Santa and a happy kid enjoy a special Deck the Halls neighborhood block party in downtown San Diego!
I was walking home from the Fifth Avenue trolley station this evening when I stumbled upon downtown San Diego’s fun Deck the Halls holiday block party! I’d forgotten it was taking place today!
Lots of folks were out among bright Christmas lights, greeting one another, tasting food served up by various local eateries, and listening to holiday music provided by the San Diego Symphony. The special event, I learned, was put together by Clean and Safe, which is a service of the Downtown San Diego Partnership.
It appeared to me that everyone was having a great time!
It’s the Deck the Halls Brass Quintet performing holiday music! Good times were had by local residents and businesses on one block of B Street in San Diego’s financial district.A number of nearby restaurants were serving up yummy treats for all comers. Christmas lights lit up the night!These smiling folks told me the event was put together by Clean and Safe, a service of the Downtown San Diego Partnership. Thank you guys!
Sign at downtown’s Omni Hotel, across Tony Gwynn Drive from Petco Park, proclaims San Diego is America’s All-Star City.
Winter is a week away. Time to start dreaming of next summer!
To help you dream, here are some photos I snapped in the past few months. During my walks around Petco Park, I’ve noticed a variety of signs which anticipate the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. It will be held right here in San Diego!
Digital display on Western Metal Supply Co. building at Petco Park, the downtown stadium of the San Diego Padres, counts down the days and hours until the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.One cool “window” of the Omni Hotel seems to offer a view into the future, as the 2016 All-Star Game is being played in San Diego.Baseball’s All-Star Game is coming next summer! A few signs have popped up around Petco Park many months in advance. It’s going to be fun!
UPDATE!
Look what I saw in mid-December 2015…
Just before Christmas, All-Star Santa has been painted on the window of the San Diego Padres Store in the Western Metal Supply Co. Building!
A group of old-fashioned Christmas carolers in Victorian costumes brings holiday cheer to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
Look what I stumbled upon yesterday during an afternoon walk through San Diego’s history-filled Old Town. Folks in Victorian costumes were roaming about, singing Christmas carols!
I learned this group is composed of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park staff and volunteers. They were having a great time spreading Christmas cheer, pausing to sing at the various museums, restaurants and shops around old San Diego’s picturesque central plaza.
I was even given a cool little book filled with Christmas carol lyrics. Thank you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Carolers smile, laugh and enjoy the day in front of a reconstructed building at Old Town San Diego’s central plaza.I was given this Caroling Lyrics Booklet. Songs include Jingle Bells, The First Noel, We Three Kings, The 12 Days of Christmas, Deck the Halls and Silent Night.The colorful group of Old Town roving carolers heads to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is decked out with festive wreaths.After entertaining some surprised diners, the group heads through the Cosmopolitan Hotel, much to the delight of one server!Singing traditional Christmas carols around the old fountain in the outdoor courtyard of Casa de Estudillo.Now the Christmas carolers are in the Wells Fargo History Museum next to the original 1867 Concord stagecoach! Several people listened outside the nearby door and applauded.A crowd gathered as Christmas carols were heard outside the Threads of the Past Living History Activity Center. One quilter joined in the public singing!Joyful, uplifting Christmas carols are sung as customers leave Toby’s Candle and Soap Shop.
Member of the San Diego Argonauts gets ready to place a small sailboat into Vacation Isle’s model yacht pond.
A silvery sheet of water near the center of Vacation Isle is where dreams take sail. Tiny dreams with tiny sails.
Today I took a long meandering walk about Mission Bay, and spent a fair amount of time lingering around what is simply called the model yacht pond. Connected to the bay with an underground pipe, the pond rises and falls with the ocean’s tides. The tranquil sheet of saltwater, surrounded by grass, trees and the many picnic benches of Vacation Isle Park, has been enjoyed by model boat hobbyists for over half a century.
A very cool club called the San Diego Argonauts utilizes the model yacht pond for radio control model boating and racing. Every Saturday morning, their Scale Boat Division runs electric and steam-powered craft on the pond. Many of the tiny vessels are remarkably detailed, even museum quality. One tiny tugboat even blew its horn at me while I took some photographs!
Saturday afternoons is when the wind-driven sailboats come out to compete or practice. The Sail Division of the San Diego Argonauts has many skippers who’ve won National Championships!
Today I saw so many sails at once, I could hardly believe it! The model yacht pond was the scene of a glorious regatta. These model boat sails tack by remote control, so racing around the tiny floating buoys requires many of the same strategies as racing a full-size sailboat!
On Sunday the pond features model power boats, which can reach speeds of 60 miles per hour! I’ll definitely have to check that out one weekend! I’ll take pictures!
Model boating is a fascinating, beautiful hobby to watch. I’ll bet it’s a lot of fun building a boat and watching it float across this magical pond!
A scale boat enthusiast spends part of his Saturday in San Diego’s sunny Vacation Isle Park.Two electric-powered model boats navigate by radio control across the smooth pond.This small tugboat blew it’s horn as I took this photo!A model sailboat is made ready. The friendly guy who owns this boat showed me how the sails are moved by remote control.Another member of the San Diego Argonauts wheels his sailboat down to the bank of the model yacht pond.Wading out, in order to place one model sailboat into the water.The miniature boats look beautiful on the gleaming water. They operate in the ocean breeze much like actual sailboats.Three model sailboats tack to go around a tiny buoy.The model yacht pond can be found near the center of San Diego’s huge Mission Bay Park, which is the largest urban aquatic park in the United States.Many sails float dreamlike across the blue water.A fun day in the park for young and old alike.
The Art of Music is a cool exhibition “now playing” at the San Diego Museum of Art. Depicted in this poster is Fernando Botero’s painting Dancing in Columbia, 1980.
Do you love beautiful music? Do you appreciate fine art?
Answer yes to both questions, and you have two compelling reasons to visit an exhibition “now playing” at the San Diego Museum of Art!
The Art of Music explores the intersection of art and music throughout world history, from ancient times to the present. Visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art will experience a large variety of paintings, posters, sculptures and film, depicting musicians, dancers and various aspects of life that are splashed with the colors of music. Visitors will also enjoy seeing many extraordinarily beautiful musical instruments, historical objects related to music, and encounter surprising sounds at every turn.
My museum docent friend Catherine recently provided another great tour! There was so much to absorb, so many cool sights and sounds, that I hardly know how to translate my feelings into words. I could’ve spent many hours just lingering. The experience was almost like standing on stage during a symphony orchestra’s performance, and turning slowly around with eyes and ears wide open.
I was absolutely floored by the impressive sweep of this exhibit, and the number of pieces by important artists. I noted works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Salvador Dalí, William Hogarth, Toulouse-Lautrec, Jasper Johns and John Baldessari, a highly regarded artist who grew up in National City in San Diego’s South Bay.
The very first piece visitors encounter is Baldessari’s Beethoven’s Trumpet (with Ear) Opus #127, a fun sculpture which perfectly captures the essence of what is to come. Press your own ear against the ear trumpet and you’ll hear musical notes penned centuries ago by Beethoven, as if they’re emerging from the famous composer’s brain!
In other rooms, visitors can listen to a statuette of a satyr playing the pipes of Pan, a qin from China dating from the 19th century, or an absolutely gorgeous 18th century harpsichord that was converted to a piano.
One amazing room in the exhibit contains the Microtonal Wall, created by Tristan Perich in 2011. A large section of wall contains 1,500 small speakers, which are tuned individually to create a complex and interesting continuum of pitch. The interactive experience was so fascinating, I ended up walking with my ear close to the wall bobbing up and down like a mesmerized chicken!
Another dazzling room is filled to the brim with psychedelic concert posters from the 1960s! Aficionados of this type of artwork will find themselves in heaven!
The Art of Music features so much cool stuff, and such variety, I couldn’t possibly describe it all here. You really have to go see for yourself. I’m no expert when it comes to either art or music, but I found myself completely enthralled!
Here are a few samples of what you’ll experience…
People head up steps from Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama to visit the wonderful San Diego Museum of Art.Neck-Amphora with Apollo Playing the Cithara, and Hermes, Athena and Dionysus. Greece, Attica, circa 510 B.C. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Shiv Chand, Madhumadhavi Ragini of Bhairav, ca. 1690. The San Diego Museum of Art.Lyre Guitar, early 19th century. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Childe Hassam, The Sonata, 1893. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s first poster, Moulin Rouge – La Goulue, which introduced into poster design a bold simplification of form, space and composition learned from Japanese woodblock prints.Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson, 1965. J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art. Depicts renowned singer who was the first African American artist to perform at the White House, in 1936.Hans Burkhardt, Sex Pistols, 1981. Courtesy Jack Rutberg Fine Arts Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation.John Baldessari, Beethoven’s Trumpet (with Ear) Opus #127, 2007. Beyer Projects.
The Art of Music lives in San Diego!
Go check it out! The Art of Music, at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park, runs through February 7, 2016.
Bill “Santa” Swank has written a really great book about the history of Christmas in San Diego!
I was privileged today to meet Bill Swank. Perhaps you’ve met him, too. Since 2002, Bill has been the volunteer Santa Claus at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion during Balboa Park’s popular December Nights. He’s a friendly good guy who effortlessly spreads cheerfulness and joy.
Bill Swank is probably best known for being a leading expert on baseball and the San Diego Padres. He’s written numerous books about baseball history. His knowledge is so deep, the San Diego Historical Society has called him our city’s top baseball historian.
His most recent book, published earlier this year, is titled Christmas in San Diego. If you love both Christmas and San Diego, I know you’ll treasure this book. It’s loaded with history, local traditions and hundreds of fun, very unique photos. (Six photos from Cool San Diego Sights are in the book! How cool is that?)
Bill “Santa” Swank believes the true meaning of Christmas is found in the Golden Rule. His excellent book also proves another important truth: that human hearts are warmed when we are generous and kind. In the book you’ll see community-spirited Santas through the decades bringing joy to many generations, lifting the spirits of all.
From Christmas Eve way back in 1775, to the present day, Christmas in San Diego covers over two hundred years of local history. You’ll find out how both famous and ordinary San Diegans have celebrated the holiday season, and learn a good deal about many historical places and events. Personally, I love the parts concerning unselfish Santa Claus volunteers who’ve participated in a surprising range of charitable activities. Touching young and old alike, with a twinkle-eyed smile and merry Ho, Ho, Ho!
I was privileged to shake the hand of Santa Claus today. Read Christmas in San Diego, and you will be able to peer into Santa’s heart.
Everyone has a great time at the 2015 December Nights celebration in San Diego’s glorious Balboa Park!
Saturday was the second day of the December Nights holiday event in Balboa Park. (It’s 2015, and we’re coming to the end of Balboa Park’s centennial year. It has been a real blast!)
I walked around randomly and took a bunch of photos during the afternoon, while it was still light outside. This year December Nights was just as wonderful as ever! At night, the lights came on and the scene was pure magic!
Tens of thousands stream into Balboa Park from across the Cabrillo Bridge. December Nights is one of the largest holiday festivals in the United States.This nice lady in an information tent usually works at the Balboa Park Visitors Center.Folks in Santa hats enjoy dancing at the Gator by the Bay stage in the Plaza de Panama.Lots of unique Christmas gifts were out on display for purchase throughout Balboa Park during December Nights.Of course, you can buy mistletoe from this guy near the Natural History Museum!One of many fun images near the Old Globe Theatre that celebrate local author Dr. Seuss’ classic book How The Grinch Stole Christmas!Kids by the Botanical Building paint a huge community canvas during December Nights.A close-up photo of colorful holiday-themed artwork painted by creative kids!Poinsettias of many colors fill the amazing Botanical Building.Mother duck and ducklings are a bit wary of all the excited humans crowding about the reflecting pool.One of the several Santas in Balboa Park will be stationed here at the Casa del Prado once night falls.Children file onto a stage on the Casa del Prado patio. Joyful dancing could be seen here throughout the day.Another Santa Claus will be stationed here in the evening near the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.Some fun holiday decorations next to an artist studio in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village.Christmas presents dangle from a tree in festive Spanish Village during December Nights.Many glittery, colorful Christmas trees could be seen throughout Spanish Village.A funny Jungle Bells banner near the entrance to the world famous San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park.The one and only light up cotton candy! Just wait until it’s dark!Folks are buying goodies at the cookie shack near the Spreckels Organ Pavilion during December Nights.Another Santa will be seated in the colonnade at the organ pavilion, welcoming many kids.In mid-afternoon, the Peninsula Singers community choir was performing on stage beneath the giant Christmas tree.These folks enjoying a December Nights concert are dressed for the season.Deep friend bacon, cheesecake, candy bars, candy and cookies! Yikes! This stand is by the ride-filled fun zone, in front of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.These guys preparing food are in front of the Japanese Friendship Garden.Performers in folk costume wait behind the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages stage during December Nights in Balboa Park.Traditional costumes, holiday food from many nations and cultures, and cheerful crafts were found around the International Cottages!
Santa Claus is ready to leap from a helicopter onto the deck of the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum on San Diego Bay!
Santa has been known to make some pretty grand entrances. But this one takes the cake!
Jolly old Saint Nick paid a visit to San Diego today, and arrived by air as usual. He dropped in by parachute, landing atop an aircraft carrier!
A Toys for Tots toy drive is being held on Navy Pier next to the USS Midway Museum. Bring two new toys and you’ll receive free admission to the very popular museum. The Marines have a huge truck they need to fill up! Santa will be performing a whole bunch of parachute jumps throughout the day. Bring the kids!
Look! Here comes Santa Claus! I guess Rudolph and the other reindeer are getting lazy. Or maybe they’re just resting up for Christmas.
Old Saint Nick nimbly descends from the blue sky in order to greet the nice boys and girls of San Diego. Beats using a sooty chimney.Santa doesn’t need a tailhook when landing atop a huge aircraft carrier. Just a sturdy parachute!The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and the USS Midway Museum are collecting toys today at Navy Pier. And Santa will be parachuting several more times! Just for fun!A guy checks out an ejection seat during the Toys for Tots toy drive on Navy Pier. I wonder if Santa has one of those on his sleigh?Marines collect toys to help spread holiday cheer, with downtown San Diego’s skyline in the background.Here’s smiling Santa, with Mrs. Claus! Spectacular entrance! They wished me a Merry Christmas! And the same to you!
A statue of China’s unifying First Emperor. It stands at the front entrance of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension of the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum.
From time to time I walk through San Diego’s historic Chinatown, which is located in what is officially called the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District. The area is bounded by Market Street, 2nd Avenue, 6th Avenue and J Street. You’ll find it downtown right next to the Gaslamp Quarter.
Over the years, I’ve learned a bit about San Diego’s early history during these walks. And I’ve accumulated a few photographs. Here are some cool sights that you might enjoy. I’ve provided interesting information in the captions.
The San Diego Chinese Historical Museum in the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District. The Chinese Mission Building, built in 1927, was moved in 1995 to its present location at 404 3rd Avenue.The California Mission Revival-style Chinese Mission Building, dated 1927, was designed by Louis Gill, nephew and protege of renowned architect Irving Gill.Banners along side of downtown’s San Diego Chinese Historical Museum.Looking through the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Gate on Third Avenue. Behind the museum is a small Asian garden.Ornate front of the San Diego Chinese Center, a community resource located in the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District.A century ago, Quin Produce was located here on Third Avenue. Ah Quin ran a family produce business and was once considered the unofficial mayor of Chinatown.The Chuang Archive and Learning Center of the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum.Display in window explains Feathered Beings Iconography. Feathered beings were frequently seen motifs in artifacts of the Han Dynasty.Three bay windows at the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Extension display historical photographs and common artifacts from San Diego’s old Chinatown.Photographs in this outdoor exhibit show various aspects of Chinese culture.A view of San Diego’s Third Avenue a hundred years ago, and the family of influential businessman and civic leader Ah Quin.Items from daily life in old Chinatown include kerosene heater, iron, and a grocery scale.Scale manufactured by National Store Specialty Company, circa early 1900s.Display includes various articles used for food preparation and cooking in San Diego’s old Chinatown.Beautiful, artistic and historically interesting objects from daily life long ago in Chinatown.A walk through San Diego’s Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District provides many cool sights!
There are many ways to help others in need this holiday season, in San Diego and around the world.
Tomorrow is “Giving Tuesday”. This special day, celebrated worldwide, is all about generosity and people coming together to help others who are in need.
There are countless ways to give back during the holiday season. Here are 3 opportunities that you might consider…
The Toys for Tots Program collects toys nationwide for children who could use a happy surprise during the holidays.
Provide a toy for a grateful child through the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots Program. Toys for Tots works with non-profit organizations nationwide. You can find a nearby toy donation drop site or create your own by visiting their website.
The Jeffrey Modell Foundation helps those born with Primary Immunodeficiency. The disease is often fatal.
Make a donation to the Jeffrey Modell Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to fight Primary Immunodeficiency, a genetic condition that is chronic, serious, and often fatal. Donations help provide early diagnosis, treatment, and hopefully, an eventual cure for this devastating disease. About 1 in 500 people are born with Primary Immunodeficiency.
Donate to the Salvation Army. Or be an angel to a child this Christmas, by dropping off a gift at the Salvation Army’s location in San Diego’s popular Fashion Valley shopping mall.
Assist others who need a helping hand by donating to the Salvation Army! Even better, create your own online red kettle, and ask friends and family to help spread the word to fill it!
If you live in San Diego and plan to shop at Fashion Valley, you can be an angel to a child by purchasing a present, and dropping it off by December 13 at the mall. Look for the Salvation Army at the center of Fashion Valley near the Christmas tree and gingerbread house!
Are you a blogger who’d like to help build a better world?
You can learn more about Bloggers Lifting Others Generously by clicking here.
Cool San Diego Sights! 