Model Homes is like secretly peering into the mind of another person. It’s an inner life that the observer can never truly know.
I spoke to a couple of friendly La Jolla Playhouse folks and learned the actors and actresses inside the houses perform all day long, with periodic breaks. They are aware that eyeballs are staring in at them, but as trained acting professionals they aren’t fazed at all.
I also learned that at certain times the tiny house that is dangling from a crane is swung around through the air in a Crane Ballet! Perhaps I’ll “swing” by again this weekend and “crane” my neck at what must certainly be an unusual sight!
If you’re in downtown this weekend, you really should check it out!
Inside one tiny house I saw an actor in a small kitchen baking bread!Model Home, in downtown San Diego’s Horton Plaza Park, is part of the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls WOW festival! (Click image to enlarge.)Several tiny red houses stand in Horton Plaza Park–and one is dangling high in the sky from a crane!People pause to read a sign that describes some very unique and thought-provoking performance art that can be enjoyed freely by anyone passing by.Peering through one of the spy holes…Inside this very bare Model Home an actor seemed to be sleeping in poverty. But every small “stage” and improvised performance invites the viewer’s personal interpretation.Inside another Model Home were the abandoned remnants of a birthday party. I didn’t see an actor. (Perhaps the kids ran outside to play…)And inside this Model Home an actress was studying a feather, holding it up and turning it about in the soft light. She seemed to be quietly thinking.
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Cool artwork painted by Dolan Stearns for the PangeaSeed Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans project in 2016 depicts the harmful presence of non-biodegradable plastic trash in the oceans.
I got off the Orange Line trolley the other day to capture photos of some cool street art on Commercial Street just east of 20th Street.
Like many other PangeaSeed Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans artwork that one can spot around San Diego, this one has an environmental message about taking care of the ocean. The mural, which illustrates the harmful effects of plastic pollution on marine life, was painted in 2016 by Dolan Stearns.
The left side of the mural shows a big, ugly yellow head spewing pollution into the water.The right side of the mural features a large pink whale.The three-eyed whale has a mouthful of plastic bags, bottles, cups and junk.The yellow human head, topped by city buildings and a smokestack, vomits disgusting waste into the blue ocean.
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A huge 16-feet-tall robot stands guard on Commercial Street!
Take the Orange Line of the San Diego Trolley down Commercial Street and you might encounter a giant 16-feet-tall robot! As if waiting to repel malicious invaders, the friendly-looking robot patiently stands guard near the corner of 22nd Street!
This unique public art was designed to add fun to the front of Paseo at Comm22, a housing project in Logan Heights east of downtown San Diego. The sculpture was created by artists Jamex and Einar de la Torre, who are brothers. The old school robot, complete with dials, gears and antennae rising from its cylindrical steel head, contains panels of stone that were carved in Tecate, Mexico. Many of these panels contain inventive, humorous Mayan designs!
Very cool!
The cool robot sculpture, made of steel and stone, was created by artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre.
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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!
People look at potted greenery during the California Native Plant Society’s Fall Plant Sale in Balboa Park.
Yesterday the California Native Plant Society had their Fall Plant Sale in Balboa Park. I stumbled upon the cool event during my random walk through the park.
Lots of people were looking at all sorts of potted plants, perhaps thinking of making a purchase for their yards. Residents of San Diego are encouraged to use native flora for landscaping. San Diego has a cool arid climate, and like the rest of Southern California our growing city has a limited supply of water.
Many plants and flowers native to the San Diego region were for sale in the outdoor courtyard of the Casa del Prado.Balboa Park’s iconic California Tower is seen through an archway at the Casa del Prado.Many packets of seeds were also for sale.Fred Roberts, a local botanist, artist and author had some of his beautiful bird art for sale at one end of the long table.He also created these flower shirts.One very good thing about native plants is they don’t require much water. San Diego has an arid climate!
If you’d like to see some photos of the House of Spain’s lawn program in Balboa Park yesterday, which included lots of colorful dancing, I posted those 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!
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A covered wagon in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is decorated with autumn colors.
After walking a bit downtown, I took the trolley up to Old Town to enjoy the colorful Fall Festival!
I never tire of the wonderful events that can be found almost every weekend at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park!
Kids at the Old Town Fall Festival learn to make art with colored beans!Later in the day folks at this table would demonstrate how to make applesauce.Making environmentally friendly bird feeders using corn cobs, peanut butter and seeds.Folks young and old were trying their hand at making corn husk dolls.Lady with old-fashioned parasol walks through Old Town San Diego State Historic Park’s central Plaza de las Armas.Colorful leaves and a bountiful harvest frame the Welcome in an Old Town shop window.A smiling señorita walks near some pumpkins.An elaborate Día de los Muertos decoration standing beside the Fiesta de Reyes stage is bright with fall colors.A flower-filled wheelbarrow in front of Seeley Stable.Ceramic pumpkins line shelves at an outdoor Old Town marketplace.Ladies work on a quilt inside the Threads of the Past Living History Activity Center.Kid learns how to plant seeds in front of the Wells Fargo History Museum.A Wells Fargo chest full of golden treasure!
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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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Flower vendor at the Saturday Little Italy Mercato Farmers’ Market.
Several walks today.
This morning it was around downtown, mostly near the water. I saw many colors, much life, and even a little bit of history.
Banner at Civic Center Plaza celebrates Office of the City Clerk’s Archives Month. Images include glimpses of San Diego history. (Click to enlarge.)
The above Archives Month banner is hanging from the City Administration Building. It shows interesting bits of San Diego History, including the 1887 Circus Parade, construction of Balboa Park for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, and aircraft over downtown celebrating the end of World War I.
Members of Navy Band Southwest entertain visitors to the Broadway Pier during Fleet Week San Diego 2017.People fill the Embarcadero near the Broadway Pier during Fleet Week.Waiting in line for the weekend Fleet Week event, which includes a ship tour of the amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage.Banner along the Embarcadero promote the Breeders’ Cup, which is coming to Del Mar in November.A sailboat out on San Diego Bay.Relaxing at the Waterfront Park on a beautiful October Saturday in San Diego.Lots of yummy food is found at the Little Italy Mercato Farmers’ Market.
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One of the metal Wind Palms in front of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront catches golden light at the end of an autumn day.
I walked along the Embarcadero late today. As I reached the Hilton San Diego Bayfront the sun was beginning to set. Looking up, I observed that golden rays of waning sunlight had been magically captured by some peculiar palm trees…
Sunset begins behind the trees of Embarcadero Marina Park South.Late sunlight on one of the rotating Wind Palms created by artist Ned Kahn in 2008.People walk and jog along San Diego’s Embarcadero as evening approaches.Waning rays of sunlight, magically captured.
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This member of the San Diego Sabers has personally made many lightsabers. Some examples lie on the group’s table during Maker Faire in Balboa Park.
The last couple of years at Maker Faire San Diego I’ve watched a group of Star Wars enthusiasts entertain audiences with lightsaber duels. They have engaged in their elaborate play on the main stage, swinging their illuminated lightsabers in mock combat, to rousing music from the Star Wars movies.
This year, as I walked around Maker Faire, I happened upon this group’s cool lightsaber exhibit. These local Star Wars fans call themselves the San Diego Sabers. They are one of many similar groups all around the world that make their own lightsabers and engage in mock combat.
I asked all sort of questions and learned more than I expected. Most of the extremely elaborate lightsabers used by the members produce colored light, illuminating a long clear tube that can be attached, thereby appearing much like the Jedi and Sith weapons made famous in the movies. Most of the mock weapons also generate that distinctive lightsaber sound. I learned that it’s also possible to order a variety of lightsabers from several online vendors.
Regional competitions are often held between groups, and the method of scoring is similar to that used in fencing. The sport is lightning fast, highly athletic and incorporates various styles of martial arts. The San Diego Sabers provide demos free to the public, teach all ages including kids (often using foam lightsabers for safety), and encourage acceptance, respect, and a positive attitude.
And it’s obvious they have a lot of fun!
Many DIY lightsabers are surprisingly elaborate, generating light and sound, while appearing as authentic as any movie prop.The San Diego Sabers provides full contact lightsaber training based on fencing, HEMA, Kendo and Wu-shu. Kids are welcome and it’s free!Someone picks up one of the cool lightsabers on display.Members of the San Diego Sabers demonstrate mock combat using foam attachments. Together they’ve got enough lightsabers to take on General Grievous!A kid checks out one of the cool lightsabers. As you might have noticed, I took these photos on two different days during Maker Faire San Diego.Kids have a lot of fun with the foam lightsabers.Members of the San Diego Sabers arrive at the Maker Faire main stage in the Plaza de Panama. A combat exhibition is about to begin.As Star Wars music plays, two members of the San Diego Sabers simulate an epic battle between the Jedi and Sith.
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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 fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
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