Look what’s coming next Saturday, December 7th in Oceanside! A big, holiday craft and book sale that benefits the Oceanside Public Library!
Need some special Christmas gifts? From 10 am to 4 pm, the Civic Center Library’s community rooms and courtyard will be bursting with hand-crafted items for sale that were donated by volunteers and library staff. And there will be hundreds of books and DVDs for a mere $1 each!
There will also be a silent auction for a local Airbnb stay and much more, all donated by local Oceanside businesses!
Finish up your holiday shopping in one easy trip! (And, while you’re there, check out the library’s dinosaur Christmas tree and other super fun decorations!)
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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 X.
A free holiday event is coming soon to San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood! A big Winter Extravaganza will be held at Teralta Park from 12 noon to 5 pm on Saturday, December 14, 2024!
Teralta Park is the public park above Interstate 15, between El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue.
According to a poster I noticed today, the community event will feature Winter fun, vendors, entertainment, activities & games, snow, and more!
During the Winter Extravaganza, families can also receive free toys for kids, age 0-14, but you must register first by November 8 at the City Heights Recreation Center or the Mid-City Gymnasium.
Wow! This looks pretty cool! I wonder if Santa will be there?
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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 public park clean-up event will take place this weekend in downtown San Diego. Neighbors will be coming together to beautify the Tweet Street linear park on Cortez Hill!
You are encouraged to join the community volunteer effort! It’s led by the Cortez Hill Active Residents Group (CHARG).
I saw the above flyer posted at one end of Tweet Street Park. The beautification project takes place on Saturday, November 16th, 2024.
Meet at the corner of 9th Avenue and Date Street, near the playground. Equipment will be provided! Downtown San Diego’s Clean and Safe Program will be on hand to help out!
Very cool!
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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.
Attention holiday shoppers! The big annual Balboa Park craft sale is fast approaching!
San Diego’s AgeWell Services Craft Sale will be held at the Casa del Prado next weekend, November 16 and 17, 2024, from 9 am to 3 pm each day.
Senior crafters (age 60 and better) will be displaying handmade goods inside Room 101 and on the two outdoor patios.
The family friendly event is free to the public!
So mark your calendars! Then make sure to come on down to Balboa Park to discover beautiful crafts and works of art made with loving hands. You’ll find heartwarming Christmas presents for loved ones–or for yourself!
You’ll be rewarding creative seniors in our San Diego community, too!
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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.
Would you like to help people in your community who are hungry this holiday season? It’s easy for you, your organization or business to start a holiday food drive! The San Diego Food Bank makes it super simple!
A box or tub placed where people congregate can be filled with items like canned foods, peanut butter, pasta, rice, cereal and oatmeal. It’s easy to print out a poster like the one you see above, downloadable from the San Diego Food Bank website here.
Once filled, the container can be picked up for free by the food bank. Or you can drop it off anytime Monday through Friday, 8 am – 12 pm or 1 pm – 4 pm at the San Diego Food Bank address, which is 9850 Distribution Ave., Dock 0, San Diego, CA 92121
If you anticipate a large amount of donated food, the food bank will happily lend you a big collection barrel. Barrel delivery and pickup by the food bank is free! Can you fill multiple barrels? That would be awesome!
Don’t have a good place for a container or barrel? You can also host a virtual food drive!
Find detailed information about hosting your own special food drive by visiting the San Diego Food Bank website here.
Why not make this holiday season extra meaningful? It’s so easy!
Look! We started a food drive today where I work!
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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.
Día de los Muertos at the Sherman Heights Community Center has become one of the most anticipated Day of the Dead celebrations in San Diego. In 2024 the week-long event turned thirty years old.
The many traditional altars inside the community center, erected by local families and organizations, remember loved one who are deceased. All around the center a joyful festival is enjoyed by families who engage in activities that celebrate life, past and present.
Walking the short distance from downtown to Sherman Heights, I arrived at the event yesterday.
I was fortunate to join a group that was touring the Día de los Muertos altars (ofrendas in Spanish). Daniel was explaining to several people (including folks from Germany) how these altars originated in Pre-Columbian times and evolved to include Catholic elements when Spain entered the American continent. Most of the altars include symbols of the four elements defined in ancient times: earth, water, fire and air.
In Mexican ofrendas today, earth is still represented by marigolds and offerings of food, water by drink, fire by candles, and air by papel picado, which flutters in a breeze.
Daniel explained that because Day of the Dead has universal themes–family, human mortality, the circle of life and love–and because of commercialization and the influence of popular culture, the holiday is spreading worldwide. He noted that other cultures have inserted their own special symbolism into Day of the Dead celebrations.
I took photographs of the many altars. Most were extremely elaborate.
So many loved ones that have passed on–but who live still in memory…
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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.
San Diego’s world-famous Old Globe performed Shakespeare’s play As You Like It today at downtown’s Central Library! It was just one stop during the 2024 Globe for All Tour, which brings fine theatrical performances to various economically, geographically, and culturally diverse communities throughout San Diego County, and even south of the border in Tijuana, Mexico.
I went to the free show, not knowing what it might be like, and WOW–what absolute fun!
The crazy, mixed-up play about rivalry, misunderstandings and triumphant love was full of physical comedy and outrageous action! The story included occasional audience participation (including holding up butterflies that we made), surprising and funny pop culture references, and even some spoken lines in Spanish. We in the audience were laughing much of the time. I loved the hilarious WWE-style wrestling match between the brothers Oliver and Orlando!
The experience was even more awesome because the professional acting, taking place in the library’s Shiley Special Events Suite, could be experienced up close and personal–just a few feet from the chairs where we sat. When the actors went “offstage” to corners of the room we could watch them, even as they changed costume.
After the conclusion of As You Like It, the audience was invited to make comments and ask questions of the cast.
Actress Emma Svitil (smiling in my first and final photo) played Phoebe. She explained that Shakespeare is loved to this day because his works tap into universal truths about humanity. He addresses love, friendship, the struggle for power, etc. His plays can be easily adapted to the times we live in. The Bard’s ingenious wordplay is amusing, too!
Everyone should take advantage of the free Globe for All Tour. Young people (and certain adults like myself) might not comprehend every word of Shakespeare’s centuries-old language, but the super expressive acting speaks for itself!
To see if there are upcoming performances of As You Like It in your community, click here.
Photography is prohibited during the performance, so I took these beforehand. The pics are of some actors and props. (As you can see, the Central Library’s ninth floor special events suite has amazing views of downtown San Diego!)
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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.
The San Diego Symphony has placed a community ofrenda in their box office lobby for Día de los Muertos. The beautiful Day of the Dead altar can be found inside the front entrance of downtown’s Symphony Towers. Step inside, turn left and you’ll see it.
The community ofrenda was designed by local Mexican-American artist Maricruz Alvarado. She has been creating beautiful ofrendas for 25 years.
(By the way, I recently posted photos of a gigantic skull that Maricruz made! See it by clicking here!)
Members of the community are invited to contribute photographs and other momentos to the San Diego Symphony ofrenda in memory of deceased loved ones.
I swung by for a look early this morning…
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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.
In September, this amazing new mural was painted on a long wall in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood, down in Swan Canyon.
Local muralist Shayne M. Oseguera (with the help of other artists and community volunteers, San Diego Parks and Recreation, and San Diego Canyonlands) created colorful scenes of nature in a place that is often beset by graffiti.
I hiked along trails through Swan Canyon to get close up photographs this afternoon. I’ll soon be posting a blog about my hike, with directions on how to get to the mural.
In the next two photographs, you can see the long mural from across the canyon. You can also see how concrete surfaces beneath and beside the mural have been tagged with graffiti.
Now, after my short hike, I’m standing right next to the artwork. The sun was very low, making photography a bit challenging, so most of my shots are at an angle.
Enjoy these beautifully painted images of native plants, birds and other life in Swan Canyon!
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 