From the South Bay to the World Series, a very special exhibit at the New Americans Museum.
It’s been over five years already? Time flies!
I can still remember the excitement throughout San Diego as a bunch of local kids stole our hearts and battled their way to become Little League World Series Champions in 2009!
During my visit to the New Americans Museum today, I checked out a special exhibit which relives and commemorates the historic victory. The Park View team, based in Chula Vista, California (in San Diego’s South Bay not far from the Mexican border), scored a dramatic, storybook 6-3 come-from-behind victory over Chinese Taipei.
Super cool!
San Diegans rooted for our local kids as they battled the world’s best baseball teams.Photo shows President Obama honoring the 2009 Little League World Series champs.Memorabilia on display in San Diego museum recalls the historic victory of young Park View baseball players.Park View Little League 2009 coach Ric Ramirez talks with visitors at New Americans Museum exhibit.Kids from San Diego’s proud Chula Vista community won the 2009 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
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Looking up through the elegant building entrance at the lobby’s ceiling.
The John D. Spreckels Building (not to be confused with the Spreckels Theater Building also located on Broadway) is a cool sight that is definitely worth a few photographs. When it was completed in 1924, the stately 14-story building was the tallest in San Diego. Today, according to an article I read, there are plans to convert it into apartments.
Built by sugar heir, entrepreneur and philanthropist John D. Spreckels, the historic building is one of only a few old high-rises that grace San Diego. The building isn’t terribly distinctive or flashy, but it certainly is monumental. Simple lines give it a feeling of grandeur and permanence. The small entrance, to my eye, is uncommonly elegant.
Front of the John D. Spreckels Building as seen from across Broadway.Pointing my camera upward for a cool photo.Beautiful ornamental artwork at the door of 625 Broadway in San Diego.Elegant old clock mounted on corner of the John D. Spreckels Building.This classy historic high-rise adds unique flavor to a shiny modern city.
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San Diego Costume Guild members help Balboa Park celebrate its centennial.
Today a really cool event was held in San Diego called the Balboa Park Centennial Informal Gathering. A bunch of history lovers, park supporters, assorted clubs and organizations (including the San Diego Costume Guild) gathered together in Balboa Park and everyone wore period attire. The idea was to recreate what Balboa Park might have looked like one hundred years ago, when the 1915 Panama-California Exposition opened.
During my walk through the park, I saw folks everywhere wearing fancy dresses and hats . . . carrying parasols . . . sporting old-fashioned police and military uniforms . . . wearing suffragette sashes or steampunk goggles . . . riding high-wheeled penny-farthing bicycles . . . and lots of puzzled tourists looking about in complete astonishment. It was great!
Balboa Park Centennial Celebration marks the 100 year anniversary of an amazing place.Folks in old-fashioned dresses and nostalgic garb were walking up and down El Prado.This 19th century fashion predates 1915, the year of the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park,Two elegant ladies paused to smile for my camera in the park’s big central plaza.Some people dressed for the occasion were enjoying the warm San Diego sunshine.Lots of very fancy hats could be seen everywhere I turned.Later in the afternoon, folks wearing historical costumes would reenact a political march supporting Votes For Women.Two suffragettes with Votes For Women sashes follow a guy dressed in World War I era military uniform.Back in 1915, the right for women to vote was an important issue and movement.A display in the Balboa Park Club building included Women’s Rights memorabilia from a hundred years ago.A few people sported steampunk goggles. Event participants converged on the International Cottages lawn area.Visitors from Balboa Park’s past seem to come to life before my very eyes.A bustle of Victorian activity in front of the House of England cottage.
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Welcome to the City of Encinitas, home of sun, surf, cool sights, and a wonderful endless summer.
Here’s just a bunch of cool pics from my weekend walk around Encinitas. I mostly stuck to Coast Highway 101, often referred to as Pacific Coast Highway, south of Encinitas Boulevard. I also took a short stroll along Cottonwood Creek down to beautiful Moonlight Beach, and a short walk to the D Street Viewpoint.
Surfer crossing sign on Pacific Coast Highway near trail to Moonlight Beach.Approaching Moonlight Beach along Cottonwood Creek trail.Path down to concession stand at beautiful Moonlight Beach.Just another perfect day at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, California.Gazing a short distance along the coast from a scenic overlook point.Sign on Pacific Coast Highway explains history and importance of Cottonwood Creek.Photograph of Cottonwood Creek nature trail from Pacific Coast Highway.Heading down old Coast Highway 101. Sculpture on street side is titled Encinitas Child, by artist Manuelita Brown.Pacific Coast Highway through Encinitas won Great American Main Street award in 2004.Coast Highway 101 is one of the most amazing drives, especially through San Diego’s North County.Cool sights as I walked included this big peace sign and tie dye design.The big Encinitas landmark sign over South Coast Highway 101.Colorful murals along the sidewalk in this happy, carefree beach town.Public art shows sailors running their boat to shore through breakers.Lots of small shops, eateries and galleries line Pacific Coast Highway.Classic image on building shows surfer and his longboard.Cool street art on side of business just off Pacific Coast Highway.Electrical transformer box decorated with sun, surf and guitar.People wait at Swami’s pedestrian crossing, with exotic golden domes of the Self-Realization Fellowship across PCH in the background.Elephant mosaic on side of Self-Realization Fellowship gift shop.Java Hut is a typical little beachy place.Funky art along sidewalk is hung about a cactus.Bikes and surfboards are abundant in sunny Encinitas.Tile art on trash can depicts the D Street Viewpoint.Photo of wooden stairs down to beach from D Street Viewpoint. Don’t you wish you were here?
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Kids learn about electronics by combining fun pieces from a kit, creating circuits.
Today I checked out a truly amazing event! Expo Day capped off the week-long San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering (formerly known as the San Diego Science Festival), and brought out thousands of families and kids, eager to learn about science. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education, was Expo Day’s principal focus. The seventh annual event nearly burst the seams of downtown’s big Petco Park stadium. There were so many cool exhibits, so much stuff to see, I only managed to experience about half of it! My poor old brain nearly exploded!
Here is a bit of what I saw!
Exhibitor map for the huge Expo Day, concluding event of the San Diego Festival for Science and Engineering.Lots of folks inside Petco Park (baseball stadium of the San Diego Padres) learn about science.This kid is way more interested in a map to cool science stuff than boring bags of cotton candy!A robot was moving mysteriously about, amusing people who were just walking along the concourse.Group demonstrates the structure of some common molecules.The STEM event focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education.Investigating organisms one might find in a mud flat.This balloon soon rose on a column of air and floated out of the tube!Young inventors assemble unique creations using all sorts of ordinary materials.Understanding genetic attributes using Boolean logic. Sounds complicated!Youth would attempt to break a Guinness World Record at Second Hour of Code mass coding event led by a Microsoft professional.I’ve never seen so many hands on experiments in one place!Don’t mess with this guy. He’s a super cool scientist dude!Kids test out non-Newtonian fluids which seem to harden like rubber when struck.Young scientific explorers are shown how to build their own spectroscope! And to think I was confounded by my Etch A Sketch!Test your own mental cognition and speak these colors really fast for yourself!Oh, man! Check this weird elephant out! I love optical illusions!This fancy lab aquarium acts as a flume, used to test the motion of fish and their muscular development.Pointing out a butterfly in a carefully classified collection.Wow! These youngsters are building DNA models! That’s way beyond me!Learning how smoking exposes people to all sorts of toxic chemicals.Girl learns about gyroscopes and angular momentum with a spinning bicycle tire.Some students built cool models of futuristic cities.Awesome robots were all over the place!People were jumping about as this robot dashed about scooping stuff up.This robot participates in the Lego League, trying to score points on an unusual course.This is a mechanical, computerized Rubik’s Cube solver that detects color.Looking down into Petco Park’s Power Alley, where more STEM exhibits were located.Lots of animal life on display included this beautiful long-nosed snake.Lady demonstrates how bio fuels are refined using filtration.Christmas lights helped to teach about energy conservation.Tens of thousands turned out for the big San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering Expo Day.Many businesses were showing their products, discoveries and technological advances.AirZooka vortex generator shoots circular pulse of air at the shimmer wall!This automated machine helps prepare lab samples in medical facilities.Kids left notes on a wall with their bright ideas.Planting some tomato seeds, to watch them sprout and grow at home!More kids making complex molecules with colored marshmallows! I guess they’ll be future scientists!Some art was being created to accompany all the science and technology stuff.This guy uses electromagnetism to launch cans skyward and splatter cucumbers!Petco’s sunny Park at the Park was jammed with families enthused by education.Demonstrating maglev (magnetic levitation) using eddy currents.Young people write down what they like about science!Young astronomers duplicate the colors of an enhanced surface image of asteroid Vesta.This NASA inflatable is the actual size of the Curiosity rover now on Mars.Everyone is fascinated by a cool NASA photograph of the surface of Mars.A member of the next generation lays his hands on our planet.
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Someone displays a cool-looking drone and describes its operation.
While drones might not be delivering pizzas anytime soon, they do make for an interesting hobby. I could clearly see that when I wandered into a cool event by sheer chance. International Drone Day was celebrated today at the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego field near Mission Bay.
I was walking along the San Diego River Trail when I glimpsed something strange flying about behind a line of trees. Whatever it was didn’t behave like a bird. I had to go investigate!
What I discovered was a large gathering of electric drone hobbyists. They were flying their unique propeller aircraft, checking out different equipment, and enjoying hot dogs out in the San Diego sunshine!
In the event you pass by one day, the small field is located on the north side of Sea World Drive, just east of SeaWorld. I had visited once before, the day I blogged about birdwatching along the river estuary. On that day RC model aircraft were circling in the sky. I’ve added one pic from that visit, as you’ll see.
International Drone Day in San Diego brought out a bunch of serious hobbyists.A quad hovers above the special flying area on a breezy day near Mission Bay.People checked out drones of every size and description.A smaller drone displayed on a table.This larger drone was designed to be aerodynamic.Drone builders and enthusiasts were in heaven in San Diego today.It looks like high-tech drones have replaced humans already!This field is used by Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego, and their radio-controlled aircraft.Guy sets his drone down in preparation for a demonstration.A crowd watches the action. My camera barely captured one distant craft in flight.Other days, electric-powered RC model airplanes take off and glide from this field.I took this photo on a prior occasion. That radio-controlled plane is huge!Drone on the ground makes for a cool, futuristic pic.Club members prepare their drones for the High Noon “All Up”!
At noon, all the drones took to the air at once! Unfortunately, my pics of the spectacle came out pretty lousy. So use your mind’s eye! According to the announcer, 32 drones hovered above the field at one time. The San Diego team’s High Noon “All Up” took place simultaneously with 150 other teams celebrating International Drone Day around the world.
What will I discover next? It seems that anything is possible!
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View of the Quince Street Trestle from a spot on Fourth Avenue.
Many nature hikes can be enjoyed in Balboa Park. But there’s another beautiful, quiet hike through date palms and eucalyptus trees and bright spring flowers that anyone can enjoy just a few blocks north of downtown San Diego.
The Maple Canyon Trail stretches from a trailhead near Quince Street and Third Avenue on Bankers Hill to a second trailhead at Maple Street and Dove Street in Middletown. It often seems that the only people who use the trail are dog walkers and joggers who live nearby. Those who haven’t hiked this easy trail are missing out on a unique experience. The Maple Canyon Trail passes under two cool historic bridges!
The Quince Street Trestle is a visually interesting wooden footbridge that was built in 1905. Back then streetcars ran up Fourth Avenue, and the trestle allowed pedestrians to cross the steep canyon from the west. A quarter century ago the bridge, weakened by termites and rot, was closed and almost demolished. Local residents took up the cause of saving the bridge, which was finally declared a historic site.
The Maple Canyon Trail also passes beneath the impressive First Avenue Bridge. The arched steel bridge was built in 1931 and was originally known as the Peoples Bridge. Its astonishing height above the trail is a reminder of San Diego’s unique geology. Southern California’s coastal region is crisscrossed in many places by deep, narrow canyons, which often serve as undeveloped habitat for native species of plant and animal life.
Small cabinet at end of footbridge contains books that people can freely borrow!Walking across the very cool historic trestle on Bankers Hill.Looking down from trestle at dogs and walker passing through the canyon below.This super cool condo is located near the Third Avenue trailhead.Maple Canyon Open Space sign near trailhead on Bankers Hill.Looking up at the wooden footbridge from the quiet footpath on a sunny day.Wood beams compose the high trestle.Grass and spring flowers line the Maple Canyon Trail.Some interesting houses can be seen up on the hillsides.Here comes the First Avenue Bridge beyond a eucalyptus tree.This elegant old steel bridge has very limited motor traffic.
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Derek McAlister prepares to open his amazing act with some fire juggling at Seaport Village beside the Marriott Marina.
Rubber chickens were flying this afternoon. There seemed to be a whole flock of them at the Seaport Village Spring Busker Festival! The event continues into this evening, and then more acts follow tomorrow. If you’re in San Diego, check it out!
My favorite performer was Murrugun the Mystic. This is why.
All of the buskers were fantastic! Many of these pics were taken from a bit of a distance, but they provide a taste of the fun…
Derek McAlister climbs a 20-foot Chinese pole and performs fantastic aerial acrobatics at the Spring Busker Festival.Street performers had exciting shows all day at two plazas in Seaport Village. Tomorrow, too!Alex Clark, with training from Cirque Du Soleil, balances atop ladder while juggling knives.Girl throws rubber chicken up to plunger-headed, unicycle-riding “Groovy” Guy Collins, who has starred on the Travel Channel.The Frisbee Show featured juggler and comedian Greg Frisbee.Boy volunteer balances two spinning balls atop two rubber chickens!CREW is a San Diego-based percussion group that creates super cool music with everyday objects.Unusual instruments produce fun beats as busker festival visitors sit in sunshine by San Diego Bay.Some important tools of the busker trade.The Checkerboard Guy David Aiken had everyone laughing with his funny antics!
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Colorful splash of paint on a wall. THE END IS LATE… (AND I WAS PREPARED)
The other morning I took a stroll down Ninth Avenue in downtown San Diego, from the top of Cortez Hill south to hip East Village. My camera was out and ready. Here are a few fun photos that I took as I sauntered through East Village!
Big fuzzy pink gorilla in the Car2Go window.Art that opens eyes. COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERSMessage shouted from store’s rooftop. JUICE SAVESHiatt House, 1886. A tiny place with ample charm (and history).
The Hiatt House, located in East Village near Petco Park, used to contain a cool little eatery named Café Noir. That was a few years ago. According to an article I read, during the first part of the 20th century it was home to several generations of a Japanese-American family. The grounds have also been the site of horse stables and a blacksmith’s shop, and the Latonia Hotel, a modest room-and-board for colored people back in the days of racial segregation. Today the Hiatt House serves as a psychiatrist’s office.
Humulus lupulus (hops) gracefully drape green utility boxes.
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Giant crane in Petco Park’s outfield has installed a huge new scoreboard!
As you might have read in my last blog post, this morning I walked around Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. Guess what I saw! An absolutely hugemungous, super ginormous new scoreboard has been installed for the upcoming 2015 season! The high resolution board is the third largest in Major League Baseball, surpassed in size only by videoboards in Seattle and Kansas City. With a screen so big, why bother watching the action on the field? (Just kidding.)
I noticed a variety of other preparations underway around San Diego’s cool downtown stadium. Here are a few more pics…
This massive high resolution videoboard is the third largest in Major League Baseball!Guys get some ticket readers ready for the upcoming 2015 baseball season.Hosing down seats behind the Beach. The ball field is being prepped for professional baseball after the recent Monster Jam event.
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Cool San Diego Sights! 