Grizzly bears mounted atop Automotive Museum!

More history was made today! Two life-size grizzly bear sculptures were transported from the San Diego studio where they were made and lifted by crane to the roof of the San Diego Automotive Museum!

A golden grizzly bear now stands atop each front corner of the museum!

The San Diego Automotive Museum occupies the California State Building, which was built for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park. These new bears help restore the historic building to its original appearance.

I wasn’t present for today’s “great bear lift” but I received these great photos to share! Not only were the two bears mounted on the reinforced rooftop, but two new flagpoles were installed above the building’s front entrance.

These landmark improvements to the Palisades area in Balboa Park are the work of the Committee of 100, who’ve been working to preserve Balboa Park’s historic architecture, gardens and public spaces since 1967.

Would you like to see these amazing bear sculptures up close? I was fortunate to get a very close look earlier this year! I posted those photographs and more fascinating details here!

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Sensuous Environment at the San Diego History Center.

A new exhibit recently opened at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. It’s titled The Sensuous Environment – Sim Bruce Richards, Architect.

San Diego architect Sim Bruce Richards is best known for designing houses that appeal not only to the eyes, but to other human senses as well. The museum exhibit, with its many photographs and drawings, celebrates the unique vision of an architect whose creations feel both rustic and modern. It’s an aesthetic that appeals to an essential human connection with nature.

His houses are truly homes. They are warm and welcoming. They contain natural, textured materials that are pleasant to the senses, like stone, adobe, and beautiful woods, including mahogany, redwood and aromatic cedar. Fireplaces are centerpieces where life gathers. Natural outdoor light shines through large windows. As one display explains: Richards took inspiration from his Cherokee heritage, his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, and fondness for the work of San Diegan Irving Gill and other early twentieth century architects…

Reading the fascinating displays, I learned he often collaborated with noted San Diego artist James Hubbell.

Richards also designed commercial and church buildings using the same aesthetic. Did you know the Morley Field Tennis Club building in Balboa Park was one of his projects?

Beautifully inviting furniture that he designed is also part of the exhibit.

The Sensuous Environment – Sim Bruce Richards, Architect presents material from the archives of the San Diego History Center and UC Santa Barbara’s Art, Architecture and Design Museum.

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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 Twitter!

A caffeinated San Diego Fringe Festival!

The multi-day 2023 San Diego Fringe Festival is now underway! Most of the very inventive Fringe performances can be enjoyed in Balboa Park, at either the Centro Cultural de la Raza or the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater. For a list of the festival’s complete lineup, click here!

This afternoon I sat in the audience at a very unique performance. The Coffee Plays, in five theatrical acts (each concerning types of coffee from around the world) was a fun mixture of storytelling, music, singing, coffee history, and love for the drink.

At certain points during the performance, members of the audience got to sample each type of coffee, courtesy of Mr. Green’s Coffee Beans. The Dalgona, The Bunn, The Kona, The Sumatra, The Jamoke. Those watching, as they ingested caffeine, enjoyed additional stimulation provided by the talented actors!

Fringe performances are usually unusual and typically untypical. Small, intimate audiences enjoy the efforts of often little-known artists. The audience determines whether a production is successful or less-than-successful. (Fortunately, I didn’t see any bags of rotten tomatoes.) Those who buy a ticket can’t really go wrong, because each performance is less than an hour and only ten dollars.

The Coffee Plays was amusing, inventive, and brimming with delicious humor. It did seem to drag and ramble in a few places, as an amateur production might, but overall it was an enjoyable experience. The audience really drank it up!

The Coffee Plays was co-produced by San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre and Asian Story Theater.

Check out the San Diego Fringe Festival website here and see what creative craziness awaits!

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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 Twitter!

San Diego Geranium Society honors military service.

The San Diego Geranium Society presented a patriotic plant show today in Balboa Park.

As visitors walked around tables that overflowed with beautiful geraniums, we were reminded that yesterday was Armed Forces Day, and that May is Military Appreciation Month. Of course, next Monday is Memorial Day.

Among the floral displays, photos and words could be found appreciating the sacrifices of service members.

One sign summed it up: The San Diego Geranium Society thanks all those in the military who have served and is serving our nation. We are forever grateful.

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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 Twitter!

Community composting project in Balboa Park!

Territorio autonomo de lombrices. Autonomous territory of worms.

Hey, San Diego! Did you know there’s a community composting project in Balboa Park? The public is invited to participate!

I met the above super nice people today and learned about this environmentally friendly project.

The message is: Everyone, bring your compostable food scraps and grass clippings to the colorful structure you see in these photographs. The composting operation is located behind the Centro Cultural de la Raza at 2004 Park Boulevard. You can’t miss it!

From time to time, a batch of composted material is ready for use, and the organically rich soil is set out for participants to take home for their plants and gardens.

I learned the best time to come by is Saturday around noon. Smiling project volunteers are usually present around then. They can help you out, and perhaps even convince you to volunteer, too!

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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 Twitter!

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration!

Look what’s going on today in Balboa Park!

This year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration is bringing dance, music, art and lots of cultural fun to the International Cottages! Until about 4 pm, that is. If you read this in time, you might go check it out!

Today’s event includes participants from the Houses of USA, Chamorros, China, India, Korea and Philippines.

Special festivals and lawn programs are held nearly every weekend at Balboa Park’s International Cottages. You’ve never been? You’re missing out! Here’s the webpage that lists all the upcoming events!

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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 Twitter!

Tom Selleck lives in San Diego Made Factory!

Tom Selleck lives inside San Diego Made Factory!

Visit the San Diego Made Factory creative workspace and event venue, and you might encounter the larger-than-life actor! He’s dressed in a Hawaiian shirt. His mustache is immaculate. Perhaps Tom Selleck wants to reprise his iconic role in that 1980s television series Magnum, P.I.!

This cool mural was painted on an inside wall of San Diego Made Factory’s old warehouse building back in 2013. The work is by artist Mark Paul Deren, aka Madsteez. If the name sounds familiar, it was Madsteez who painted that big “WEENosaurus Rex” dinosaur mural in North Park, which was removed in 2018 by a new Target store.

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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 Twitter!

Balboa Park’s forgotten Roads of the Pacific.

Wander a short distance down the hill west of the San Diego Air and Space Museum and you’ll stumble upon what appears to be a weedy, forgotten roadway paved with flat stones. What you’ve found is a bit of Balboa Park’s history.

These photographs show remains of the Roads of the Pacific, an attraction visitors could enjoy during the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.

The looping Roads of the Pacific ran beside the Ford Building, which is now home to the Air and Space Museum. Exposition visitors could ride the latest Ford automobiles on a short curving course and experience different types of road surfaces.

I found some old photographs showing the Roads of the Pacific. Check out this page of the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s website.

The page also provides a description, including: the circuit roads were more than half a mile long and featured 14 different segments demonstrating everything from the Santa Fe Trail with natural packed soil, to the Old Spanish Road with cobblestones, clay, and gravel. Designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, each section was approximately 196 feet long and 12 feet wide. To enhance this experience, the roadways were planted with native trees and plants from the Pacific nations…

…it was reported…that more than 480,000 people rode the Roads of the Pacific…

Today, almost a century later, this is a sample of what remains:

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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!

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Let’s Get Strainge on a San Diego sidewalk!

Carnivorous plants drooling on a San Diego sidewalk? I suppose that’s what happens when we heed the words: Let’s Get Strainge!

I saw this fun street art today on the side of San Diego Made Factory – Creative Event Space, which is located on Commercial Street east of downtown San Diego.

I was about to enter the building for an Our Walls Speak event (celebrating outdoor murals!) when my attention was grabbed by this spray painted artwork. It’s by Encinitas artist Skye Walker. Apparently the mural, filled with ocean surf and images from nature, promotes Strainge Beast Hard Kombucha. It was painted in 2022.

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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 Twitter!

Cancer survivors to paddle dragon boat marathon!

An inspirational event is coming up this Sunday, May 21st!

TEAM Survivor San Diego is a dynamic, positive group of women who are cancer survivors. They have a dragon boat team called the Sea Dragons. In the past I’ve seen the team racing out on Mission Bay.

I’ve learned the TEAM Survivor San Diego Sea Dragons will be celebrating their 15th anniversary by paddling a marathon circumnavigation of the entire Mission Bay! People are invited to come on out Sunday to cheer them on!

The epic paddle will begin and finish at the youth aquatic facility on Fiesta Island with seven stops along the way. The event starts at 8:00 a.m. and finishes around 4:00 p.m.

If you’re curious to learn more about this great event or would like to support women cancer survivors, check out the Sea Dragons’ Facebook page 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 Twitter!