Tag: convention center

123 photos of the 2022 Holiday Bowl Parade!

The Holiday Bowl Parade in San Diego is one of the most fun parades anywhere!

I’ve got 123 photographs that prove it!

It rained downtown during the night, but it never seems to rain on this magical parade! Overcast skies in the morning were perfect for the 5K runners, who got started down Harbor Drive a few minutes before the Holiday Bowl Parade would commence.

And then the parade began!

Giant balloon characters floated by. Marching bands from near and far boomed and trumpeted past. There were dancers, baton twirlers, lowriders, cosplayers, and even a group with a humorous synchronized surfboard routine!

Of course, both the Oregon Ducks and the North Carolina Tar Heels had their large marching bands and enthusiastic cheerleaders waving from atop floats. Many in the crowd cheered when their favorite university competing in this year’s Holiday Bowl passed by.

You’ll see that I walked behind the convention center where the balloons were inflated before the parade, then found a good spot near the beginning of the parade route.

I’m sharing 123 photos–so many it would be a chore to caption them all. Simply enjoy!

…

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 Twitter!

Cranes by Chula Vista park and marina.

Construction of the immense Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista is underway.

I was walking recently through Chula Vista’s Bayside Park, and out onto the peaceful Chula Vista Marina fishing pier when I took these photos.

The new resort and convention center is going to be gigantic. According to this article from last year, the total estimated cost for the resort hotel, convention center, parking structure and associated public infrastructure and parks is estimated to be approximately $1.23 billion. The plan is for the project to be completed in 2025. Fortunately, the long, grassy Bayside Park, at the edge of San Diego Bay, will remain open to the public.

About all I could see during my walk were these big cranes, some trucks, excavation machinery and mounds of dirt. The last couple photos were taken from the fishing pier, then from a point next to a sculpture called The Fisherman.

…

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 Twitter!

Celebrating life at the 2022 Transplant Games!

A big celebration of life is taking place this week in San Diego. People from around the United States have gathered at the San Diego Convention Center for the 2022 Transplant Games!

Organ transplant recipients and living donors are participating in a variety of fun sports competitions. As you can see in the above photograph, cycling 5 km and 20 km road races along Harbor Drive were part of today’s activities!

Through this Wednesday, the public is welcome to visit the Transplant Games Village and Expo, located in Exhibit Halls A and B at the convention center. There you can watch some indoor competitions, such as basketball and table tennis. For a schedule of events, click here.

Many organizations that help those in the transplant community are also present.

I met authors who’ve written books describing the whole transplant process, making it all easier to understand. Other creators have produced videos featuring loved ones who were helped, or who helped to save a life by making an organ donation.

I saw organizations that create online community, gather inspirational stories, or offer practical guidance and mental health services. Medical providers and pharmaceutical companies also had tables. All of these smiling people were there to offer critical help.

Near the entrance to the Transplant Games Village and Expo, several beautiful quilts remembered loved one.

Everywhere I turned, I observed people full of happiness, gratitude and hope, and a strengthened love of life.

I came away feeling inspired.

Smiles from The Mended Hearts. The non-profit works to inspire hope and improve the quality of life of heart patients and their families through ongoing peer-to-peer support, education, and advocacy.

Robert Horsey has written the book Gifted and is producing a video concerning the complex topic of organ donation. According to his website: Even the largest football stadium in the U.S. could not fit the number of people on the national transplant waiting list.

Many transplant stories pinned to a board, courtesy Balboa Nephrology and Evergreen Nephrology.

Author Brenda Cortez is a living kidney donor. She has written a series of Howl the Owl books making transplant and medical procedures less scary for kids.

The Joe 238 documentary celebrates the decision to donate. According to the website: Through multiple stories of grief and recovery, we learn about healthy grieving, what it means to be a donor family and plant the seed for an honest conversation about organ donation every family needs to have.

…

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!

Transplant Games come to San Diego!

The 2022 Transplant Games are being held this week in San Diego!

A big parade was held for participants this morning along Harbor Drive. (Which I just missed!)

This evening the Opening Ceremony will be held at the San Diego Convention Center.

As their website explains: Every two years the Transplant Games of America gathers together thousands of transplant recipients, living donors, donor families, individuals on the waiting list, caregivers, transplant professionals, supporters and spectators for the world’s largest celebration of life.

Transplant recipients and donors will compete in many different sporting events through this Wednesday. Most of the competition will be at the Convention Center. It will also be the location of the Transplant Games of America Village, and according to the Schedule of Events, the public is welcome!

I think I’ll go tomorrow. I’d like to watch a bicycling competition that will be held Sunday morning at Embarcadero Marina Park South, just behind the Convention Center.

Would you like to become involved–perhaps by becoming an organ donor yourself? Check out the 2022 Transplant Games web page here.

…

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!

A crazy, amazing Saturday at Comic-Con!

Walking on a Saturday near the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con is something you’ll never forget. It is one of the zaniest, most colorful, most fantastic experiences imaginable.

If you dislike crowds, you might disagree. If you’re delighted by a flood of human activity and creativity, you won’t mind an occasional bump or pause. Your eyes will be so preoccupied you probably won’t notice.

Cosplay is everywhere. Fifth Avenue near the Gaslamp Quarter arch is where you’ll likely see the most costumes.

Everywhere you turn there are a million things to see.

Enjoy a bunch of photos. Come walk with me…

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

…

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!

Thursday morning cosplay and fun outside Comic-Con!

It’s Thursday morning outside Comic-Con! The fun is ramping up!

I spotted more and more cosplay as fans streamed through the Gaslamp toward the San Diego Convention Center. Lines were already forming at the offsite activations, most of which open at ten o’clock. And a huge mass of humanity was crossing Harbor Drive, heading into their first day of Comic-Con!

I got a free NFT from those two guys above! They’re promoting a brand new game on Gamisodes called Inspector Gadget. (Which explains the very first photo of this blog post.)

Grab a redeemable card if you walk down MLK Promenade and happen to see a bunch of Inspector Gadgets!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

…

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!

Comic-Con 2022: the fun BEGINS!

It’s finally Preview Night at Comic-Con 2022. And the fun has already begun!

Crowds are gathering and offsite activations are nearly ready, or actually open in some cases, such as The Gray Man Training Program by NETFLIX.

A bit of cosplay is appearing here and there.

Lots of fans, many with swag bags slung over shoulders, are getting a peek inside the convention center, before Comic-Con “officially” begins tomorrow!

I walked around outside in the late afternoon with my camera to capture a little bit of the fun!

The crowd is growing in the afternoon of Comic-Con Preview Night. A photo past the Gaslamp Quarter arch toward the San Diego Convention Center.

The Hard Rock Hotel is now Lumon Industries of the Apple TV+ show Severance.

It’s Rocketeer! He’s on the cover of this year’s Comic-Con Souvenir Book. (Flying over the El Cortez Hotel, where Comic-Con got started years ago.)

Medieval figures mingle in front of the castle that promotes HBO’s upcoming House of the Dragon.

This would make for one very cool farmer’s market!

Miles Morales Spider-Man poses with a big smile! I think Spidey just defeated Mysterio.

A crowd oohs and ahhs at one of the Audible sand sculptures.

Folks were already lined up for The Gray Man offsite. I think these might have been media folk. I’m a mere blogger.

Run for it!

Looks at all the humanity near the San Diego Convention Center.

Watch out! It’s Saturnino with a head!

You might want to watch out for Chucky, too.

Herman Munster and pals are on the scene promoting COZI TV.

A hugemungous Sesame Street Mecha Builders inflatable Cookie Monster! Watch out for falling crumbs!

Someone said that’s Ozzy Osbourne. A super creepy version, I guess!

The Bob’s Burgers Movie activation on the grass near the Omni will be handing out free hamburgers starting Thursday! I’ll be there!

Just wait ’til you see the massive crowds starting tomorrow.

Fear not! Moon Knight and Doctor Strange are here to save the day!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

…

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!

Last minute frenzy as Comic-Con is almost here!

Less than a day to go until Comic-Con officially opens for 2022! As you might imagine, lots of people are bustling around trying to get their stuff ready!

Workers at many activations are in a hurry to complete the downtown “offsite” attractions that will welcome huge crowds beginning tomorrow.

I took one final long walk through the Gaslamp Quarter and around the San Diego Convention Center this afternoon to see what I might see..

Barriers are being set up on Fifth Avenue just north of the convention center. This section of street will be cosplay central beginning tomorrow!

Someone attached a memory from last year to the Tin Fish restaurant sign. This is where the SDCC Shrine was located during the two years Comic-Con was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An offsite by the Omni hotel is setting up. Looks pretty crazy at the moment.

And just down the walkway, Bob’s Burgers was setting up their Comic-Con activation.

Getting the Sanctum Sanctorum ready! A small offsite promotes the recent movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The hotel shuttle buses this year all have Amazon Prime Video wraps on them. This one promotes Invincible.

A helpful smile and an answer awaits!

A little detail work to ready the big FX offsite.

All sorts of graphics are now up at ABC’s Abbott Elementary offsite.

Oh, look! That is this year’s Adult Swim on the Green.

I’ll keep it a mystery.

Workers were putting up big graphics on the IMDboat.

Yikes!

Getting the Voodoo Ranger IPA “pirate ship” ready!

The Gray Man offsite is ready, just waiting for the big crowds tomorrow. I was told the race/obstacle course itself is relatively short. But once inside it’s definitely cool looking!

The Audible sand artists are running out of time!

A big smiling Franklin Armstrong has appeared on the windows of the Peanuts offsite.

A long banner has been added to the MLK Promenade side of the House of the Dragon.

And the front of the castle is beyond awesome. Look at those doors!

Getting the Dungeons & Dragons tavern ready. They better hurry up!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

…

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!

First in line for Comic-Con Hall H . . .

Early this afternoon, one day before 2022 Comic-Con officially gets underway, a small line had already formed behind the San Diego Convention Center.

Yes, this line will grow and grow and grow, and a large crowd will spend the night holding coveted positions, because the legendary Hall H is where the biggest pop culture panels are held.

This year there will be panels concerning Marvel and House of the Dragon and Black Adam and The Rings of Power . . . and no doubt big celebrities, huge surprises and blockbuster revelations!

First in the Hall H line gets first pick of seats to the biggest attraction at Comic-Con, which itself is the biggest fan convention in the world.

So who is first in line this year?

Joe!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

…

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!

Bugs Bunny came out of his hole this morning…

Bugs Bunny came out of his hole this morning, emerging on a sidewalk in San Diego. Walking around, chomping on a carrot, what did he see?

He saw that preparations for 2022 Comic-Con continue downtown at breakneck speed!

Among other things…

A big silver Vulcan salute will greet visitors to Star Trek’s cool Starfleet Outpost. Most Comic-Con offsites open to the public on Thursday. (I believe I saw this big hand at the Comic-Con Museum during their Gene Roddenberry exhibit.)

The second Severance building wrap on the Hard Rock Hotel is done. Looks like some coworkers I’ve known.

More photo op panels have appeared at the NBCU Corner.

Boxes full of Good Guys. The clerk needs to check the shelves. One isn’t completely unwrapped.

The Rookie wraps are completed, decorating Petco Park.

Many box trucks in line. It’s the Comic-Con move in at the San Diego Convention Center. Here come the big exhibitors!

The Bandai offsite behind the Marriott Marquis is taking form.

A wall provides the history of Dragon Ball films.

Very cool!

The Krapopolis super slide now has Greek graphics. Where are the oars?

The Gray Man offsite now has rubble.

The Audible sand sculptures, still being created, are like works of art.

Another amazing sand sculpture.

The Peanuts offsite activation on MLK Promenade will feature The Armstrong Project.

The House of the Dragon castle’s appearance just keeps getting more awesome. This might end up being one of the coolest ever Comic-Con offsites…

A very sedate, tranquil Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter, on a quiet Tuesday morning. That will change drastically in two days!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

…

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!