I was going to post these beautiful photographs on one of my other blogs, A Small World Full of Beauty, but decided to feature them here! As I walked to the trolley station after work, the ominous, complex, wind-sculpted gray clouds above Mission Valley were so unusual and eye-catching that I had to pull out my camera. A few drops of sporadic rain couldn’t bow my head. There was so much beauty above in every direction!
Here are some photos.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Wile E. Coyote in a business suit disguise. He secretly peers out of a window at the Chuck Jones Gallery. He’s hoping The Road Runner might zoom on by.
Wile E. Coyote was spotted this morning peering secretly from a window in downtown San Diego. Dressed in business attire, which was almost certainly a clever disguise, the patient cartoon character seemed to be waiting for his breakfast: The Road Runner.
As I walked down Fifth Avenue by the window in question Wile E. Coyote remained perfectly still. Like a cat. He appeared ready to activate another of his diabolical schemes. For a moment I hesitated with vague fear, searching the sidewalk and building above for a dangling anvil, a rocket or a large spring. Nothing.
And so, breathing a sigh of relief, I safely walked past the Chuck Jones Gallery in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
Joan Embery appears with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Carol the Elephant paints on a canvas for the national television audience.
Who doesn’t know Joan Embery? As a frequent guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, as Goodwill Ambassador for the San Diego Zoo, and as an international spokesperson for animal conservation, Joan Embery is loved by people all around the world. She is truly a San Diego legend.
So it’s fitting that the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center is now showing an exhibition about her life and career, titled Joan Embery’s My Animal World.
It was my first visit to this museum, and I was surprised to discover such a fine exhibition. Viewing all the displays gave me a great deal of pleasure. They brought back so many San Diego memories.
These few photographs only provide a small taste of what you will see at the museum. If you’re in San Diego, you really ought to head over to Bonita and check it out. The exhibition runs through December 3, 2016.
The Bonita Museum and Cultural Center is hosting a great exhibition about San Diego legend Joan Embery through December 3, 2016.An elephant saddle is one of many cool artifacts on display at the Joan Embery’s My Animal World exhibition.Many photos show Joan Embery through the years–in Bonita, at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, travelling the world, and on the Pillsbury Ranch.Joan Embery was born in San Diego and was raised by a family who loved animals. As a kid, she never could get enough pets.In Junior High School, Joan Embery took horse riding lessons in Bonita. From an early age she dreamt of having her own horse.Wonderful photos of Joan Embery with Carol the Elephant. The two became good friends when Joan worked at the San Diego Zoo. She would become the zoo’s world-famous Goodwill Ambassador.Display at the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center documents a moment in the life and career of Joan Embery.Ms. Zoofari. While working at the San Diego Zoo, Joan learned about different animal behaviors and about daily zoo tasks.Today, the 50-acre Pillsbury Ranch is the home of Joan Embery and her husband Duane Pillsbury. Students visiting the ranch learn about the many different exotic animals that live there.Joan Embery’s Tack Room with many related photographs can be found at her museum exhibit in Bonita. Above all, she loves riding horses.Joan oversees The Embery Institute for Wildlife Conservation. She has been involved with many programs dedicated to animal and habitat conservation.Mountain lion head sculpted by Joan Embery’s talented artist husband, Duane Pillsbury.Joan Embery participated on a mountain lion tracking team at Rancho Cuyamaca State Park east of San Diego.Joan Embery is a San Diego legend loved by many around the world. She has appeared on numerous book covers, magazines and television shows.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! 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 enjoy!
Cool urban art by Exist1981, created for PangeaSeed’s Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans festival. The public artwork, located at the Quartyard in East Village, warns that melting sea ice due to climate change will affect polar bear populations.
Whenever I walk past Quartyard in San Diego’s East Village, I look around to see what cool urban art I might discover. I took out my camera yesterday and snapped a few photos of the colorful artwork!
Quartyard, at the corner of Market Street and 11th Avenue in San Diego’s East Village, is a place where people can gather to eat, drink, talk, and enjoy entertainment.Mail delivery person heads into Quartyard, a community gathering place made from repurposed shipping containers. Coffee, beer, concerts and food trucks are found here.A cheerfully painted parking meter stands strangely by a mail box.The Meshuggah Shack occupies one shipping container. The funky place is known for their great coffee and friendly vibe.The colorful Meshuggah Shack offers coffee, tea, oddities, smoothies, noshes, and other fun stuff.Words on one shipping container at the Quartyard proclaim this is Your City Block.Sun, water, hungry sharks and a tropical island. I’m not exactly sure what is going on in this crazy street art created by Nick McPherson and MR DVICE.
…
This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
The Recruit story is one of personal transformation and maturity. A display explains how sailors were made at Naval Training Center San Diego.
Over a span of 74 years, Naval Training Center San Diego in Point Loma graduated over 2 million recruits. Most went on to serve as sailors in the United States Navy.
A fascinating historical exhibit in the NTC Command Center at Liberty Station provides visitors with a glimpse of what life was like as a naval recruit. Photographs recall how young men were transformed at Naval Training Center San Diego and prepared for service on a ship at sea, far from home.
If you’d like to read some of these displays, click the photos and they will enlarge.
To those of you leaving comments concerning memories–thank you for your service!
The Dick Laub NTC Command Center at Liberty Station has a fascinating exhibit about the training of naval recruits at this location years ago.The Admiral Stockdale Wing of the NTC Command Center has a corridor lined with historical photos, Navy artifacts and interesting information.Marching in the courtyards, known as grinders, was a constant part of Recruit Training Command or boot camp.Home comforts were far away for U.S. Navy sailors aboard ship. A display shows sailors training in San Diego.The USS Recruit–a model Training Destroyer Escort–is where most men experienced their first duty aboard ship.The USS Recruit is landlocked permanently at Liberty Station. Fondly called the USS Neversail, this ship set in concrete was used for training new Navy sailors.Graduation at Naval Training Center San Diego. One photo shows Admiral Nimitz watching a Pass-In-Review at Preble Field.A large map of the old Naval Training Center San Diego, which today has been transformed into Liberty Station, featuring shopping, parks, museums and more.Photo of vacant old Naval Training Center buildings waiting to be restored and put to use commercially at Liberty Station.During training, recruits were divided into companies of 100 men. Teamwork was promoted.Homecooked meals were prepared by NTC’s Chef and Mess School, which was one of the best in the country.NTC grew in size over the years, expanding across the boat channel. A march over Nimitz Bridge was a rite of passage. (I blogged recently that a new public park will be opening east of the channel.)An old poster depicts authorized grooming standards for United States Navy Personnel.Photos of graduation from San Diego’s NTC include the final 1993 ceremony before the base closed.The official program for the 2082nd and Final Recruit Pass-In-Review, Friday, November 19, 1993.NTC San Diego graduated over 2 million recruits over its 74 year history!Welcome aboard!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! 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 enjoy!
Pottery pumpkins smile outside a gift shop in San Diego’s festive Old Town.
I see pumpkins! Everywhere! It must be mid-October in San Diego!
Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! Big ones and little ones! Grocery stores are overflowing. It must be mid-October.A fun display of pumpkins and Autumn characters on a street corner in Little Italy. Halloween is on the way! Boo!A beautiful arrangement of flowers, pumpkins and gourds graces a rustic Old Town boardwalk.More golden Autumn colors suggest it’s time to harvest the good things in life.A pumpkin and warm flowers on an antique cart in Old Town San Diego.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Two elegantly dressed skeletons have been discovered seated inside the front entrance of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town.
I was stunned to observe that a large number of skeletons have been discovered in an old San Diego hotel. The Cosmopolitan Hotel, to be exact. The elegantly dressed skeletons, wearing frilly dresses or top hats, were seen standing about the hotel’s entrance, in the saloon, even seated on chairs behind a large wedding cake.
Huh?
I’m just having a bit of fun! The Cosmopolitan Hotel is part of Old Town, and dozens of elegantly dressed skeletons appear in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park every year as Día de los Muertos approaches.
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is actually a celebration of ancestors and loved family members who have passed away. In Mexico, the deceased are remembered and prayed for, and certain joyful traditions are observed. One unusual tradition is derived from La Calavera Catrina, a famous etching by Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada, which depicts a female skeleton dressed in a fancy hat. Even though the image was originally created as satire, the Catrina has become a familiar sight in many places where Día de los Muertos is observed.
I snapped these photos at the historic Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town. The original building dates back to the late 1820s, when the wealthy Californio cattle rancher Juan Bandini built a “mansion” among the simple adobes in Old Town. When Bandini’s fortunes faded, he sold the house to Albert Seeley in 1869, who built a second story and converted the house into a hotel for a new San Diego stagecoach stop, which he also built nearby.
I believe I photographed a couple of the same skeletons a year or two ago, but I simply couldn’t help myself. They’re so much fun!
A covered wagon in front of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.In celebration of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, two lady skeletons wearing frilly dresses greet visitors to the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Here’s one!Here’s the other!Inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel’s saloon, another lavishly elegant but skeletal customer is observed.A shy skeleton in very fancy attire stands silently in the corner of the Old West 1800s saloon.A bony customer at the bar. That must have been a stiff drink.A wedding cake for a skeleton bride and groom! Día de los Muertos is a joyful holiday that celebrates the past lives of loved ones.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! 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 enjoy!
Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village features a special environmental exhibit called Sustainability Studio!
I discovered a fascinating environmental exhibit in Balboa Park this weekend. The Sustainability Studio is located in Gallery 21 near the center of the Spanish Village Art Center.
This small but information-packed exhibit discusses how various museums and buildings in Balboa Park are engaging in conservation efforts, by using solar panels, low-flow water fixtures, LED lighting, and the intelligent use of resources. The exhibit also encourages kids to think about the environment and pledge to protect it. Fun activities include making leaves for the Tree of Change and a Balboa Park scavenger hunt!
To read the signs, click the images and they will enlarge.
The Sustainability Studio will remain open to the public through December. Bring the kids! They can learn something new, create some fun art, and engage in the easy scavenger hunt and win a cool prize!
Rubi welcomes visitors into the Sustainability Studio, where one can learn about the conservation efforts of various organizations in Balboa Park.Signs and posters in the special exhibit raise awareness about various important environmental issues. Kids are provided with fun activities that promote activism and conservation.Sustainability refers to the conservation and efficient use of essential resources. Balboa Park’s efforts include solar panels, low-flow water fixtures and LED lighting.Kids visiting the exhibit are encouraged to make a leaf with a hand tracing, then inscribe it with an environmental pledge.Leaves on the Tree of Change. Kids pledge to ride bikes, turn off lights, recycle, use less water . . .A scavenger hunt is described on this flyer. Upload 5 selfies to Facebook that include a Balboa Park sustainability feature and claim a great prize!Various museums and buildings in Balboa Park are working to become more environmentally friendly.The San Diego Natural History Museum became the first Balboa Park LEED Certified building in 2009.The San Diego Air and Space Museum has increased energy efficiency and achieved significant water savings.Fun works of art produced by creative kids hang from the ceiling. I like the ocean!I love turtles!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A walk through Liberty Station in Point Loma is always pleasurable. A photographer can find scenes of art, fun and life!
My walk yesterday took me to one of my favorite places in San Diego . . . Liberty Station! The historic old Naval Training Center San Diego in Point Loma has been converted into beautiful courtyards, shops, museums, art studios and more. It’s a lively but leisurely place where one can simply sit on a bench in a park and enjoy people, fountains, flowers and sunshine. It’s also a perfect place to walk randomly about to make new discoveries.
Here are a few fun photos my camera captured!
Two people on the North Promenade in the middle of the Arts District at Liberty Station learn how to take great photos from a personal instructor.These Star Wars stormtroopers were caught near a parking lot without their helmets. They appear to be quite human and friendly! I believe they were getting ready to provide entertainment for a special event in the big grassy NTC Park.Colorful banner outside the San Diego Watercolor Society Gallery. Their amazing International Exhibition is underway and will be open to the public through October 31.A small collection of paintings can be enjoyed inside the entrance to the old Naval Training Center San Diego’s command building.Art displayed in the NTC Command Center was created by artists who have studios inside several old barracks at Liberty Station.Window into one artist’s studio. Artists, museums and cultural attractions now occupy many of the historic Navy barracks at Liberty Station.A fun sculpture graces the North Promenade at Liberty Station. Flowers, by John Dupree.Families and kids love the small USS Brave boat bench at Liberty Station. Wood art by Jonathan Allen.Photo of entrance to the Dorothea Laub Dance Place building in Liberty Station.Lavendar Ballerina by Jori Owens, one of many paintings on display in the main hallway of the Dance Place San Diego at Liberty Station.Blue Ballerina, a painting by Jori Owens.Red Ballerina, a painting by Jori Owens.A busy Saturday at the new and very popular indoor Liberty Public Market.Flowers add color and life to Liberty Public Market, one of many places to visit at Liberty Station.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! 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 enjoy!
A new esplanade is almost ready to open on the east side of the boat channel at Liberty Station. I took this photo from the Nimitz pedestrian bridge.
A new public park will be opening soon at Liberty Station!
I love parks. So a discovery I made yesterday made me very happy. A completely new esplanade is being created at Liberty Station! The narrow park will run along the east shore of the boat channel, allowing visitors to walk, recreate or just relax on either side of the water. The shady trees and green grass appear ready to go! Three new hotels are also being built near the esplanade, at the site of the old Wally Park airport parking lot.
Here are some photos I took during yesterday’s walk. You can see the progress being made and a couple of informative signs.
Sign declares: Coming Soon – Public Esplanade and Coastal Access. Sketches show people enjoying the beautiful new park.Green grass and trees appear ready on the east side of the boat channel.A difficult-to-read sign at Liberty Station shows the narrow new esplanade. I had to enhance the photo to make out details. The three dark forms in the upper right corner, I believe, will be new hotels.Looking eastward from the west side of the boat channel. A new park will soon open across the water!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 