Those who have served were honored in San Diego during the 2017 Veterans Day Parade along the Embarcadero.
Late this morning I walked down to the Embarcadero to enjoy the 2017 San Diego Veterans Day Parade. And I got dozens of photos!
An enthusiastic crowd lining Harbor Drive watched one of the largest Veterans Day parades in the United States. San Diego is home to a large number of active and retired military. And those who have served are honored.
Thank you for defending our freedom!
Someone hold a sign that reads Proud Of Our Veterans.Before the parade, representatives of Naval Medical Center San Diego posed for pictures.Participants in the Veterans Day Parade practice in Waterfront Park near the County Administration Building.The color guard awaits the start of the big parade down Harbor Drive.Dave Scott of KUSI television fires up people waiting in the bleachers.Everybody is ready for a patriotic parade!Many would watch the parade from across Harbor Drive, near the Maritime Museum of San Diego. I spotted sailboats out on the bay.Here we go!The Marine Corps Band gets things rolling.Marching with pride and precision during the Veterans Day Parade.The parade heads down Harbor Drive, along San Diego’s beautiful Embarcadero. The parade route would finish near Seaport Village.Here comes the Mount Miguel High School JROTC.A simple heartfelt message. Welcome home to all our heroes.Pageantry and patriotism.Beauty queens wave. They represent the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Lakeside.Patrick Henry High School’s colorful Spirit of ’76 Marching Patriots pause for a moment on the parade route.Banners begin to twirl in the San Diego sunlight.The Patrick Henry High School marching band wows the crowd.Here comes the USS Midway Museum contingent.The kids standing near me loved seeing the big inflatable USS Midway aircraft carrier.And the fighter jet up in the blue sky, too!San Diego High School’s Army JROTC was in the Veterans Day Parade.The Young Marines march by.Flags raised high from the American Legion truck. They proudly support our Veterans.Many motorcyclists were also in the parade.Lots of smiles of gratitude from those watching.This group was keeping the Spirit of ’45 alive! Photos of servicemembers who fought in World War II are carried during the parade.Parade participants included young and old alike.An All American San Diego Salute for our WWII Veteran Heroes.The Vietnam Veterans of America were an important part of the parade. They received loud cheers.Is that a cool car, or what?A flag held high.Here come the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.A POW MIA flag follows a group of honored Veterans.Wells Fargo had their stagecoach in the parade. They salute heroes who serve.Hundreds of active duty military personnel based in San Diego now marched past. The crowd thanked every one of them.Those serving in military facilities and on Navy ships based in San Diego filed past.The parade goes on. The Monte Vista High School Monarch Royal Brigade marches by.The San Diego County Veteran of the Year is recognized.Member of the Distinguished Flying Cross Society passes in a classic car.Kid holds a sign that reads Thank You For Your Service!!! Air Force – Army – Coast Guard – Marines – NavyThe San Diego Padres baseball team is a big supporter of the active military and all Veterans.Heroes who’ve been assisted by the Veterans Village San Diego march past. Thank you for your service! Know that you are appreciated by many!Here comes the Morse High School JROTC.The Morse High School Tigers had a huge number of great participants in the Veterans Day Parade!Meanwhile, lots of cool stuff was being handed out to those watching the parade.These friendly folks were handing out American flags.A reenactment of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima was part of the parade.Here comes the Korean Veterans Association.Smiles up and down the parade route.Here come recipients of the Purple Heart. Honoring America’s combat wounded Veterans.It’s the fun Squibob Fire Department!The San Diego Diocese Chapter of Knights of Columbus marches past.The 2017 Veterans Day Parade in San Diego today brought many smiles to the waterfront.
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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!
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Late Sunday morning I rode the Silvergate ferry across San Diego Bay to Coronado. I wanted to sit by the water for a couple of hours and read.
On my way from the Coronado Ferry Landing to my favorite bench at Tidelands Park, I watched as moving clouds seemed to transform the beautiful downtown skyscrapers into a shining, ever-changing dream. I took many photos as I went.
When it was time to make my way back to the Ferry Landing, the sky had become more blue, and glass windows in the skyline reflected brilliant sunlight. As I waited for the next ferry to arrive, I walked north past the pier and took even more photos.
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A small public park, recently created in Bankers Hill, is named for San Diego aviation pioneer Waldo Dean Waterman.
Last month a small public park opened in Bankers Hill at the edge of narrow Maple Canyon. The park is named after Waldo Dean Waterman, an inventor and early aviation pioneer who was one of the first in San Diego to fly a heavier-than-air machine. He made that flight into Maple Canyon in 1909, at the age of fifteen!
Waterman experimented with unique aeronautical designs for most of his life. He invented the first tail-less monoplane in the United States, called the Whatsit, which was the very first aircraft in history to use now standard tricycle landing gear. He then designed the Arrowbile, which was the first successful flying car!
Waldo Dean Waterman Park is a beautiful and inspiring addition to our city. For generations to come, the park will remain a living monument to a visionary man who made several important contributions to aviation history!
A resident of Bankers Hill walks his dog through the beautiful park. Local aviation history was made here in 1909.Beautiful blooms at Waldo Dean Waterman Park in Bankers Hill.Sign summarizes the life and accomplishments of Early Bird aviation pioneer Waldo Dean Waterman, a resident of San Diego. He flew a glider at the age of 15 from this site into Maple Canyon below. (Click image to enlarge.)Plaque dated July 1, 1959 commemorates Waldo D. Waterman for his many contributions to the science of flight.
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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 fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
Visitors to the Maritime Museum of San Diego view a display concerning the history of rum.
A cool new exhibit opened this weekend at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Rum: Sailors, Pirates and Prohibition follows the colorful history of rum, from its origin to the present day, with a focus on its surprising history in San Diego.
There are all sorts of interesting artifacts, old photographs and displays, as you can see from the few photos I took this afternoon. Among other things, visitors to the exhibition can learn how rum is made, about the use of rum by sailors, including those of the British Royal Navy, and how rum runners used sea caves in San Diego during Prohibition.
Anyone with a love for history should check it out!
Rum: Sailors, Pirates and Prohibition is a cool new exhibit inside the Steam Ferry Berkeley, at the Maritime Museum of San Diego!A display in the Gould Eddy Gallery shows some of the coopering tools used in making oak rum barrels.Slave collars from the 18th century. Some believe African slaves in the Caribbean discovered the process of distilling the residue of sugar refining–molasses and sugarcane juice–into alcohol.A display features an explanation of grog and rum on British Royal Navy ships. Grog was rum diluted with water to prevent drunkenness. The grog ration was abolished in 1970.Old photo of the Malahat, the Queen of Rum Row. The five-masted schooner successfully delivered rum and other spirits along the West Coast during Prohibition.Local sea caves and coves in La Jolla and Sunset Cliffs were used at hideouts for rum runners arriving from Mexico during Prohibition.Photos of the Monte Carlo, San Diego’s Prohibition era floating casino. In 1937 it became beached on Coronado during a winter storm. Her wreckage can still be seen underwater at low tide.Blind Pigs and Speakeasies. A secretive Speakeasy sold alcohol during Prohibition, plus provided its guests with entertainment. Drinks were tastier than the poisonous rums and moonshines concocted in bathtubs.A photograph of anti-alcohol activists taken during Prohibition. Lips that touch liquor shall not touch ours!Display celebrates the rise of local San Diego distilleries. Our dynamic city is now considered the craft beer capital of the United States.
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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 share and enjoy!
PostSecret is coming to the Museum of Man in Balboa Park on April 14, 2018.
How cool is this?
I was walking through the Fall Back Festival in the Gaslamp before it opened this morning and stumbled upon a fantastic community art project!
The project is called PostSecret, and it was begun in 2004 by an inspired gentleman named Frank Warren. People anonymously write down one of their deepest emotional secrets on a postcard and mail it in. The postcards are then displayed as public art! The project has already received over a million submissions!
The folks I met at the Fall Back Festival were representing the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. I learned the traveling PostSecret exhibition is coming to San Diego and will open at the museum on April 14, 2018! Residents of San Diego are encouraged to share their secrets!
How? Simply mail a creative postcard containing one of your written secrets to the Museum of Man address you see in one of my photos. Your secret can be absolutely anything–a regret, a fear, a desire, a confession–as long as it is true. You might make your postcard into a work of art, or simply write down a few brief words.
I’m mailing my postcard tomorrow.
You also have secrets to share, don’t you?
These friendly folks would like you to mail in one of your secrets anonymously!PostSecret is a project that was begun in 2004 by Frank Warren. Over a million secrets have been shared.That address on the right is where you need to mail your postcard! Mail as many secrets as you’d like!Perhaps by mailing your secret, you’ll help us humans better understand our inner selves. Or gain a personal sense of relief. Or simply enjoy a healthy laugh!
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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!
People ride past what is possibly the most amazing, fantastic front yard in all of San Diego!
I walked through Middletown yesterday on a mission. I wanted to pay a visit to the locally famous Harper’s Topiary Garden!
What a fantastic, amazing creation! This private front yard on a hillside has been transformed by the residents into a eye-popping landscape of weird animals and delightful designs. I felt as though I’d stepped into a small world touched by magic.
This is one super cool sight that is undeniably extraordinary!
Human imagination coupled with passion can actually turn wildest dreams into reality!
Mission Hill Garden Club asks How Does Your Garden Grow? I’ll bet it’s nothing like the Harper’s Topiary Garden!Harper’s Topiary Garden seems to be a combination of a vegetable Noah’s Ark and an army of fantasy creatures paralyzed by magic.A green guy in a sombrero takes a siesta. Perhaps this is his dream.A funny rabbit stands and points among many topiary oddities.It appears that Edna Scissorhands is kept quite busy.Harper’s Topiary Garden is a marvel of human creativity.Those who drive up this street might be in for a great surprise!Cats and critters with long ears lounge in the sun near the top of the wonderfully weird garden. I think I also see a robot.Perhaps the garden is inspired a bit by the fantastic worlds of Dr. Seuss, who lived in nearby La Jolla.A most amazing topiary garden. A treat for the eyes!
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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!
The gritty Interstate 5 pedestrian overpass at Palm Street connects India Street to Kettner Boulevard. It is little used. The homeless sometimes make it their home.
Just a few quick urban photos.
My long walk today included a stretch along India Street in San Diego’s Middletown neighborhood. I sauntered up India Street from Palm Street to Vine Street, in order to check out something indescribably cool that I will soon blog about. I then turned about and returned to the pedestrian freeway overpass, where I crossed over to Kettner Boulevard and made my way to the nearby Middletown trolley station.
The road here is in constant motion, with loads of traffic to and from Interstate 5. As I headed up the sidewalk I passed a number of small businesses in plain, mostly unremarkable buildings. Looking eastward I observed a jumble of modest but colorful houses climbing the steep hill. From busy India Street, residential streets ascend a short distance toward the top of Bankers Hill, and Mission Hills to the north.
Stay tuned! I have many more photos coming from today’s adventure! There’s a good chance you’ll really enjoy the aforementioned super cool sight!
In addition, before I headed up India Street, I checked out a new park in Bankers Hill and learned about some incredible, little known San Diego history!
I also swung by Balboa Park. I’ll be posting those photos later on my other blog, Beautiful Balboa Park!
I hope you all are having a great weekend!
At first glance I thought some people were just hanging out above the freeway–but I was wrong! They were taking urban photographs with a model.A stretch of India Street looking north from the overpass. Cars speed along continuously. As I proceeded up the opposite sidewalk for many blocks, I saw no other walkers.Bright clouds in an urban setting.An interesting doorway beckons customers from India Street into the Starlite eatery.Cacti rise beneath electrical wires.I’m approaching the Aero Club. It seems my camera was aimed upward quite a bit today.Bold graphics on the white wall by the bar’s parking lot.Two golden mermaids above the front door of the Aero Club.Someone scratched many warnings, symbols, concerns and thoughts on a section of the sidewalk. Where is that person now?A fragment of sidewalk remains from 1914.A colorful dinosaur on the building of Dyno Brand custom t-shirts!
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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!
The names of loved ones. Spiritual bonds link the living with the dead during Dia de los Muertos.
Many generations came together in Old Town this evening during Dia de los Muertos.
Love and memory were written on so many smiling faces as people celebrated their departed loved ones. Chalk memorials and scattered marigolds lined San Diego Avenue. And the evening ended with a candlelight procession from Old Town San Diego State Historic Park to the small El Campo Santo cemetery. A walk of several blocks in the growing darkness . . . a short walk down a road brightly lit by love.
My poor camera failed to capture the candlelight procession as night descended. But your heart and mind might imagine it.
An abundance of music, humor and life on stage during the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Old Town San Diego!People could pose for photos with two giant skeleton puppets!An artist paints two large skulls–calaveras–in Old Town’s Plaza de las Armas during Dia de los Muertos.Children decorate traditional sugar skulls.Some around the park wore fancy dresses and hats for the day, recreating the iconic Mexican image of La Calavera Catrina. I saw many faces painted like fantastic skulls.Some of the shops in Old Town had a mix of decorations for both Halloween and Dia de los Muertos.A large, colorful calavera above a restaurant inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.Face painting and a youthful smile.Hundreds of tributes and sentiments for departed loved ones were written in chalk on a long stretch of San Diego Avenue, inside Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.Lanterns among the many Dia de los Muertos chalk memorials.Te amo–I love you–and a marigold.Love and memory connect many generations as the years roll on.
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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!
Looking west toward San Diego Bay at sunset, from the north section of Waterfront Park.
November already. It’s getting dark earlier and earlier.
After work today, when I got off the trolley at the Little Italy station, the sun was almost ready to set. So I hurried across Pacific Highway to the quiet north half of Waterfront Park to take in the beauty.
Looking south past the lighted fountains toward the County Administration Building. It soon will be dark.Light along a splashing fountain as darkness approaches.The jetting water is lit brightly from beneath. Looks like sparklers!Gazing north through the beautiful fountains of Waterfront Park.To the east, nearby building windows and Niki de Saint Phalle’s colorful Serpent Tree gleam, reflecting late light.Lights have come on. The north end of the handsome County Administration Building is ready for night.A blazing sunset beneath palm trees on San Diego’s Embarcadero, as seen from Waterfront Park.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 