Spreading cheer and good deeds in San Diego.

Birds take flight above palm trees in downtown San Diego.
Birds take flight above palm trees in downtown San Diego.

The astonishing success of this modest blog is hard to believe. Thank you.

This blog’s purpose is simple. It is to enjoy San Diego, to spread a little sunshine, and to help people who are doing good deeds or undertaking worthy causes.

Here are a few charities and positive organizations that would be grateful for your assistance.

Please click to learn more:

Please help Stuff the Bus to fight hunger!

Foster homes needed for loving San Diego cats!

Free books for teachers, schools, hospitals and prisons.

Ocean Beach Public Library needs activism and help!

Big red shoes help families heal in San Diego!

San Diego walking superheroes fight brain tumors!

The Salvation Army celebrates service in San Diego.

Spreckels Organ raises funds for Operation Rebound.

Cool Corvette car show benefits San Diego USO.

Art made of coins helps Rady Children’s Hospital!

Glean Queens of San Diego need your help!

Help Westview High School Music Outreach succeed!

Fill the Boot in San Diego to help burn victims!

San Diego breast cancer walkers: the final mile!

Wasted grocery food turns to art in Balboa Park.

20 Ways To Help the Homeless in San Diego.

Kids’ NewsDay benefits Rady Children’s Hospital!

Photos of cool pancake fundraiser on the OB Pier!

Photos of Coastal Cleanup Day in Ocean Beach!

Habitat for Humanity builds a house downtown!

San Diegans donate used textiles for charity.

Here are a few more thoughts about why I blog:

Writing a blog opens up an amazing world.

To enjoy future posts, you can “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.

Three sides of fun now served by silly blogger.

Squid with top hat and cane entertains passersby on a Hillcrest utility box.
Squid with top hat and cane entertains passersby on a painted Hillcrest utility box.

I can be lazy. When I began this blog I was often lazy. On a fine October day back in 2013…I was lazy.

I blogged about one funny image on a utility box in Hillcrest. But every side of the box is covered with entertaining street art. Silly me. Time to rectify the problem…

This alien came to Earth for a martini.
This alien came to Earth for a martini.
Lady in kimono enjoys hot tea by a volcano in San Diego.
Lady in kimono enjoys hot tea by a volcano.

To enjoy future posts, you can “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook. or follow me on Twitter.

Writing a blog opens up an amazing world.

Birds take flight above palm trees in downtown San Diego.
Birds take flight above palm trees in downtown San Diego.

This is my 500th post. I can’t believe it.

When I started writing this blog on a lark about a year and a half ago, it was a puny little creation, and I hadn’t a clue where it would take me. Alas, after many hours pounding away at the old keyboard, I haven’t earned one thin dime. But that’s perfectly fine. The riches I’ve received are immaterial, and far greater.

Writing a blog–one that involves photography in particular–opens your eyes, enhances your appreciation of all that is around you. To chronicle a walk through this world, one must carefully experience each step and turn curious eyes everywhere. One must note light, depth, and the color of things. One must listen to others. If I hadn’t begun to meander about San Diego purposefully, searching for “cool” material, I might never have seen some hidden rainbows. Or a small bit of street art. Or dogs surf.

Writing a blog encourages creativity. It’s casual and conversational. There’s no need to fret too much about editing. Readers are just friends. So you can yap freely and let the mind flow. I’ve always been a fan of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. His great book Zen in the Art of Writing talks about the power of just letting thoughts flow, uninhibited, like gushing water from a wildly whipping dangerously uncontrolled hose. That water will irrigate one’s life, and the lives of others who are splashed.

Writing a blog leads the author to be more honest. More understanding. More compassionate. More vulnerable. Writing a blog, giving birth to a few silly words, expands the soul.

Thanks for coming along on my walks!

Where will I go today? I have a bit of an idea, but I’m not certain. Time propels us forward into the unknown. If you’d like, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr!

Follow me to see Balboa Park’s theatres.

view from el prado of conrad prebys theatre center

Join me as we walk east through Balboa Park. Having passed the Museum of Man, we now turn north to peer through an archway that leads to three of San Diego’s most prominent theatres. They are the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, and the world-famous, much celebrated Old Globe Theatre. The latter is modeled after the original Globe Theatre in London, where William Shakespeare saw many of his own plays performed. Just a sliver is visible in this photo, on the left.

In the next blog post we will proceed through the archway…

Another pic taken from an archway on the opposite side of El Prado.
Another pic taken from an archway on the opposite side of El Prado.

Animal rights poster features cute pig.

animal rights poster features cute pig

I intend to keep this blog non-political. I’m just going post images that look interesting, unusual or visually appealing. Life is full of complexity and surprises.

Well, here’s a poster for an animal rights event that I discovered stuck to a traffic light post in Hillcrest that is definitely unusual! It features a cute farm pig. Perhaps I’ll make it to the event to take photographs of the protesters. That oughta be interesting!

So now I have a picture of a farm tractor and a pig in cultivated Hillcrest. What is the world coming to?

Space flight on a city street.

space flight on a city street

Street art flourishes on the sidewalks of San Diego. Many electrical transformers and utility boxes have been creatively painted to represent colorful scenes both real and imagined. Most have a primitive or folk art vibe. I’ll snap lots of photos for this blog!

Here’s a box downtown at Sixth Avenue and Elm Street that features an airplane and space shuttle zooming above clouds between planet Earth, the Sun and the Moon. At least, that’s what it looks like to me!

Colorful space imagery on a third side.
Colorful space imagery on a third side.