A gentle winter morning on the Embarcadero.
The rising sun tinted clouds across San Diego Bay.
Lights strung on the beautiful tall ship Star of India were on, creating a magical scene…
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Beauty fills and surrounds the Botanical Building in Balboa Park. As do words that honor those who’ve made our world more beautiful.
Seeds that were planted many years ago live on and on.
Last weekend I saw and read a few plaques.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Would you like to walk beneath the branches of one of the most impressive and beloved trees in San Diego?
I remember when I was a boy, people used to walk right up to the trunk of the huge Moreton Bay Fig tree in Balboa Park–that enormous tree just north of the Natural History Museum. Kids would even climb about its limbs. But over the years too many feet compacted the soil above the tree’s root system, threatening to kill it. So the historic tree, planted just before the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, was fenced off to the public.
But there are plans that will allow people to approach this mighty tree once again!
A raised platform is to be built at the base of the Moreton Bay Fig. The structure will not interfere with the tree’s root system, which has been carefully mapped. Once the project is complete, the public will be able to more fully appreciate the beauty and majesty of this amazing 78 feet tall tree.
The Friends of Balboa Park, an organization whose mission is to preserve Balboa Park’s legacy for future generations, is raising money to construct the platform, and they could use a few more donations.
If you’d like to learn more about this cool project, and perhaps help out the Friends of Balboa Park, visit their website here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Just before sunset this evening, I took an elevator to the 40th Floor of the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I knew there would be an incredible sunset.
From one of the hotel’s large observation windows, I watched boats moving beneath dramatic clouds across the water.
I then walked along the Embarcadero as the clouds turned rosy. Those photos are coming up…
The San Diego Symphony’s new outdoor summer stage, The Shell, is rapidly taking shape in San Diego’s gleaming skyline!
During my harbor tour today I saw that most of The Shell’s white canvas has been attached to its steel frame. With a little imagination it’s easy to see how San Diego seen across the bay will be more amazing than ever.
Once all the canvas is up, and the cranes disappear, The Shell will almost certainly become an iconic new landmark on our bayfront!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! 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 photos for you to enjoy!
I love to walk out onto Broadway Pier on a clear morning.
The early sunlight can produce uniquely beautiful and interesting photographs.
There are birds, long shadows, bright reflections, drops of glistening morning dew on tables, and perhaps an arriving ferry boat.
Surrounded by the quiet water of San Diego Bay, to stand alone at the end of the pier is very peaceful.
Here are a few photos from my walk onto Broadway Pier this morning.
(That first bird is a cormorant. Right after I took the above photo, it dived straight down into the water and disappeared like a stealthy submarine.)
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
How the seasons fly.
I saw a few cherry blossoms today during a walk through the Lower Garden of the Japanese Friendship Garden. Next month, from March 16 to March 20, my favorite garden in Balboa Park will host 2020 Cherry Blossom Week.
I suppose I’ll be going again.
The few early blossoms are familiar magic.
Spring soon returns.
Another renewal.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Check out the latest exhibition at Balboa Park’s always amazing Japanese Friendship Garden!
The Chromatic Ceramic Collection: John Conrad features unique ceramic creations whose shining colors dance and change depending on the angle from which they are viewed!
These refractive pieces, which include patterned discs and vases in different shapes, have to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. As you move about the garden’s Exhibit Hall, you seem to the find the end of many rainbows.
According to the Japanese Friendship Garden’s website: “Culminating over 60 years of research and experiments, artist John Conrad developed the spectacular finish that is seen on the Chromatic Collection…The chromatic finish is a combination of metallic flake and silica, which is then adhered onto porcelain using modern plasma technology…”
I was struck during my visit on Sunday how these brilliant ceramics resemble in many respects the holographic paintings of Tom Liguori, another local innovator whose work can be seen here.
I’ve included photographs of a few radiant discs to provide an idea of what you’ll experience. The vases, if anything, are even more beautiful.
Visionary artists continue to find new ways to express and combine form, light and color. It seems the potential for beauty is infinite.
The Chromatic Ceramic Collection: John Conrad can be viewed through April 26, 2020 at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Today I watched as a father and his son made beautiful candles in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.
The father, Paul, is the owner of Toby’s Candle and Soap Shop. His son is a super friendly young man named KC.
This talented family has been making candles by hand for three generations. I learned their business has been operating for about 38 years (including a period at Knott’s Berry Farm) and has been located in Old Town now for about 24 years.
For a few minutes I watched as Paul used a special carving tool to cut and curl back soft wax as he made an elaborate, very beautiful, multicolored candle. He told me he had about 8 minutes to complete the task, before the wax cooled and hardened. After carving a well at the top of the candle, he dipped his finished creation in clear wax, then a hard glaze.
Sometimes he’ll add shells or figurines to these decorative candles, to make them even more fantastic. I also learned that these fancy many-layered candles, which begin modestly as a solid mold, can take anywhere from 6 to 10 hours to create!
Outside the shop, tourists and curious passersby were watching KC dip taper candles. He’d dip each group of wicks, which are suspended vertically in a circle, about 30 to 35 times, depending on the outdoor temperature. He was careful not to leave the forming candles in the hot wax for too long. After the candles grew in girth to the correct size, he removed the excess wax for future use, and used scissors to cut the candles free, as you can see in my last photo!
Toby’s Candle and Soap Shop is located in the historically and architecturally important Sessions Building, which was designed by renowned San Diego architect Richard Requa. Learn more about it here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! 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 photos for you to enjoy!
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