The Port of San Diego has installed two brand new information signs on the Embarcadero next to the Maritime Museum. They concern Port and U.S. Navy efforts to protect the environment in San Diego Bay.
I took these photos yesterday…
The U.S. Navy and the Port of San Diego – A collaborative partnership to manage and protect natural resources in San Diego Bay… The Navy and the Port work collaboratively with the goal to ensure the long-term health, restoration, and protection of San Diego Bay’s ecosystem along with the bay’s economic, naval, navigational, recreational, and fisheries needs.Navy ships based in San Diego – San Diego is home to roughly one quarter of all U.S. Navy vessels. There are more than 50 Navy ships stationed at Naval Base San Diego alone. Across San Diego Bay, aircraft carriers are stationed at Naval Air Station North Island and submarines are stationed a Naval Base Point Loma.Hospital Ship, USNS Mercy, docked at North Island across San Diego Bay.Visible behind a new Port of San Diego information sign are HMS Surprise and Berkeley of the Maritime Museum.Expanding Eelgrass – Eelgrass provides important ecosystem functions, including shelter for fish, food for sea turtles, and foraging areas for invertebrates… The Port and Navy seek to expand the acreage of eelgrass…Studying Fish and Protecting Birds, including the endangered California least tern. Fish health can be affected by water quality conditions, such as urban runoff and warming temperatures… To protect sensitive bird species, the Navy and the Port have several measures in place, including maintaining nesting sites, relocating nests, managing predators, marking and avoiding areas where nests may be present, and monitoring least terns and snowy plovers during breeding season.Monitoring Sea Turtles – The Port and the Navy monitor federally listed endangered Pacific green sea turtles by affixing satellite tags to the top of their shells and track their movements through San Diego Bay…
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Cool public art rises in downtown San Diego’s newly reopened Children’s Park. I walked through the park today and took photographs of this fascinating sculpture, which is titled Petrichor.
Last year, while the reimagined, redesigned Children’s Park was still closed to the public behind a construction fence, I had called this mysterious white structure a “tower of fun” in my ignorance. I thought it might be part of the nearby playground. I’ve since learned the steel and cement sculpture was created by San Diego artist Miki Iwasaki. (You might recall a different sculpture she created for Liberty Station in Point Loma.)
The odd lattice-like geometric shape of Petrichor in the sky makes an interesting contrast against nearby trees and more distant downtown high-rises!
Petrichor was added to the City of San Diego Civic Art Collection in 2023.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Two unusual ocean-going vessels are now visiting San Diego. Both are large and amazing!
The first, which you see above, is the Island Pride, a state of the art construction and support vessel. It features a large helicopter landing pad and an impressive crane. It’s docked at the B Street Pier. I don’t know why it’s in San Diego–I saw it this morning during a walk along the Embarcadero. If you’re curious, you can read about this impressive ship on its website here.
That helicopter pad in front makes Island Pride appear as if it’s wearing a hat!
The second ship, moored a short distance north of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, is the superyacht Aquijo.
According to this Wikipedia article, Aquijo is (or recently was) the largest ketch in the entire world! A ketch is a two-masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast. Aquijo was built in the Netherlands.
Take a look at the final photo. Impressive!
You never know what sort of cool sight you might encounter during a walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero!
UPDATE!
Here’s a pic of Island Pride taken several days later. It had turned around…
ANOTHER UPDATE!
About a month later, I spotted Aquijo docked behind the San Diego Convention Center…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Dragons and lions have invaded San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter this weekend!
The colorful “Chinese New Year Faire San Diego” is being held downtown, on 3rd Avenue and J Street near the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum. The annual festival is hosted by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. The event seems to grow larger every year!
It’s the Year of the Dragon, and there’s one enormous dragon moving sinuously through the crowd. And lucky, happy lion dancers parading down the street, too!
Up on the stage there are school kids in costume dancing and ladies smiling during a Chinese fashion show. Thao French, whose amazing Year of the Dragon art you’ve seen in Little Saigon recently, is spray painting another dragon mural. There are vendors everywhere, activities for young people, and no shortage of yummy food. Kung Fu Panda is greeting one and all, too!
(I won a beach ball spinning a prize wheel! Can you beat that?)
You can view the program schedule for this weekend by clicking here. The Chinese New Year Faire San Diego continues tomorrow–Sunday, February 25, 2024.
Enjoy these photographs from Saturday morning!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Last June this beautiful environmental mural was painted in Pacific Beach. You can find it on the west side of Mission Boulevard, a block south of Grand Avenue. (It’s on a wall next to the anti-cigarette butt “Bunny Kitty” mural by Persue that you can see here.)
I took these photos into the afternoon sun, but with a little contrast tweaking they appear pretty good. The watery mural features a mermaid, sea turtle, tropical fish, and the two messages: DON’T USE PLASTIC STRAWS and SAVE THE TURTLES.
The artist is Aqua One (@aquaoneart), who describes himself as a Modern Chicano Graffiti Artist. If you check out his Instagram page, you’ll notice his other artwork has a very different look!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Several signs posted along the edge of the San Diego River Estuary indicate: Endangered Species Predator Control in Progress. These signs were placed by the City of San Diego Public Works Department. I saw them today for the first time.
The Light-Footed Ridgway’s Rail uses the San Diego River Estuary as natural habitat, and efforts to protect this endangered subspecies involve trapping predators like raccoons, feral cats, and rats. The sign asks people to not feed feral cats, which are being trapped and relocated to the nearest Humane Society.
As I walked along the river on a beautiful late February day, I saw many birds in the water, among vegetation and on distant mudflats. I don’t believe I spotted any Light-Footed Ridgway’s Rails, but I can’t say for sure.
When I walked into the nearby Marina Village Conference Center, where Audubon’s San Diego Bird Festival is taking place all weekend, I asked an expert how the Light-Footed Ridgway’s Rail is doing. Hanging on, was the gist of the reply.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
A free “Bird Friendly Home and Garden Fair” will be open to the public this coming Sunday, February 25, 2024. It’s part of San Diego Audubon’s big five-day San Diego Bird Festival, which is presently underway at the Marina Village Conference Center!
The Bird Friendly Home and Garden Fair will feature local organizations and businesses that help you help birds. There will be exhibitor booths, educational presentations, and people can build a bluebird nesting box for the California Bluebird Recovery Project. The program schedule includes a family music program and a live birds of prey presentation. There will be information about native seed libraries, what to do if you find an injured or baby bird, and much more!
To read more about this unique weekend event, click here and scroll down. You can participate in other San Diego Bird Festival activities, too!
(If you’re curious about the above photograph–that’s a Great Blue Heron that was perched in a tree above the San Diego River. I spotted it yesterday while walking across the pedestrian bridge near the Fashion Valley transit center.)
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Visitors to the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego have the rare opportunity to observe conservators working to restore and preserve a fine art masterpiece!
Two expert conservators have been working on François Boucher’s gorgeous Lovers in a Park (1758) in one of the museum galleries, and the public is invited to watch and ask questions on Fridays from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
When I swung by the Timken during my Balboa Park walk last weekend, I noted the conservation effort was in Week 18–nearing its end. So you might want to drop by very soon.
Visitors stand at a safe distance from the nearly 8 foot tall French Rococo painting. For almost seven decades Lovers in a Park has been displayed, and with time it has become somewhat discolored.
A sign explains how surface grime has been removed, old varnish has been removed, and there has been a deep grime removal. All the old overpaint has been removed, and a synthetic resin protective varnish has been applied. The current phase of work is inpainting–where colors are matched and areas of paint loss are filled with conservation pigments.
Read more about the Timken Museum of Art’s conservation program here.
On the opposite wall, a large graphic divides the painting into quarters, demonstrating how the canvas was carefully examined before conservation efforts using visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared reflectography, and X-radiography.
Anyone interested in art really should check out this special “interactive” exhibition. You’ll probably learn a lot!
You can read about the Timken’s current exhibitions by clicking here.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Believe it or not, a farm is being created at SDSU Mission Valley!
The future farm is located between the parking lot of Snapdragon Stadium and the SDSU Mission Valley river park. The above photo shows how produce is now growing a short distance east of the Stadium trolley station, where I made the unexpected discovery this afternoon.
Refugee and immigrant women and youth will be working the farm. They will gain work experience, and the produce they grow will be used at a restaurant in North Park, at 2920 University Avenue.
The undertaking is called Community Supported Agriculture. This farm is the creation of Make Project. As their website explains: The 30th Street farm has moved to a bigger, longer-term location at SDSU Mission Valley.
In 2017 I blogged about the previous farm in North Park here.
(It’s interesting to recall that before Mission Valley was developed–before shopping malls and freeways–this land along the San Diego River supported many farms–primarily dairy farms.)
A huge flock of crows was hovering around the new SDSU Mission Valley farm late this afternoon. Hopefully the coming crops are safe!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Do you love to create art? Are you a senior? Answer yes to both questions and you might want to enter a free art contest in San Diego!
I learned about this art contest by reading The Scroll, a quarterly newsletter for seniors published by San Diego Parks and Recreation AgeWell Services.
If you’d like to read the Spring 2024 edition of The Scroll, and discover all sorts of activities and opportunities for seniors, click here! You can find information concerning the art contest on page 7. Or check out the graphic I’ve posted above.
Art submitted for the contest will be on public display for an entire month at the Cathy Hopper Clairemont Friendship Center. Media include acrylic, drawing, pastel, mixed media, oil and watercolor. Time to get inspired!
My friend Mark greeted me last Saturday when I poked my nose into the Balboa Park Senior Lounge while walking around. Folks had just finished playing bingo that morning in the lounge.
Mark reminded me that seniors 65 years or better get free admission to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park during this month of February! If you want to learn more about that amazing offer, click here!
Spread the word!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 