Oh my goodness! Why have these old tombs been placed in the southwest corner of San Diego’s Balboa Park? Very spooky!
You’d almost think that Halloween is approaching. Oh, wait. It is less then two months away!
So it isn’t surprising that The Haunted Trail is being set up in its usual Balboa Park location. The annual outdoor “haunted house” attraction is rather large, so putting it all together must take some time.
Imagine walking past those creepy old tombs in the dark of night. Might someone or something pop out unexpectedly?
I’d probably scream.
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This evening, before the Spreckels Organ Pavilion’s Classic Rock Band’s concert featuring music of The Beatles got started, I walked a bit. I meandered around Balboa Park and took these photographs.
The sun was setting. Here and there building lights were appearing. The Spreckels Organ Pavilion was jammed with concert-goers. A few people were walking down El Prado, or by the Botanical Building as the sky gradually darkened…
The music began…
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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.
A big, fun event is coming to San Diego next weekend!
The International Cottages 90th Anniversary Celebration will be taking place Saturday and Sunday, September 6 and 7, in Balboa Park!
The International Cottages of the House of Pacific Relations date from 1935, when Balboa Park held its second “World’s Fair,” the California Pacific International Exposition. It’s now 2025–that was 90 years ago!
The anniversary celebration begins on Saturday, between 11 am and 5 pm, when the International Cottages will welcome the public with lots of great food and entertainment.
Then, on Sunday, between 2 and 3:30 pm, an epic program will take place at the nearby Spreckels Organ Pavilion, featuring organ music, bagpipes, multi-national choirs and more!
Bring the family! Spread the word!
(You can read more about the cottages and their free, almost weekly cultural programs by clicking here!)
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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.
Visitors to Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park were in for a treat today. One of the resident artists had set up on the patio with easel and canvas, and was demonstrating the art of plein air painting! Plein air is French and means outdoors.
Michelle Joy Montrose, the artist, who works out of Studio 1, was there outside, painting one of the other studios in Spanish Village. Several chairs were set up behind her so that anyone could watch. That’s what I did!
Speaking to Michelle, I learned she aims to paint every studio, and perhaps create a coffee table book containing all the images. That should be very colorful!
I also learned that Spanish Village intends to have more of these free public demonstrations in the future. It’s a great idea. Engaging with artists on a sunny San Diego day is educational and a lot of fun.
Michelle was happy to talk about all sorts of stuff, including the creative process. She’s a writer, too!
Should you ever visit Balboa Park and walk through Spanish Village, make sure to see whether a cool art demonstration is taking place out on the patio!
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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.
A very cool event is taking place in San Diego this weekend through tomorrow, Sunday, August 21, 2025. Artists from the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park are helping you to create your own art, in a fundraiser that benefits kids!
It’s Art Galore Days!
Between 11 am and 4 pm, head over to the Casa del Prado’s outdoor courtyard and look for various stations where you can make fun art!
Purchase $5 tickets and use them to create what you wish. You get entered in a raffle, too, where you can win a fine work of professional art!
The awesome thing is, funds raised will be used to support Spanish Village art education programs for kids and young students!
Some of the beautiful pieces you can win in the raffle:
You can create a snowman button!
You can paint tribal rocks!
You can paint a sunset (or anything you desire) with a frame!
Make a cool succulent shoe!
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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.
Laurel and Hardy entertained a huge crowd at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park during another very popular Silent Movie Night. (Appropriately renamed Not-So-Silent Movie Night!) The entertaining concert was part of the 37th San Diego International Summer Organ Festival.
The comedy duo starred in three silent films as San Diego organist extraordinaire Russ Peck added his own incomparable, equally humorous soundtrack!
Putting Pants on Philip, 1927, had the ladies chasing Stan Laurel, to the chagrin of Oliver Hardy. Two Tars, 1928, had Laurel and Hardy causing absolute havoc wherever they went. Liberty, 1929, saw the two bumbling heroes high up in the city sky balancing precariously on steel girders. All very silly, all hilarious!
As the San Diego evening sky darkened, Russ Peck played jaunty, sunny, nostalgic old tunes from the 1920s, getting the audience in the mood for silent films from the same decade. Then he joined “Stan Laurel” on stage for a fun little skit concerning hats.
Then the pavilion lights were dimmed and classic silent film antics commenced!
I can’t tell you just how wonderful it all was. Laughter all around!
After the films, I approached a table where I learned a big international Laurel and Hardy convention is coming to San Diego in 2026! The 24th International Sons Of The Desert Convention will be held on June 21-25, 2026 at The Legacy International Resort and Spa in Mission Valley.
Do you love Laurel and Hardy? Read all about the big event by clicking here!
San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez says hi before the start of Not-So-Silent Movie Night.Raúl Prieto Ramírez gets the evening started.Introducing Russ Peck, who is House Organist for the Balboa Theatre in San Diego.Russ Peck with Spreckels Organ curator Dale Sorenson.A fun Laurel and Hardy skit has the audience laughing.Two Tars on the way to causing mayhem.The 24th International Sons Of The Desert Convention is a big Laurel and Hardy event coming to San Diego in 2026!
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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.
Eight years ago I posted the blog Natural beauty at the West Coast Shell Show. Today, while walking through Balboa Park, I noticed the West Coast Shell Show was being held again in the Casa del Prado, so I checked it out!
Yes, there were hundreds of amazing shells. All types! I’m no expert when it comes to seashells or marine organisms–all I know is that these jewels from the ocean can be indescribably beautiful. I can see why people collect them.
Dealers had tables full of specimens and there were educational displays to read, too. I learned these shells were gathered from all around the world. One gentleman told me that collecting shells at protected San Diego beaches is illegal.
I must admit that while walking along the sand I’ve never seen anything that approaches these perfect specimens at the Shell Show. When lucky, I might observe very tiny polished shells underfoot, or an occasional sand dollar, or a broken abalone piece glinting in the sun.
Searching for what the vast ocean has churned up is instinctive, I suppose. The sudden discoveries–even shells that are broken–invite a closer look. They’re small hints of our planet’s immense magnificence.
Fantastic public sculptures by world-renowned Spanish Basque artist Eduardo Chillida stand in cities around the globe. San Diego is fortunate that many Chillida sculptures–large and small–can now be experienced in an important exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art!
Eduardo Chillida: Convergence includes dozens of amazing abstract pieces that challenge museum visitors with their visual complexity.
Many of these sculptures combine sharp angles with sinuous curves, and are puzzle-like. They can make one wonder about the composition of reality–how space and matter interact.
As the San Diego Museum of Art web page explains: Each of these creations are points of convergence where myriad forces, including nature and culture, material and immaterial, form and void, all meet.
I like how many of the sculptures appear like paper cut in irregular ways with scissors then twisted impossibly every which way. Gazing at the sculptures from different angles, I wondered if their divergent parts could somehow be pieced together.
They somehow recall that three-dimensional puzzle cube I once played with as a boy. One docent at the museum told me a child called these sculptures Puzzles of the Gods. How appropriate!
The sculptures can be made of oak, iron, alabaster or other earthy materials. There are also works on paper. For very abstract works of art, they are strangely natural, weirdly familiar. Chillida liked to call himself a realist sculptor.
Visitors have the opportunity, for an additional five dollars, to experience a virtual reality flight around Comb of the Wind XV, Chillida’s famous installation that rises above the bluffs of La Concha Bay in San Sebastián, Spain.
Do you love The Beatles? Would you like to go a free concert that celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Beatles making their one and only appearance in San Diego?
On September 1, 2025 (Labor Day) at 7:30 pm, the Spreckels Organ Pavilion’s Classic Rock Band will be playing a huge selection of favorite hits by The Beatles. Have you ever heard classic rock played with drums, guitars and a gigantic outdoor pipe organ? Here’s your chance!
San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez will be joined by the Pavilion Rock Band Members to create a very cool and memorable experience. I caught a bit of the band’s rehearsal this afternoon.
The concert is part of the 37th San Diego International Summer Organ Festival. You can see the concert schedule here. (Next Monday evening is Not-So-Silent Movie Night!)
To learn more about the upcoming The Beatles 60th San Diego Anniversary concert, click here!
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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.
As I walked through the Lower Garden of the Japanese Friendship Garden today, I noticed a couple of guys creating this low wall by a footpath near the Inamori Pavilion.
Is it possible? This extraordinary garden in Balboa Park continues to become even more beautiful!
Over the years the Japanese Friendship Garden has added trails, waterfalls, streams, shady structures and more to the incredible Lower Garden. The trees and plants have become so lush in the canyon now that moving down the paths is like a stroll through paradise.
One friendly worker told me that after this wall is completed, there is another project to come. Work will begin along the path that leads in switchbacks up the nearby hillside.
This garden will become even more beautiful?
Wow!
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 