A damp New Year’s Eve walk in Balboa Park.

It was a bit damp on the morning of New Year’s Eve in Balboa Park. It had rained overnight.

Big weekend crowds wouldn’t turn out until the afternoon, which made my early walk quiet and easy.

I wandered about randomly, turning right or left with no clear destination. The sky was overcast and the air was chilly.

Kids splashed in puddles. Artists were setting up along El Prado. Street musicians were already filling the air with music. Ambitious tourists pointed at new sights, as they explored San Diego’s crown jewel. The faces of friends were already smiling.

Even on a gray, damp, chilly morning, Balboa Park is very alive.

I’m sure in the coming year this special place will bring more joy to you and me.

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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)!

Magical marionettes at Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater!

The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park hosted Steve Taylor’s funny “Magical Marionettes Show” this weekend. I enjoyed a fun performance this afternoon!

Balboa Park’s historic Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater, which got its start back in 1947, remains a favorite destination for families looking for child-friendly, light-hearted entertainment.

I’m sure Steve Taylor’s puppeteering brought smiles to every face in the audience. Very young kids clapped and danced with the marionettes. Older folks like me were often chuckling at clever bits of gentle humor.

During the 30 minute show, we watched as King Kong’s baby played electric guitar, and as Charlie Chaplin adopted a lovable rescue dog. We watched ventriloquist dummy Rudy O’Reilly engage Steve in humorous dialogue. We saw an elephant take a bubble bath (and squirt the excited audience) and a goofy skeleton dance.

Steve Taylor has been putting on puppet shows for 55 years! He got his start as an apprentice to Marie Hitchcock when he was nine years old!

He’s awesome!

As I exited the theater, I noticed some information on a wall that might interest you. Workshops are offered by the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater where anyone can learn about Hand, Marionette, Shadow and Full Body Puppetry. You can also learn how to write a story, and be wild and crazy!

Read the contact info at the bottom of the next image!

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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)!

Finding winter beauty in the Zoro Garden.

Visitors to Balboa Park during the winter might walk past the sunken Zoro Garden without seeing its enduring beauty.

On a cold, gray day late in the year, fallen leaves, puddles and a big patch of bare dirt might seem the main attraction of this stone grotto garden. But those who stroll down any of the winding pathways will discover small flowers, surprising color, and perhaps gleaming raindrops on bright green leaves.

Please enjoy these photographs. I took them today on a New Year’s Eve walk through Balboa Park. It had been drizzling earlier in the day.

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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)!

New dreams, same Normal Heights corner!

Dreams live in Normal Heights on the corner of Felton Street and Adams Avenue. These dreams are given life by artists.

But dreams are fleeting. They eventually fade; new dreams appear.

I photographed different dreamlike street art on this San Diego corner almost seven years ago. The group of electrical boxes has been decorated for as long as I can remember. Some of the past artwork was nightmarish. See those old photos here.

New, happier dreams have been painted since then.

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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)!

Original site of the San Diego Peace Memorial.

A little-seen plaque in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park marks the original site of the San Diego Peace Memorial. The bronze plaque is located near the corner of San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street, in an unobtrusive spot behind the Old Town Trolley Tours ticket booth.

The plaque reads: Honoring San Diego’s sons and daughters who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, and remembering those who remain missing. 1964-1975. First dedicated on this site in 1969. Relocated to the Veterans Memorial Center, Balboa Park, 2115 Park Boulevard, San Diego, in 1996.

Back in 1969, volunteers created two concrete monuments on Roman Catholic Diocese land here in Old Town. Plaques listed those from San Diego County who were killed or designated missing in action during the Vietnam War. Two more plaques full of names were added to the San Diego Peace Memorial in 1974. It was one of the first Vietnam War memorials in the United States.

In 1994 the diocese sold the property and the memorial was moved to the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park.

In 2014, on New Year’s Eve, I visited the the renamed Vietnam Veterans Peace Memorial in Balboa Park.

You can revisit that old blog post 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)!

Unexpected nostalgia in downtown Carlsbad!

Walking around downtown Carlsbad, you might stumble upon these fun, unexpected, very cool sights!

Someone obviously loves antiques and nostalgia. Take a look at what I found during my last random walk around Carlsbad!

Would you like to make your own cool discoveries? Go for a walk!

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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)!

11 Short Stories About New Beginnings.

It’s true: time flies. Soon another New Year’s Day will have passed us by.

Every year, on January 1, many people vow to make positive changes in their life. Of course, every day, every hour, every moment provides us with a new beginning.

Cool San Diego Sights readers might know that I also write short fiction. Occasionally I’ll post a blog concerning stories that I’ve written. The approach of New Year’s Day provides an opportunity to share eleven inspiring short stories about new beginnings.

If you enjoy reading, you might explore the following links:

An Unexpected Sunflower is a short story about changing lives with generosity.

The Firefly is about friendship, hope and a moment of forgiveness.

One Strange, Shimmering Dream is a magical story about a dreamlike transformation.

A Half Dozen Odd Things concerns elements of a past life gifted to the future.

Night Walking is an odd tale about renewal.

The Wheel concerns creativity. Is there no end to beginnings?

The Hand of Fate is about mysterious human acts that change the world.

A Secret Junkyard is about the despair and hope of those who create.

The Ghost Ship is about unexpected bright moments that can change a life.

Every Butterfly is New shows a world that is always beginning.

Here We Go is full of eagerness for life ahead.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Richard

Pepper Canyon West buildings rise at UCSD!

UC San Diego, growing by leaps and bounds, has a surprising number of construction projects now underway. People traveling near the campus this past year have probably seen multiple cranes rising into the sky.

One of UCSD’s big projects is called the Pepper Canyon West Living and Learning Neighborhood. When finished in Fall 2024, it will provide housing for 1,300 students. Accommodating a large number of students requires some large buildings!

It’s astonishing to me how quickly the buildings have risen!

I took these photos recently, while walking through a beautiful university that I attended long, long ago. In the 1980’s UCSD was considerably smaller!

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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)!

USC Trojan Marching Band excites San Diego!

Two hours before the start of the 2023 Holiday Bowl football game, the USC Trojan Marching Band performed in Gaslamp Square.

An excited crowd gathered to listen to horns, drums, and the rattle, crash, boom hurrah of familiar fight songs, as smiling band members swayed in unison, danced, and gave each other and people watching high fives!

The Trojan mascot mounted the ladder, raised his bright sword in the San Diego sunshine and all those rooting for the University of Southern California cheered!

After their extended, very exciting performance, the band marched with a rattle and boom toward Petco Park, scene of this year’s big Holiday Bowl!

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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)!

Creating clouds full of energy in San Diego!

Inspired artist James Watts works in downtown San Diego. His studio is a fantasyland jammed wall to wall with amazing creativity. I like to swing on by occasionally to see what he’s up to!

Having finished his whittled fingers and toes project, James is now sewing together one hundred pillow-like clouds. Not ordinary clouds, mind you, but ones that gather and radiate orgone life energy like a battery!

James, whose creativity has no limit, intends to use the finished clouds to form a portal–an art installation on a wall where people can experience heavenly orgone energy. The carefully handsewn clouds are made of canvas, filled with steel wool and cotton, and painted in twenty shades of blue. It’s the same canvas the artist used for his fantastic Jekyll and Hyde project.

James explained that artists are like alchemists. They transform otherwise ordinary materials into things of immense value. Of course, he’s exactly right.

His unique visual art stirs up complex, subtle ideas. His surprising art inspires those who gaze upon it with an open heart and mind.

James Watts has also painted clouds–like ancient wisdom–on scrolls!

Check out his whittled fingers and toes, the cool project that preceded his clouds…

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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)!