My walk early this morning through downtown San Diego was filled with more wonder.
I observed magical light, human creativity, and an unexpected profusion of butterflies!
The butterflies had gathered on the windows of The New Children’s Museum!
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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!
Check out this batch of great street art! I recently walked along Imperial Avenue, starting a few blocks west of the Encanto trolley station and ending a few blocks to the east. Many of the electrical boxes along either sidewalk were painted by very creative artists.
Some of this street art is years old, but it’s still lively and fun! I did adjust my photos a little to make faded colors more vivid.
If the abstract style in the above photo looks familiar, that’s because it’s by local artist Maxx Moses (formerly named Daniel Hopkins), whose work can be seen elsewhere on my blog. A friendly guy at The World Famous Imperial Barber Shop said the front of the building was painted with this fantastic artwork a couple years ago.
The nearby Encanto trolley station also has a huge, amazing mural that Maxx Moses helped to create. See it here! You can see even more cool work by this San Diego-based graffiti artist and muralist here and here.
Now my walk continues east along Imperial Avenue…
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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 photos for you to enjoy!
Near the center of Encanto, along Imperial Avenue, colorful panels celebrating the culture, history and life of this diverse community have decorated lamp posts on the street’s median for almost 30 years. I took photos of seven panels during a recent walk near the Encanto trolley station.
Twenty four panels, by local artist Eddie L. Edwards, many of which appear to be dated 1992, were part of the “Streetscape Art Project” along Imperial Avenue, which was completed in 1993. The intention was to revitalize Encanto’s modest commercial center, from 62nd Street to 69th Street. As you might imagine, the panels, exposed to almost three decades of sun and weather, have cracked and faded. But to eyes that pause and look up they remain alive, and tell the story of a hilly urban community that still feels rural even as San Diego has grown.
I’ve radically altered the brightness and contrast of these photos to help revive the color of the old panels.
(During my walk I also photographed lots of great street art. I’ll share those photos in a bit.)
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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 photos for you to enjoy!
The first public library in San Ysidro was built in 1924. It still stands on San Ysidro Boulevard, between West and East Park Avenue.
I happened to walk by it last weekend.
The building is small compared to the modern, much larger San Ysidro Library on Beyer Boulevard that opened a year ago. But the smaller scale of this original library provides much of it’s charm. The modest architecture with its graceful curves is also welcoming. Had this little library been open, I would’ve stepped right inside.
Instead, I walked around the outside and took a few photos.
UPDATE!
I’ve learned there once was a World War II Memorial in front of the old library, but it mysteriously disappeared! You can watch an episode of Ken Kramer’s KPBS show About San Diego titled San Ysidro Mystery by clicking here!
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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 photos for you to enjoy!
The Maritime Museum of San Diego has been rated one of the top three maritime museums in the entire world, and the best in the United States.
For many museums that rely on a stream of paying visitors, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is causing financial strain. The Maritime Museum of San Diego is no exception.
I received a letter in my mail today from the museum’s President and CEO, Dr. Ray Ashley. You can read it online by clicking here.
The current COVID-19 crisis has placed the historic ships of the Maritime Museum of San Diego in the doldrums–that region just north of the equator where there’s little or no wind.
Without visitors, the museum is struggling. They’ve had to lay off 80% of the staff. They are relying on volunteers and new donations as they try to sail through a region that is “far more complex, ominous, and intimidating that a few degrees of latitude ever were.”
I know there are people reading this blog who love San Diego and its treasured Maritime Museum as much as I do, if not more. At this moment in time, the museum really needs our help.
Click here!
The East Village restaurant Neighborhood closed for renovations earlier this year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, they have yet to reopen.
I walked past their boarded-up windows this afternoon and saw a mural had been painted on them. After a little searching on the internet, I see that artists Joshua and Ezra Andrade created the artwork last month.
Positive messages in the mural, which includes images of fighting, a knife and brass knuckles, include Ego is not Your Amigo, Better is Possible, Regulate Impulses, and Hood Must be Born Again!
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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 electrical boxes have been painted with street art on San Ysidro Boulevard, just northwest of Cottonwood Road. It appeared during my Saturday walk that some of the boxes were painted long ago, and others this year.
I took photos. The art speaks for itself.
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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 photos for you to enjoy!
Check out these scenic views from the second level of the Glorietta Bay Marina Building in Coronado!
To the east you can see the many boats docked in Glorietta Bay, the green trees of Coronado Municipal Golf Course beyond, and tiny glimpses of distant downtown San Diego.
To the south lies the Coronado Civic Center and its Glorietta Bay Park Promenade. There’s some public art that way. See photos of a beautiful fountain here and crazy rooftop sculpture here.
To the west rise the ten white Coronado Shores condominium towers.
And finally to the north, you can see public art titled “Imagine Tent City” which I once blogged about here, plus the distinctive former Hotel Del Coronado Boathouse, with its Victorian architecture–now home to Bluewater Boathouse Seafood Grill.
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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 photos for you to enjoy!
There were many empty picnic benches on the bay side of Silver Strand State Beach today.
I chose a shady one that faced these bright sunflowers. Then I took out a notebook and struggled with my writing.
Words never seem adequate.
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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!
If you’d like to read an inspirational little story about sunflowers and human kindness, click here!
Do you love reading literature from the 19th century?
I do!
I love Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville . . . there are too many great Victorian authors from this period to mention!
If you love to read these authors, too, there’s an online event in progress that you’ll probably like!
During this special event you can listen to selections from 19th century literature read aloud by San Diego actors!
It’s part of Write Out Loud’s virtual TwainFest, and you can subscribe by clicking here to get daily links to new YouTube readings in your email!
What was the event like before the coronavirus pandemic? To see photos from TwainFest last year in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, click here!
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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!
To read a few stories I’ve written, click Short Stories by Richard.
Cool San Diego Sights! 