Tag: balboa park

Exhibition by San Diego River Artists’ Alliance.

The San Diego River Artists’ Alliance is a group of artists who love our beautiful San Diego River. They have a free exhibition open to the public in Balboa Park. The River: Sea to Source is now on display in Gallery 21 at the Spanish Village Art Center.

Fourteen member of the San Diego River Artists’ Alliance have pieces in this exhibit. The fine artwork depicts the life-giving river and its ecosystems.

These very fine works are for sale! A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the San Diego River Park Foundation.

My photos provide a sampling of what you’ll see.

The SDRAA artists work alongside the San Diego River Park Foundation, an organization that advocates for the river. The San Diego River Foundation organizes river and estuary clean-ups, engages in environmental restoration and education, enhances the river’s extensive park system, has helped to create numerous murals along the river trail (you’ve seen many on my blog!), and is presently building a new nature center in Mission Valley (the River Center at Grant Park).

If you’re in Balboa Park the next couple of days, make sure to swing by Gallery 21 in Spanish Village. The exhibition will be open through November 6, 2023, so that gives you only a couple more days to pay a visit.

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Sign up for tomorrow’s More Than Pink Walk!

You can still sign up for tomorrow’s Susan G. Komen More Than Pink Walk! I was told this today as I walked through Balboa Park. The headquarters for the big event is being set up along Sixth Avenue, south of Laurel Street, in its usual spot.

If you’d like to help researchers find a cure for breast cancer, and help those who’ve been diagnosed with the disease, check out this website. You can join the 5k walk tomorrow morning (Sunday), become a team member or a sponsor, join the pre-walk festivities, and more! Or you can simply make a donation to Susan G. Komen on their website and help them with their important work.

Tomorrow’s weather in San Diego will be perfect for a walk. Why not join?

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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)!

Free trees on Saturday in Balboa Park!

Kate Sessions, the Mother of Balboa Park, holds a pine cone by the grass.

This Saturday, November 4, visitors to Balboa Park can pick up a free tree sapling to plant at home. The distribution of free trees is part of Forever Balboa Park’s two-day event Plant It Forward 2023: Growing Our Urban Forest.

Forever Balboa Park will be handing out 100 tree saplings in the Plaza de Panama from 9 am to noon. (First come first served, one sapling per household.) In the afternoon there will be a park cleanup that you can join, if you’d like.

Learn about the Plant It Forward event, the free trees and park cleanup by visiting this website. (You’ll also find videos about tree planting, choosing the appropriate tree, and more.)

Help grow San Diego’s urban forest! Plant your own shady, beautiful tree!

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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)!

Balboa Park Carousel bewitched for Halloween!

Has someone cast a magic spell on the Balboa Park Carousel in time for Halloween?

Most of the carved wooden animals are suddenly wearing witch hats!

I’m wondering… Was this beautiful menagerie cursed by a jealous witch? Horse, ostrich, giraffe, chicken, cat and dog–they’ve turned into witches, too!

There seems to be no horrible after effect, however. Everyone riding the carousel was laughing, smiling and having a splendid time!

Perhaps that’s the magic of 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)!

A patriotic Massing of the Colors in San Diego.

The 67th Annual Massing of the Colors and Service of Remembrance was held today in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

The patriotic ceremony featured a procession of color guards through the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. In addition to military color guards, participants represented dozens of schools, organizations and agencies from throughout San Diego County.

The event was presented by the San Diego Chapter of Military Order of the World Wars, whose mission includes instilling love of country by honoring our nation’s flag and the liberty it promises. For a writer like myself, freedom is precious.

As I sat in the front row waiting for the event to begin, a gust of wind on the stage blew over our nation’s flag. Several people immediately rushed forward to raise Old Glory again.

The Massing of the Colors this year was co-sponsored by the Spreckels Organ Society. Patriotic music, including an Armed Forces Medley, was provided by San Diego Civic Organist extraordinaire Raúl Prieto Ramírez!

A special mention in the ceremony and program acknowledged Vietnam Veterans and their sacrifices. Fifty years ago, that terrible war ended.

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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)!

Exhibit for San Diego City Clerk’s Archives Month!

A great exhibit is now open to the public inside the lobby of downtown San Diego’s City Administration Building. The San Diego City Clerk is celebrating its 5th Annual Archives Month with displays concerning our city’s historic 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park!

Step into the City Administration Building in the next few days and you’ll discover old photographs and documents concerning the exposition, and even the big coin you see above!

This original coin, inscribed Welcome To America’s Exposition, was actually the welcome sign for San Diego’s second world’s fair, which followed the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, also held in Balboa Park.

The above 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition Sign was donated to the City Clerk Archives for safekeeping.

Here’s a photo of someone posing with the original sign!

There are many fascinating images on display, including photos of American presidents, dignitaries and celebrities who visited the expo almost a century ago. You also have an opportunity to take a selfie with a replica of the coin that is light enough to hold above your head!

Can’t make it downtown? View archived photographs, ephemera and city documents that concern the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition by clicking here!

This fascinating historical exhibit will be on display in the City Administration Building lobby from October 2nd through October 16th, so check it out if you can!

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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)!

Exquisite masterpieces come to Comic-Con Museum!

Visitors to the Comic-Con Museum are in for a treat! A large gallery on the second floor of the museum now features exquisite masterpieces by multiple award-winning artist Colleen Doran. The exhibition, which opened about a week ago, is titled Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman.

It doesn’t matter if, like me, you are unfamiliar with the artist, or the author of short stories that she illustrates. The pieces of gorgeous original art on display will dazzle and enchant you.

The meticulous, lush art transports the viewer to another place, where fairy tales and Arthurian legends blend easily with this ordinary world we all know.

The centerpiece of Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman is artwork from her Eisner-winning graphic novel Chivalry. The moment my eyes gazed into the first painted page of Chivalry, I was spellbound.

I suppose I need to read the story. It’s described on Amazon as a delightfully humorous and sweet fantasy. A sign at the Comic-Con Museum explains Chivalry is a story about memories, trust, and relationships. The characters are modeled on the artist’s own family. Her questing hero Galaad (Sir Galahad) isn’t ridiculed or vilified, as he would be in most contemporary literature, but is found worthy of the Grail he seeks.

Doran’s painted scenes convey to my eyes a deep love for life, where the human heart triumphs.

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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)!

Big poinsettia Christmas tree returning to Balboa Park!

The huge Christmas tree made of colorful poinsettias will be returning to Balboa Park this upcoming holiday season!

My friends at the San Diego History Center told me the exciting news during my recent visit!

Did you miss the debut of the beautiful, living poinsettia Christmas tree last year? You can read the details and see a couple more photographs that I took by clicking 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)!