Brown pelicans come in for a landing on a cliff near La Jolla Cove.
Yesterday I spent some time at one of the most beautiful places in San Diego. I walked along the cliffs near La Jolla Cove, just taking in the fresh ocean breeze, sunshine and scenery.
I managed to get several fun photographs of pelicans and gulls flying above the water and perched on the rocks.
Sea birds fly along the water’s edge as the surf breaks. The cliffs of Torrey Pines stretch in the distance.A pelican and gull share a cliff above the turbulent, foaming Pacific Ocean.A seagull descends gracefully with outstretched wings.Photo of pelican standing on a dark rock provides interesting contrast.
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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 people in San Diego County, unfortunately, are hungry. Food collected during this special holiday food drive will be distributed to soup kitchens, pantries, shelters and schools.
If you’re in or around La Jolla, today I learned about a holiday food drive with nearby drop-off locations. The Heart to Hands Food Drive San Diego is run by Candi DeMoura, who has raised 2776 pounds of food in the past 3 years. Wow!
Please visit her San Diego Food Drive website. It lists the types of food that are accepted. There are several places to drop off food, including the La Jolla Farmers Market and Coldwell Banker on Prospect Street.
Together we can work to beat hunger in San Diego!
Heart to Hands Food Drive San Diego supports people in need. You can help! Visit the website to learn how! (Click this image to enlarge the flyer so that you can read it.)
A merry sight along the La Jolla Christmas Parade route!
Today I enjoyed watching the annual La Jolla Christmas Parade! After walking a bit around La Jolla, I settled onto the curb and watched Christmas-themed floats, vintage cars and marching bands celebrate the merry season.
It’s a wonderful parade that I hadn’t seen before. Very glad I did this year!
Here are my best photos. Read the captions to follow along.
The Community Christmas Tree is hung with lights and ornaments at the La Jolla Recreation Center park. A festival would be held here at the Christmas Parade’s conclusion.This Community Christmas Tree is dedicated to the people of La Jolla this day, October 27, 1984, by the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club.As I walked before the parade down Girard Avenue, I spied some colorful Christmas cookies in a shop window!In the parade staging area, various floats and groups were assembling before the scheduled early afternoon start.A kid checks out the bright red OMBAC Fire Department engine, which is seen in many San Diego area parades.The participants are getting ready for the big Christmas parade in La Jolla!I saw these folks driving a vintage car to the staging area while I walked back to the parade viewing area.In 2016, the theme of the La Jolla Christmas Parade is Christmas in the Future. A special newspaper was printed up for the event by the La Jolla Village News.While people gathered along the parade route, these four guys in Santa hats came strolling along. They were singers!A musical quartet belonging to the Pacific Coast Harmony of La Jolla serenades people along the parade route! Great voices!Pre-parade entertainment included some lion dancers coming down Prospect Street.Residents revel in a time-honored tradition. 2016 is the 59th year of the La Jolla Annual Christmas Parade!Just before the parade started, restored old biplanes flew overhead. They were billed as the Antique Aircraft Flyover.The La Jolla Christmas Parade gets started! It is sponsored by The Dr. Seuss Foundation. The popular children’s author lived in La Jolla.Cool aircraft continue to pass overhead as enthusiastic parade groups march and dance on by.Here come the costumed Sons of the American Revolution parading down Prospect Street!The Stella Maris Academy won Best Overall award. Their float featured an astronaut, a Christmas nativity scene and music lyrics. We believe the children are our future…The La Jolla Presbyterian Church had Joseph, Mary, shepherds, an angel, and two live camels!A young elf hands out Christmas candies to people watching La Jolla’s joyful holiday parade.A horse and carriage and folks dressed in Victorian garb for Christmas.Every parade must have marching bands!Here comes a Girl Scout Troop and a friendly dog.I guess metallic robots will celebrate Christmas in the future! Or wait. It just occurred to me those might be gift-wrapped boxes.Here come the Sweetwater High School Red Devils!The Red Devils band marches by playing Christmas tunes!Just a fun float featuring a surfboard and Dr. Seuss characters. Like many, it was created by a local business. I’ve photographed the guy in the crazy Darth Vader outfit at other cool San Diego events!The La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club was spraying snow onto the onlookers with their Christmas stocking-covered fire truck!There goes The San Diego Golden Retriever Meetup Group with lots of canine pals!Another cool sight at the annual La Jolla Christmas Parade.Merry Christmas!
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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!
This might be Santa and Mrs. Claus walking happily through Balboa Park during 2016 December Nights. At least, there’s a good chance. Right?
I went to December Nights this afternoon hoping to photograph Santa Claus. December Nights is one of the largest festivals in the United States that celebrates the holiday season, so one would suppose Old Saint Nick might drop on by. This year I headed home before dark, before the glittering Christmas lights turned on, and before the really huge crowds!
Because I left before nightfall, I missed seeing jolly Bill “Santa” Swank spreading good cheer at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Check out his book Christmas in San Diego! It’s all about the history of Christmas in our fair city. I feel very honored that Cool San Diego Sights has a bunch of photos in it!
Now, did I have any success locating the real, actual, honest-to-goodness Santa Claus this afternoon at December Nights? You be the judge!
Over 300,000 people are attending December Nights this year. Surely good old Santa Claus is present somewhere in this crowd.Look! Over there! I think I see Santa wearing sunglasses! Oops. Just a vendor selling treats during December Nights.These fun (but sadly inanimate) Santas are made of beads!You guys aren’t Santa. You can’t fool me! You’re elves from the North Pole.With so many Santa ornaments and gifts everywhere, one might conclude that Old Saint Nick is actually a very astute businessman.Oh, goodness gracious! A “fan man” Santa Claus waving his arms like a silly goof! Nothing is sacred anymore.I see the image of Kris Kringle toting a sack of presents just about everywhere. So, logically, the actual guy has to be around here somewhere.I’ve seen this Santa before. He hangs out in Balboa Park every holiday season. But his sled doesn’t actually fly. It’s all a complete fake. Impostor!Tried to fool me again! That isn’t Father Christmas! It’s Snoopy!Now if Santa Claus actually looks like this, I’d really like to meet him. That would be quite an amazing experience!Multiple possible Santas! Oh, wait. They’re all cloggers, waiting to perform at December Nights. Santa only clogs chimneys.I might not spot the actual real Santa, but this December Nights is rather fun. These folks are singing their hearts out in front of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion’s annual Christmas tree. When the lights come on at night, Balboa Park becomes a magical wonderland!If Santa had a dog, it would probably dress like this. It gets chilly up north.Perhaps this is why I haven’t positively identified the real Santa Claus. He’s probably kicking back at a San Diego beach getting some sun.I’ll just have to make do with Santa Mouse.Wait! I found him! There he is! Santa!
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Marines stand at pedestrian entrance to Navy Pier, welcoming people to the Toys For Tots event by the USS Midway Museum.
Most of you reading Cool San Diego Sights probably can’t make it out to the Toys for Tots event today. It’s being held in downtown San Diego, on the pier next to the USS Midway Museum. But if you’d like to make a charitable donation to the cause, please go the Toys for Tots website.
I headed on down to Navy Pier for a few minutes to see what was going on. Not only did I spy Santa and Mrs. Claus, but a dancing green elf, and some very generous people. Toys collected (and donations made) help less fortunate children to have a Merry Christmas. Thank you United States Marine Corps!
Toys and donations are being collected by San Diego Marines next to the USS Midway. Santa will be parachuting onto the aircraft carrier throughout the day!This funky elf is present to lend a helping hand and a laugh or two!Donated toys will fill this United States Marine Corps truck. A banner on its side commemorates the Marine Corps Reserve Centennial.Santa and Mrs. Claus are visiting again for the toy drive! I saw them here a year ago!San Diego Marines collect toys for the less fortunate, to be distributed by charitable organizations during Christmas.
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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!
Unexpected faces in the window of Sparks Gallery in the Gaslamp Quarter. This colorful work of art commands the attention of anyone passing down the sidewalk.
The Gaslamp Quarter is usually bustling with humanity, as people shop, dine and take a stroll through the historic heart of downtown San Diego. But occasionally unexpected faces appear!
A mannequin high in a building window made me do a double take as I walked down Sixth Avenue through San Diego’s Gaslamp!A stylish Tatyana on a Gaslamp shop’s sign.Doug Loves Movies so much it seems he has forgotten to shave. A funny face spotted while strolling down a sidewalk, camera in hand.This unexpected face has no skin. The Chrome Domes seem mostly bones.A mischievous face painted next to a deserted patio. Dick’s Last Resort in the Gaslamp has closed after many years.The Grinch is smiling and behaving unexpectedly unGrinchlike in this fun artwork inside the front window of The Chuck Jones Gallery.Very cool! It’s Steve McQueen sporting some shades. An image above the windows of Eyes On Fifth.A large face painted on the brick wall inside a Gaslamp Quarter restaurant is an unexpected, arresting sight.
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Colorful dots on the side of a building in downtown San Diego.
Every walk through the city is a voyage of discovery. Everywhere you turn there are sudden surprises of color, form and depth. An inquisitive scientist might see geometric order; an artist might discern shades, intimations, emotion.
This morning, during a walk through downtown, I photographed dots, squares, cubes and a rather crazy tangle.
Six blue squares on the north side of the Columbia Place building.Steel cubes on west side of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, which is housed in the Santa Fe Depot’s old baggage terminal. Art by Richard Serra, 2005. Litter atop cube 1 is by Anonymous. Idealized (though rusty) art meets messy (real) life.A crazy tangle of electrical lines in the entrance of the David C. Copley Building in downtown San Diego. A sculpture at MCASD. Power Maze with Sconce, Roman de Salvo, 1998.
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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!
Tourist on a Segway passes a disabled Santa in a wheelchair.
Life contains mingled joy and sadness. These feeling intensify as Christmas nears.
Christmas is a season brimming with generosity and hope. But the difficulties we all face persist. And for some, those difficulties are extreme.
During my walk this afternoon beneath dark, dramatic storm clouds, I captured a few images of human sadness, joy . . . and hope.
Storm clouds above downtown San Diego. Christmas is coming, but so is winter.Palm trees in a row buffeted by a strong chilly wind on a late November day.Someone camped against the San Diego County Courthouse. The number of homeless people downtown continues to grow.Using spice as a drug is a recipe for disaster. Drug use by the many homeless in downtown has become alarming. Lives are being visibly destroyed.The relatively new Horton Plaza Park now attracts homeless people seeking a comfortable place. A deeply sad situation with no easy solution.But there is also hope, and the potential for joy. A child is shown the dancing fountain at the center of Horton Plaza Park.Youthful eyes peer into a fountain hopefully. What is it they possibly see? Dreams filled with light?There is much one can do to brighten this world. I saw this example as I walked. Be the voice of a foster child. Provide hope, and a smile.Will it be a white Christmas in San Diego? Probably not. But perhaps Christmas is something more than mere dreams.I spotted a typical Christmas tree in a shopping center. But this one is special. It’s a giving tree.USO San Diego needs your help to bring holiday cheer to active military families. (Please click the image to read details.)The sun breaks through storm clouds and shines upon downtown San Diego. There is much we can do. A faint rainbow appears like magic above.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk. You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
If you’d like to read an inspiring tale about human generosity, you might enjoy a favorite short story that I’ve written, An Unexpected Sunflower.
Youthful members of All About Music San Diego prepare to play instrumental music at 2016 Christmas on the Prado in Balboa Park.
Early this afternoon, before the threatened rain might begin, I headed up to Balboa Park to enjoy a bit of the 3rd Annual Christmas on the Prado. This celebration of Christmas is put on by the San Diego Children’s Coalition and the San Diego Community Christmas Committee; it shouldn’t be confused with December Nights, a more diverse holiday event in Balboa Park which used to be called “Christmas on the Prado”. December Nights will take place next week.
When I arrived, the event was just getting underway and many booths were still being erected. I caught a few early performances and some of the Christmas spirit. Here are a few photos!
The San Diego Community Christmas Center’s nativity display at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion is viewed by families during Christmas on the Prado.The nativity display shows scenes from the Bible concerning the birth of Christ.Shepherds are visited by an angel.Children view a scene depicting the birth of Jesus in a humble manger.A shack magically transported from the North Pole provides treats at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion during Christmas on the Prado.Christmas sweets include cookies!A brightly decorated tree and traditional Christmas music inside the House of Ireland at Balboa Park’s International Cottages.A small but cheerful Christmas tree inside the House of England.Inside the House of Norway, children make tiny paper Christmas baskets to hang on a tree among ornaments.Adding color to Christmas cookies inside the House of Norway.A youth ballet company practices before they take the stage at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.A children’s group sings joyful carols and other merry songs during Christmas on the Prado.Getting a Christmas tree ready where Santa will sit in the evening, after nightfall.
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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!
Two different buildings are reflected in the glass windows of 101 W. Broadway. On the left is the Spreckels Theater Building; on the right is the Sofia Hotel.
I confess that I love reflections. They often seem magical, like a glowing vision of intermingled dimensions. So I had to take more photos today of windows reflected in glass windows.
Walking down Broadway in downtown San Diego is like moving through a funhouse maze. Left and right, the mirrors rise into the sky. One passes through an otherworldly geometry of reflected forms; light dances like the spinning sun upon bright buildings.
Strangely distorted reflections in the windows of a San Diego high-rise.The old Armed Services YMCA building is reflected in the glass windows above the entrance of 501 W. Broadway.One America Plaza, San Diego’s tallest building, seen in a grid of windows across Broadway.San Diego’s distinctive Emerald Plaza reflected in the windows of 501 W. Broadway.The Westgate Hotel building gleams in the windows of 225 Broadway, the former NBC building.Unusual geometry caused by multiple reflections observed from street level.
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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!