People play on the sandy volleyball courts at South Mission Beach, north of the jetty.
Yesterday I walked through South Mission Beach near the jetty. I got lots of fun, sunny photos for you to enjoy!
Riding a bike through South Mission Beach on a perfect San Diego day.The Mission Beach boardwalk, which passes many small colorful houses and condos, is popular with bicyclists and pedestrians.One of the cool beachfront properties on South Mission Beach. Many are available as vacation rentals.A row of lifeguard towers. It’s winter in San Diego. During the summer these lookouts will be arranged at intervals along the beach.Heading south along the path, approaching palm trees and the parking lot at the jetty.A beautiful day for a bike ride.These people have paused to look at the nearby grass.Guys play in the sun at the basketball court.On the beach, a lifeguard building with flag flapping in the sea breeze. Pacific Beach and La Jolla rise to the north.Families walk and play on the shore. The surf is gentle today.A seagull hangs out on a dune as surfers come in. The South Mission Beach jetty juts into the Pacific Ocean.Someone approaches the foot of the rock jetty, which guards the channel into Mission Bay. This cape is called Point Medanos.I stopped at the lifeguard emergency sign. Halfway down the jetty stands an old, abandoned bait shack, which appears like an arch that is covered with graffiti.Gulls wheel over the entrance channel as a boat comes into Mission Bay.Beyond this sailboat I see the long Ocean Beach Pier.Point Loma rises beyond a second jetty that juts from Hospitality Point, separating the Mission Bay entrance channel from the San Diego River.People are also out and about in Ocean Beach enjoying the sunny day. I see a few pooches running freely about Dog Beach.Several fishermen were casting into the blue water from the rocks.Now I’m circling back on North Jetty Road heading for the boardwalk. A cool windblown tree and flowers in the sand.Like paradise on Earth.I love this place!
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A friendly dog welcomes people walking past the front door of an East Village business.
Just a quick, fun blog post!
I snapped these four photos during various walks–don’t ask me when. Without further ado, meet eight friendly dogs!
Bum, San Diego’s official town dog in the late 19th century. You can find this small sculpture inside the House of Scotland cottage in Balboa Park.A friendly dog in the passenger sear of a cool hot rod in Ocean Beach.Five dogs ride in a car in an Ocean Beach community mural.
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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!
A barely visible SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 rises above Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship!
My plan this cold, partly cloudy morning was to head down to San Diego’s Embarcadero to hopefully photograph today’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch.
I did manage to catch an image of the rocket’s flight, but it’s so tiny you can barely make it out! I suppose I should get a fancier, more powerful camera. Can you see the faint white streak in the above photo?
The Falcon 9 launch was from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Santa Barbara, about 280 miles from San Diego. To my naked eye, for a few seconds, I could see the minuscule rocket soar into the sky, through the rigging of the world’s oldest active sailing ship, Star of India!
Star of India, originally named Euterpe, is an iron-hulled merchant ship that was built in 1863. Driven by capricious winds, the tall ship circumnavigated the globe 21 times during her storied history.
Falcon 9 is a technologically impressive space launch vehicle. During today’s mission a reused Falcon 9 lifted Spain’s advanced radar satellite Paz into a Sun-synchronous orbit of Earth.
As the satellite effortlessly orbits our planet, it will track ships that ply the ocean–ships that trace their own proud history back to the Age of Sail, when brave vessels like Star of India pushed forward to new horizons.
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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!
Bright new LimeBike smart bicycles have suddenly appeared in downtown San Diego!
Look what I discovered as I walked down Cedar Street to the Little Italy trolley station this morning. A bunch of identical lime green bicycles were waiting in a row on the sidewalk!
Upon closer inspection, I saw these bikes can be rented simply by unlocking them with a smartphone. And riders pay only one dollar per half hour! Very affordable!
LimeBike has just announced the introduction of their smart pedal bikes into downtown San Diego. That must explain why I’ve never them before.
In the future, I’ve learned they intend to introduce a fleet of Lime-E electric assist bikes and Lime-S scooters. Sounds like a great idea to me!
The 1st ride of a LimeBike is free! Renting one of these smart bikes costs only $1 per half hour.Instructions on a LimeBike show how to scan the QR code to unlock the bicycle.I found more LimeBikes parked on the sidewalk at the Little Italy trolley station!
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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!
A bit of Wordsworth poetry and a flower etched into concrete. One of many cool sights during a walk down Avenida de la Playa.
Last weekend I went for a short walk through another beautiful part of La Jolla. I headed from La Jolla Shores Drive down Avenida de la Playa all the way to the beach. (Then I turned south and walked slowly over the sand to the tide pools. I’ll post photos of my beach walk later.)
Let’s head west down the street and enjoy a few cool sights!
A funny sign on the sidewalk near Cooper’s Market and Cafe. Look Morty, they have carbs and caffeine!Art on wall of Everyday California Adventures and Apparel shows a bear carrying a surfboard.Painted artwork on west side of Galaxy Taco includes colorful, strung Mexican papel picado. One of the Murals of La Jolla. Demos Gracias, Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia, 2016. Galaxy Taco’s colorful mailbox with their menu.Surf’s up. One of many underfoot messages in panels of concrete near the corner of Avenida de la Playa and Paseo del Ocaso.Someone has rented a stand up paddleboard at La Jolla Kayak. It’s a short distance to the beach from here.Looking west down Avenida de la Playa during a pleasant Saturday walk in laid-back La Jolla Shores.Barbarella Restaurant and Bar has a huge wing corkscrew sculpture with human feet!I’m not tired yet, but here’s a cool bench with seahorses and shells.Carrying paddleboards west toward the nearby beach. Kayaking in the Pacific Ocean off La Jolla is also very popular.Ocean Girl with heart.Build your own ice cream sandwich. Very tempting!After a short, fun walk, we’ve reached the beach!
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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!
One side of an electrical box on University Avenue at Interstate 805. This particular art closely resembles other examples I once photographed in National City.
Check out a whole bunch of super cool photos! All this awesome street art was encountered during a short walk in City Heights.
I began on University Avenue near I-805, walking east along the sidewalk on the south side. Then I crossed at 35th Street and headed back west down the sidewalk on University Avenue’s north side.
Enjoy!
Another side of the same box. Weird humanoid figures seem composed of fluid ink.Urban artwork that seems both ancient and futuristic. Strange geometric patterns in these figures appear symbolic.The fourth side of the box.Cool mural in City Heights on the side of the Teros Gallery. Journey Within Through the Sea of Soul, by Celeste Byers and Aaron Glasson, depicts the gallery owner riding a Chihuahua ship on a distant planet upstream into herself!Walking east down University Avenue I spied more street art on electrical boxes.A young girl, and a young boy with binoculars.A man and small child together ride a motorcycle.A face looks upward.Another young face, and a sitting girl reaching for what appears to be a pencil.This trash can at a bus stop was brightly decorated by a street artist.More fun street art, near the corner of University Avenue and 35th Street.A funny dog appears to be assailed by a crazy bird.More humorous faces and birds.I’ve crossed the street and am heading back west. I noticed this colorful tower to the south features references to both City Heights and Cherokee Point, a neighborhood south of University Avenue.Before crossing the street I spied this fun street mural near another bus stop.Now that I’m walking next to it, I can really enjoy this sun and pink flamingo. Both are wearing sunglasses. By artist Gilly Bee, created for #TheAvenueMuralProject.I found another super cool mural on the side of The Kings Barbershop.The front of The Kings Barbershop was painted by DyseOne and Hasler.A very colorful mural on University Avenue in City Heights! I believe this bold spray paint art is fairly new.It’s the Tooth Fairy on the wall of North Park Dental! By artist Sand One, a Latina street artist from East Los Angeles.
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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!
Motion Pictures, Photography by Gjon Mili, is a free to the public exhibition inside the San Diego Museum of Art’s Gallery 15.
There is currently a free exhibition of Gjon Mili photography at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Gjon Mili was a photographer for Life magazine during the Golden Age of Photojournalism.
Born in Albania, Gjon Mili came to America to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he experimented with photography. As a photographer for Life, he captured a wide variety of action with his camera, including motion in sports and dance.
He was a pioneer in the use of stroboscopic light, stop-motion techniques, and other novel methods of photography. One famous innovation is his iconic light drawings. He also focused on jazz performance, and the work of contemporary artists, such as Picasso. In 1944 he filmed his first true motion picture, Jammin’ the Blues, after his passion for jazz was ignited by hosting a party that included Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie.
This very cool (and free) exhibition can be found in Gallery 15, through a door beside Panama 66 at the San Diego Museum of Art’s outdoor May S. Marcy Sculpture Court.
Here are a few photos to provide a hint of what you’ll see…
Long Island University basketball team demonstrates best scoring plays. Gelatin silver print, 1940.Gjon Mili (1904-1984), an immigrant from Albania, was a photographer for Life magazine. He could capture on one negative more grace and beauty than Hollywood cameramen could get on many feet of motion-picture film.Woman playing badminton. Gelatin silver print, 1945.Starting line for the sixty-yard hurdles of the Millrose Games. Gelatin silver print, 1948.Gjon Mili on the set of Jammin’ the Blues. Photographic reproduction, 1944.
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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!
A cool prism wall sculpture, beneath reflections of nearby downtown buildings.
Walk or drive in downtown San Diego past the corner of Broadway and Front Street, and you might glimpse rainbow colors splashed every which way!
For more than thirty years, a very cool sculpture has added surprising color and life to the public plaza at the entrance to 101 West Broadway. Titled Light, Rock and Water, the prism wall and accompanying elements were created by renowned New York artist Charles Ross. According to a small plaque, Ross has described his work as “cinematic in nature, seen as a sequence of spectrum images, some muted, some bright, but not all visible from any single vantage.”
I recently approached this public artwork and walked slowly all around it.
Here are some photos…
Walking along the public plaza near the corner of Broadway and Front Street in San Diego.This fantastic sculpture at 101 West Broadway attracts curious eyes with its changing prismatic colors.Light, Rock and Water, by Charles Ross, 1985. This is a prism wall environment with elements of light, rock and water. The renowned New York artist’s first outdoor sculpture.Light reflecting from and passing through the prism wall reflects from a basin of water.A cool optical sculpture which includes various natural physical elements.The colors of the visible spectrum appear like linear rainbows at one’s feet near this surprising sculpture.A colorful work of public art in downtown San Diego!
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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!
Workers install Jaume Plensa’s new sculpture Pacific Soul in the public plaza by the Pacific Gate condominium tower in San Diego.
This evening, after dark, I walked past the nearly completed Pacific Gate by Bosa condo tower and noticed an elaborate sculpture is being installed in the building’s public plaza near the corner of West Broadway and Pacific Highway.
I asked one of the workers about the artist and learned this new public art installation is the work of Jaume Plensa, the renowned Spanish artist whose monumental sculptures can be found in major cities and museums around the world. He designed the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
This new sculpture, which is titled Pacific Soul, looks intriguingly complex. According to one article I found, it’s inspired by the tangled roots of rainforest trees and is composed of stylized characters from diverse alphabets. When finished it will be about 25-feet tall and appear like a seated person gazing west toward the Pacific Ocean.
I think it’s going to be amazing! I can’t wait to see the finished work!
Pacific Soul by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, when completed, will be about 25-feet tall and appear like a seated person gazing west toward the ocean.
UPDATE!
I walked down Broadway to see what progress had been made on Friday morning–about two days later. Workers were getting ready to assemble large sections of the monumental sculpture. Here are some photos…
Sign explains that you are viewing the installation of Pacific Soul by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. (Click image to enlarge the sign for easy reading.)Worker installs Pacific Soul in the public plaza by the new Pacific Gate high-rise condos in San Diego.
ANOTHER UPDATE!
On Saturday the several sections of Pacific Soul had been pieced together. I was told the sculpture will be lit at night from below, and that people will be able to walk through it!
More photos…
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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!
As I headed off to work early this morning, I felt compelled to walk down Seventh Avenue past the El Cortez.
This morning I walked down from Cortez Hill to catch a trolley for work. I had no set plan. I had ample time. Any downtown trolley station would be just fine.
My feet followed my wandering eyes.
The San Diego Symphony has a brand new banner on the west side of Symphony Towers. Find Your Music.Almost to B Street. Some cool reflections produced by the early sunlight.This reflection of a tree on windows seems dreamlike, unreal.The old Centre City Building might have peeling paint, but it still rises handsomely into the San Diego sky. One edge is touched by the morning sun.The cool old Caliente ad remains on the rear of the abandoned California Theatre building. I don’t know if it will be preserved when the historic building makes way for a new 40-story The Overture high-rise.Shall I catch a trolley at the Civic Center station? Nah. I still have plenty of time.Workers were cleaning awnings over the ground floor windows of the U.S. Grant Hotel.As I walked along Broadway past some construction, it looks like I frightened a couple of people!The brand new San Diego Central Courthouse behind the Hall of Justice provides an interesting photographic opportunity.Almost to Santa Fe Depot. Just missed a Green Line trolley. I’ll wait for the next one.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 