What is it like to be almost struck by lightning? If you’re a writer, the answer to others might sound a bit strange.
Well, I was almost struck. On Longs Peak, coming down from the summit, about 20 years ago. That one flash of lightning stabbed so near my heart, and electrified my mind with something so majestic and indefinite, that I had to write something down. In the form of a story.
That short story is titled A Dance in the Lightning, and I just finished it this morning. Or perhaps it’s finished. I have a tendency to periodically change the fiction in my blog Short Stories by Richard.
The lightning at times is close, but more often it’s miles away. And it’s only glimpsed for a brief instant.
Display inside San Diego’s 1915 Santa Fe Depot. Photos and words provide a glimpse of the train station’s history.
Should you ever step inside downtown San Diego’s handsome Santa Fe Depot, there’s a small exhibit at the information booth worth checking out. Two glass display cases provide a glimpse of the train station’s fascinating history.
To read the signs, click the images and they will enlarge.
Last year the Santa Fe Depot celebrated its centennial. I blogged about that here!
If you ever visit the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego, swing by this information booth to check out the historical exhibit.Several paragraphs recount the history of the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company and the unique origin of North County community Rancho Santa Fe. Eucalyptus trees make poor railroad ties!In a nook right next to the depot’s wall, beside colorful Santa Fe tilework, one can discover more fascinating information.Graphic shows important dates concerning the Santa Fe Depot. The 1887 Victorian-style depot was razed in 1915 after the new depot opened in time for the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.The train station’s architecture reflects colonial Spanish and Mission history in California; it was designed to harmonize with the Spanish Colonial Revival-style buildings of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. A century ago San Diego strove to become the western terminus of the Continental Railway.More fascinating old photos of the Santa Fe Depot, today a San Diego transportation hub serving Amtrak, the Coaster, and the Orange and Green Lines of the San Diego Trolley.Original plaster detail removed during the April 2014 restoration of the southeast tower.
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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 unique photos for you to enjoy!
Sunflowers appear next to a Barrio Logan sidewalk.
Sometimes flowers appear in unexpected places. In San Diego, as in any big city, they seem to sprout like small miracles. Here are a few glimpses…
A flower blooms in the window of a downtown San Diego tattoo parlor.A beautiful bouquet of flowers at an outdoor Little Italy cafe.Bronze statue of Kate Sessions in Balboa Park’s Sefton Plaza holds a few white flowers. Kate planted many seeds a century ago.Red bougainvillea poke through a white lath fence in North Park.Beautiful flowers in planters at Lou and Mickey’s in the Gaslamp Quarter.Chalk flowers on a playground’s concrete wall, near The New Children’s Museum in San Diego.A San Diego trolley runs along the Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade near The New Children’s Museum’s Garden Project.As I sat at the Seaport Village trolley station this morning, a homeless person with a bouquet of flowers passed between fences in the distance.Flowers and elegance near front door of the Tim Cantor gallery.
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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!
Have you ever witnessed a small miracle? You might enjoy reading my story An Unexpected Sunflower.
The recently restored 1910 Broadway Fountain is lit with red and green light during the Christmas season at Horton Plaza Park in downtown San Diego.
Look at these colorful photos! Horton Plaza Park and the U.S. Grant Hotel are putting on quite a show for Christmas. Bright red and green lights have turned downtown San Diego into a cheerful wonderland this holiday season!
A closer photo of the handsome Broadway Fountain lit up at night with traditional Christmas colors.Light changes from red to green as water splashes in the beautiful 1910 Broadway Fountain designed by noted architect Irving J. Gill.Across Broadway from Horton Plaza Park, the historic U.S. Grant hotel is also lit in Christmas colors for the holiday season.People sit at tables near the outdoor Starbucks at Horton Plaza Park one early mid-December evening.The bright Balboa Theatre sign invites passersby on Fourth Avenue behind the Horton Plaza Park sign.People have gathered for the evening in and around the Horton Plaza Park amphitheater. Downtown San Diego is lit beautifully for Christmas.The Broadway Fountain and U.S. Grant Hotel put on a cheerful show of Christmas lights in San Diego.
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Santa Claus appeared this morning in Little Italy. He bought a yummy pizza at Landini’s Pizzeria. I guess a good pizza is hard to come by at the North Pole.
I didn’t expect to see Santa this morning in Little Italy! What was he doing there?
I walked up and down India Street spying on the exploits of Santa and his merry Christmas pals. Read the photo captions and you’ll learn what I discovered…
Possibly to flag down Santa while he flew by overhead, a Buon Natale banner was hung on a street lamp in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood.Apparently Santa left his sleigh and went into Filippi’s Pizza Grotto to get another pizza.I hope Santa doesn’t neglect to put those presents in his sleigh under the Little Italy Christmas tree.Thank goodness! He hasn’t forgotten. Strange, but now he’s flying a train onto rooftops. When you’re full of Christmas magic, you can do things like that.I wonder if this nutcracker likes pizza. Chances are he prefers walnuts.Rudolph and an elf are also hanging out in Little Italy while Santa pays his visit. It seems all sorts of odd folk love Italian food!I hope and pray Santa brought lots of gifts. He’d better not forget Little Italy’s poinsettia tree in Piazza Basilone.That’s nice. This happy elf brought candy canes. Obviously, Santa with his big jolly belly likes to constantly eat.Candy canes and pasta in a window of an Italian market. Perhaps it’s a tasty combination, perhaps not.Hey Santa! I see you’re still hanging around Little Italy. You must be really hungry!Santa can’t get enough to eat, it seems. He accidentally stepped into a foodless Little Italy shop and has already grown pale from hunger. Time for more pizza!Wait! What is Frosty the Snowman up to in that window?Oh, dear! Frosty grabbed the pizza! What will Santa do?
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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!
Ho, ho, ho! To chuckle at some perfectly silly short stories, check out my blog Foolyman Stories!
Visitors to Balboa Park walk the meandering single path of a labyrinth near the Botanical Building.
Life is a bit like walking a labyrinth. We navigate twists and turns on our forward path.
Yesterday I saw a cool labyrinth set up on a lawn in Balboa Park, right next to the Botanical Building. String was laid on the grass, creating boundaries defining the path.
A labyrinth is not a maze. The walk is peaceful, the sudden smooth turns reorient one’s vision, there is no hurry. Many use labyrinth walking for meditation. It also looks like fun exercise!
Walking through a curving labyrinth can enhance meditation, bringing together body, mind and spirit. Everyone is on their own path through life. (Click image to read.)It’s a beautiful December weekend in Balboa Park. There is much to do, much to see. Our walk through life takes many turns.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! Navigating downtown streets can be like moving through a labyrinth! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A very special Sunday organ concert in Balboa Park. Today ordinary residents of San Diego and random visitors from around the world joined together to sing Christmas carols!
I wish you could have been there. At the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, this afternoon at 2:00. Your heart would’ve been warmed by the most amazing spectacle.
Young and old, residents of San Diego and random tourists visiting Balboa Park from around the world–all came together spontaneously to sing beloved Christmas carols. Right up on the stage, all together, as one.
What a sight. What a wonderful yearly tradition.
There is hope for this old world.
The holiday season at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion includes candy canes, Christmas cookies and gingerbread men.The free organ concert in Balboa Park this afternoon began with classical and unique organ music composed over the years for Christmas.Spreckels Organ Curator Dale Sorenson smiles as he turns pages for San Diego Civic Organist Emeritus Robert Plimpton.The more fancy organ playing is over. Time for the public to come up on stage to sing familiar Christmas carols!A crowd heads up onto the Spreckels Organ Pavilion stage. Anybody could join in the happy singing.A heartwarming San Diego tradition in Balboa Park. Young and old, everyone and anyone–together people sing many beloved Christmas songs.Ross Porter, Executive Director of the Spreckels Organ Society, leads the proceedings with unabashed zest.A small random sample of humanity singing Christmas carols with joy.
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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 wish you all Happy Holidays and best wishes in this coming New Year!
A bizarre, extremely rare animal was discovered yesterday at the old Jerome’s warehouse in San Diego’s East Village.
Look what I discovered! I was walking down the sidewalk near the old, dilapidated Jerome’s warehouse in East Village when something caught my astonished eye! A weird, bizarre animal jumped at me from the crumbling building!
This particular weird creature did not jump out of the Coliseum. I know the Colosseum in Rome is filled with feral cats.Look! On the Jerome’s warehouse wall! It’s a bizarre rat-like animal that farts green gas! Artist Adam Hathorn is Honkey Kong!
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A sexy San Diego lady and graffiti on a wall inside the very unique SILO venue in East Village.
Check out these photos! I discovered more street art murals at SILO in East Village!
I’ve blogged about this very cool special event venue several times in the past, here and here and here. The spray-painted murals and graffiti are constantly changing, and there are a number of newer works that I hadn’t seen until I walked by this morning. Here they are!
The wall along F Street at SILO has been painted with various cool bits of urban art. That doughnut is making me hungry.A San Diego Sea Walls mural on the same wall features a bearded face and two hands. Not sure about the symbolism.Walking along the sidewalk, we now spy a funky purplish face.A squished-up greenish face.An orange face with oddly protruding eyeballs.Some colorful graffiti I hadn’t seen previously inside SILO. It’s probably been a year since I walked by here. I took this and the following photos through a fence.Looks like a strange scene from Alice in Wonderland.Female face spray painted on a wall.A look down into the fantastic SILO special event venue. I don’t recall seeing that cargo container before.Just tons of cool images. Like a crazy dream in the center of the city! I think that mural on top might be somewhat new.A very cool abstract jumble of street art on a brick wall.Looks like some sort of cosmic bird deities have arrived from outer space. You tell me what this one means!
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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 unique photos for you to enjoy!
People check out many planters full of vegetables and flowers at the new SMARTS Farm in East Village.
Today I walked to East Village in downtown San Diego to check out a holiday event at SMARTS Farm. I didn’t realize that this cool community garden had recently moved. Their new and improved location is at the corner of 13th Street and Broadway.
At SMARTS Farm, anybody is welcome to become an urban gardener–growing flowers or vegetables in the heart of our sunny city. Downtown residents can relax here, kids can learn about farming, botany and nature, and I believe photography classes are still offered.
If you’re ever downtown, swing on by to see for yourself!
SMARTS Farm in San Diego’s East Village is a community garden where hearts can grow and minds thrive.A wreath is hung on the barn inside SMARTS Farm to celebrate the holiday season. They’ve moved to a new location and are open to everyone in the community!Someone makes a wreath the week before Christmas during a special SMARTS Farm holiday event.These guys were rolling out yummy pizzas!Walking around the large colorful garden. Schools and community groups can grow their own plants in an urban environment downtown.Lessons about how to plant urban crops were underway in the late morning.A young gardener sows some seeds at SMARTS Farm.Hands on farming includes a children’s garden and plants grown by nearby school KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy–my neighbor on Cortez Hill.A pleasant day can be had tending a garden and learning about gardening in the middle of downtown San Diego!Nature, Water, Air. At SMARTS Farm, every day is Earth Day!
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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! 