Tag: amazing

Flaming woman: hidden art in Middletown!

Extraordinarily beautiful public art can be found in a seldom seen corner of San Diego’s Middletown neighborhood. A tile mosaic appears to depict a fiery, spiritual woman, rising above surging waves of colorful artwork composed of individually made tiles.

The mosaic is mostly hidden in a cranny by Kettner Boulevard, east of the Middletown trolley station, near the bottom of stairs that climb to the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 5. Few people use these stairs.

I can find no information about this mysterious public art. I took these photos today. The last time I observed it, about four years ago, the mosaic hadn’t been completed. You can see those images here.

If you know who created this stunning, very complex mural (perhaps a community project?) please leave a comment below!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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San Diego wonderland of Christmas ornaments!

One of San Diego’s most beautiful Christmas displays can be enjoyed inside the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Jewels of the Season has returned for 2023!

Over a thousand uniquely hand-crafted, jewel-like ornaments dangle from the museum ceiling, frame bright windows, fill display cases, and decorate a large Christmas tree. Visitors stepping into the Timken might feel they’ve entered a twinkling Christmas wonderland!

Thank goodness a lady at the Balboa Park Visitors Center reminded me of this annual display. I really loved last year’s Jewels of the Season and blogged about it. Check out that past blog post if you want to read about the artists and learn why these ornaments are so special!

The photographs that you see here were taken today.

Would you like to experience this magic? Visit the free Timken Museum of Art before New Year’s Day!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Star of India starts across San Diego Bay!

The world’s oldest active sailing ship, San Diego’s own legendary Star of India, is sailing this weekend! It has been five years since she headed out into the Pacific Ocean.

At 9 o’clock this morning, Maritime Museum of San Diego crew members cast off the ropes that held Star of India to the Embarcadero, and two tug boats commenced to tow her across the bay.

Once far out on the ocean, the beautiful Star would unfurl her majestic sails and become a white cloud floating on the blue. Unfortunately, nobody would see that from downtown–unless, perhaps, one could peer out into the watery distance from a high building.

Five years ago, from the end of Point Loma, I photographed the Star of India cruising out into the wide ocean. It was accompanied by other tall ships that make San Diego their home. See those photos 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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Amazing cactus and succulent garden in El Cajon!

There’s a special garden filled with rare and beautiful plants in downtown El Cajon. The Southwest Cactus and Succulent Garden is open free to the public at the Olaf Wieghorst Museum.

This very fine garden stretches between the museum’s main building and the old, relocated house of Olaf Wieghorst, a renowned artist who lived in El Cajon. (His paintings depicting the Old West are celebrated inside the museum.)

Over 200 species of desert plants–some of them quite rare–can be enjoyed by those who wander about the garden. The amazing garden is curated by Mike Bostwick, former horticultural director of the San Diego Zoo.

There are shady places in the garden where you can relax or perhaps have a picnic. There are sculptures, too, including an exceptional one by James Hubbell. A plant sale containing rare specimens is also open to the public. Proceeds support the museum.

What’s more, the garden space can be rented for special events such as private parties or weddings.

The Southwest Cactus and Succulent Garden is accessible to visitors when the Olaf Wieghorst Museum is open. See the location, days and hours 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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

World’s largest single-masted yacht at sunset!

M5, the world’s largest single-masted yacht, is presently docked at the 5th Avenue Landing superyacht marina behind the San Diego Convention Center.

M5 stands out from the other nearby superyachts. Its mast is so incredibly high, M5 cannot pass under any bridge that she can navigate to! That includes the San Diego-Coronado Bridge!

Read about the amazing yacht, which periodically visits San Diego, here.

This evening as the sun began to set, my walk along the south Embarcadero took me past M5. So I captured these photographs…

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

San Diego exhibit honors legendary drag racer.

Have you ever seen over 100 trophies won by one person?

You will when you view an exhibit at the San Diego Automotive Museum that honors legendary NHRA drag racer Don Prudhomme!

Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, California native and San Diego resident, has filled shelves with drag racing Wally Trophies during a 47 year career as driver, then team owner. He has been inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. On the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Top 50 Drivers 1951-2000, Don Prudhomme is ranked number three.

This impressive exhibit includes a documentary video that features lots of crazy drag racing action. I sat on a bench and watched for several minutes, wondering whether I would have the nerves of steel to race a dragster. Don Prudhomme was the first Funny Car driver to exceed 250 mph. Talk about white knuckles!

If you’re a motorsport fan, you must check out this exhibit. Then wander about the San Diego Automotive Museum to check out dozens of rare, breathtaking cars. I learned during my visit today that six new vehicles were added yesterday to the museum floor!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Solar eclipse breaks through in Balboa Park!

Would this morning’s solar eclipse be seen in San Diego? An overcast sky worried many who wished to observe the highly anticipated event.

A huge crowd lined up in Balboa Park near the Fleet Science Center to obtain eclipse glasses. Amateurs set up telescopes, large and small. With the help of Fleet scientists and volunteers, kids enjoyed several fun educational activities, including the creation of pinhole boxes for safe indirect viewing of the eclipse. At one side of the plaza, a laptop showed live images of the eclipse from some cloudless location. Families sat waiting on the edge of the park’s nearby fountain. Minutes were ticking away. Would those clouds above us thin in time, as everyone hoped?

And then–there it was! The crowd cheered! The moon was glimpsed off and on as it gradually passed over the sun’s disk in an annular eclipse that would, at its maximum, obscure about 70 percent of Earth’s own life-giving star.

Several minutes later, the sky would mostly clear, and many in San Diego would take delight in the awe-inspiring spectacle.

Enjoy these photographs of the big eclipse watching party in Balboa Park!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Holiday preparation for Encinitas Heritage Tree!

The lighting of the Norfolk Island pine (star pine) at 4th and C Street, an Encinitas Heritage Tree, is anticipated by many families every holiday season. Hundreds turn out and count down to the moment when the tree’s cheerful Christmas lights flick on.

As I walked past the Encinitas Historical Society’s old 1883 Schoolhouse today, I noticed volunteers laying out new strands for the tree’s Christmas lights!

I learned that the enormous pine requires 18 strands, each 110 feet long. The combined strands will support a total of 1600 lights!

The friendly volunteers filled my ears with many old stories, and explained how Louie led the effort to decorate the tree 29 years ago. This Heritage Tree, which they call Louie’s Tree, is a little over 70 years old.

The lighting of the Heritage Tree in 2023, I’m told, will feature four children’s choirs. The program will take place on December 1, from 4 to 6 pm. You can’t miss the beautiful tree. It stands high above Moonlight Beach, a bit south of the main parking lot.

Here’s a photo I took of the Heritage Tree during a walking tour of Encinitas in 2021:

Almost 2000 feet of Christmas lights will be wound around its branches!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

World’s first 3D-printed car in San Diego!

The world’s first ever 3D-printed car is now on display in San Diego. Check it out!

I saw this surprising product of 3D-printing technology when I visited the newly opened POPnology exhibition at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park.

This fully electric car, called the Strati, has a body printed from carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. According to a nearby sign, it took 44 hours to print the 212 layers, and two days to assemble.

From a distance the Strati’s appearance is pretty cool; up close, it can be rather strange. (The layers produce a surface of odd ridges–I was reminded of a topographical map!)

You can read about Local Motors, the apparently defunct company that produced Strati, by clicking here. You’ll find a video of a short ride in the car.

Popular Mechanics published a detailed article about the Strati here!

Head over to the Comic-Con Museum to experience POPnology. You’ll see this car and find all sorts of technological innovations foretold or inspired by futuristic concepts in pop culture! I’ll be blogging about the incredible exhibition shortly!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Fantastic 3D art inside San Ysidro Library!

Are those holograms? No! The archway just inside the San Ysidro Library’s front door features a cool 3D effect produced by its two lenticular print columns.

This amazing public art, titled Pasaje, debuted in 2019 when the new branch library opened. The artists are brothers Jamex de la Torre and Einar de la Torre.

The San Diego Civic Art Collection website explains: The interior artwork, Pasaje, consists of an archway which serves as both a literal and symbolic entrance to the library. The columns of the archway are wrapped with colorful, illuminated lenticular prints drawing on themes related to San Ysidro, architecture, and the library as a source of knowledge. These densely layered and highly dynamic lenticular images produce the illusion of depth and change when viewed from different angles. Sitting atop the columns is a cantera stone lintel inspired by both Spanish colonial and Mesoamerican architectural motifs.

The San Ysidro Library website further explains: The arch columns feature back-lit lenticular transparencies that exhibit two images in flip format, one showing historical pictures of San Ysidro and the other showing a plethora of images that symbolize curious illustrations in the exploration of books.

Your own eyes have to experience this fantastic optical art!

I found it hard to take good, focused photographs, because the seemingly layered images fade in and out with every slight movement the camera makes. (If you’ve ridden the main elevator at the San Diego Central Library, you’ve probably marveled at similar lenticular artwork by the same artists!)

Hopefully these photos entice you to visit the library in person!

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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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!