The Padres and Braves aren’t the only ones playing baseball today in San Diego. Firefighters from the Gaslamp Quarter’s Fire Station No. 4 took to the street just north of Petco Park to take a few swings of the bat!
Visiting firefighters from downtown’s big San Diego Fire Station No. 1 joined the action. I asked if batting in front of the Gaslamp fire station is a tradition. It is during big games, I learned. Well, there’s certainly a big game now underway: Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series! (And as I type this, the Padres have taken the lead!)
Now here came families down the sidewalk, and before you know it kids were trying their hand at hitting the wiffle balls. What fun!
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The excitement outside Petco Park just before Game 1 of the Major League Baseball Wild Card Series in San Diego was off the charts!
Smiles everywhere. As fans streamed toward the ballpark, I noted every sort of Padres jersey, hat, shirt. There were lots of excited kids about to make lifelong memories. (And the excitement is only growing! As I type this, the Padres lead Atlanta 3-0, and Tatis has hit a towering home run!)
Before the game began, I walked around Petco Park searching for fun photographs.
This is what I captured… (The next photo is actually from early this morning.)
Steven Woods and Ben Higgins smile for a photo during a break in their 97.3 FM morning show.Fans stream from a packed Green Line trolley at the Gaslamp station, an hour before the game.Many Friar Faithful have gathered at Bub’s.Keep Calm and Hate the Dodgers. (My supervisor at work might not like this!)Hand in hand, Padres fans walk down the sidewalk.Two cool Padres serapes!A big smile, ready to help fans as they arrive at Petco Park!Padres fans lean up against Padres players.Somebody had some extra tickets.Friendly reporters from FOX 5 and KUSI give me thumbs up!Check out this Dead Head Padres shirt!This guitarist had a very big audience!That is a super cool bike!And check out these shoes!San Diego Padres shoes!Heading toward Petco Park, anticipating a Padres victory against Atlanta!
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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.
Last week I was hurrying through downtown San Diego in the very early morning to catch a trolley for work, when I noticed a crane beside America Plaza, directly across Kettner Boulevard from Santa Fe Depot. Then I saw something strange.
Two submersibles were sitting on the sidewalk near the crane! I learned that they were to be lifted through a second floor window to become an exhibit inside the future Navy SEAL Museum San Diego!
It was too dark for my camera, unfortunately, and I couldn’t wait. But someone pointed out to me that graphics had been newly applied to the front of the museum.
The interior of the Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is presently under construction. The museum is scheduled to open next year.
I returned later to take these photographs in the daylight…
UPDATE!
Many new graphics have appeared in the following days! Navy SEAL images can now be found on all sides of the museum. Here are more photos…
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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.
2024 has been an amazing season for the San Diego Padres. 93 wins. 3,314,593 fans at Petco Park. 56 home sellouts.
This afternoon fans learned the Padres will be playing a home Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves, beginning tomorrow evening. Downtown San Diego and the Gaslamp will be going crazy.
Two themes are helping to motivate our team to victory in 2024. Fighting for the ever-patient, ever-hopeful, loudly cheering Friar Faithful. Winning for Peter Seidler.
You can see and feel it everywhere.
I walked around Petco Park late this afternoon with my camera. I noticed that anticipation is growing for the Padres Postseason at the ballpark and on the streets around it.
Do it for Seidler.
Let me share this downtown mural of Peter Seidler one more time. Fans can find it north of Santa Fe Depot…
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In this photograph and the next two, you can see art created by and artist who has been called “one of his era’s greatest sculptors.” Can you find it?
These photos were taken a couple days ago behind the old luggage terminal of Santa Fe Depot, in downtown San Diego. The historic terminal, needed back in the days when train travel was a very common mode of transportation, would become the downtown home of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. A year or so ago the museum moved entirely up to their beautiful La Jolla location.
What you see here is the patio between the old luggage terminal and a Santa Fe Depot trolley platform.
What are those metal cubes?
Those six large cubes, together weighing 156 tons, is an art installation commissioned by MCASD in 2004 titled Santa Fe Depot. The artist is Richard Serra.
Richard Serra was a giant in the art world. He died earlier this year, March 26, 2024, at the age of 85.
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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 Day of Music was held today at the San Diego Symphony’s newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. Artists and musicians from communities in San Diego and Tijuana gathered for the free cultural event!
Out in the Box Office Lobby, live performances would take place throughout the day. I listened for a minute or two, but I was anxious to see the inside of greatly redesigned Copley Symphony Hall–now called Jacobs Music Center. (I frequently walk past Symphony Towers, and have observed construction workers coming and going for years it seems now!)
After craning my head this way and that to take in the renovated stage, seating and other features of the historic venue, I settled down to enjoy a very fine hour-long performance by the 1st Marine Division Band out of Camp Pendleton. San Diego Symphony President and Chief Executive Officer Martha Gilmer, in her introduction, stated that the group is one of the finest military bands in the United States.
The 1st Marine Division Band played a variety of symphonic pieces, including Let Freedom Ring by Ryan Nowlin, Colonial Song by Percy Grainger, and an amazing, very energetic Slava! by Leonard Bernstein.
San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare came on stage to conduct a simply exquisite Concertino for Flute by Cecile Chaminade, with Ana Paola Rincones masterful on flute.
Of course, there had to be Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa. A rousing performance received a standing ovation!
According to the program, many performing groups would follow, including the San Diego Children’s Choir and the Voices of Our City Choir.
As you can see from my photographs, the interior of the Jacobs Music Center is more magical than ever. The completed renovation also included measures taken to greatly improve the listening experience–the very softest of notes can be discerned with crystal clarity.
On the sidewalk outside Symphony Towers, performers from Animal Cracker Conspiracy welcome arriving guests.The Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra creates beautiful music inside the Box Office Lobby.A smile greets me at the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra table!The Coronado School of the Arts has a theatrical performance of The Addams Family coming up! I learned Lurch is one of the characters!Joey’s Wings performs, in an effort to fight childhood cancer. (See my previous blog post.)Actors from Project [BLANK] perform in one corner of the San Diego Symphony concessions area. You provide the subject matter and they act it out!Here I am walking into the breathtaking Jacobs Music Center.Gazing to one side. Long ago, the San Diego Symphony’s home was a luxurious FOX Theatre movie palace. The skyscraper Symphony Towers was built above and around it!The 1st Marine Division Band takes the stage.All stand for the Star Spangled Banner.An outstanding musical performance by our local Marines.Looking up toward the balcony seating when the performance ends. The Jacobs Music Center is like a splendid palace.I’m now on the upper level looking down between performances. The general lighting has turned from blue to purple.Another look toward the ceiling. Wow.Our Youth, the next segment of the day’s program, is about to begin. It’s a free community Day of Music inside the spectacular Jacobs Music Center!
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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.
Seven young musicians performed today at the San Diego Symphony’s downtown Jacobs Music Center. The musicians represented Joey’s Wings. The mission of Joey’s Wings is to fund research that focuses on kidney cancers affecting children and young adults, raise awareness and provide support to families affected by childhood cancer.
Joey’s Wings was one of many community groups performing during the San Diego Symphony’s special free Day of Music at the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. I spotted the young musicians around noon performing for a gathered crowd in the Box Office Lobby.
At a nearby table, Kathy Liu, President and Founder of the organization told me briefly about Joey, her son who passed away from cancer at age ten. Joey started to play violin when he was six. He loved music and painting. Learn more about Joey here.
Friends of her second son, David, who are members of the San Diego Youth Symphony and Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra, came together to today make beautiful music. And to make the lives of people better.
As I understand it, the crocheted figures you see on the table were created by the mother of one young musician. I think I see San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare!
If you weren’t at the event today, and wish to help out, visit the Joey’s Wings website by clicking here.
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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 is making history today! Their redesigned, greatly renovated Copley Symphony Hall debuts this evening as the Jacobs Music Center! A big gala Opening Night Celebration will mark the exciting transformation!
If, like me, you are a more ordinary San Diego resident, tomorrow is our day! Beginning at 11 am, the San Diego Symphony will welcome the public to a free event inside the new Jacobs Music Center!
The Day of Music will welcome talented artists and arts organizations from across the vibrant San Diego-Tijuana region as we celebrate the opening of the Jacobs Music Center. If you’d like to see a list of the many artists and musicians that will participate, click here.
Performers include 1st Marine Division Band, Animal Cracker Conspiracy, Ballet Folklórico Jalisciense, Coronado School of the Arts’ Musical Theatre and Drama Conservatory, Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra – Giocoso Quartet, and many more!
Bring the family to this very special community day. There will also be food and other activities!
This is your chance to freely step into the new Jacobs Music Center and see the breathtaking transformation of a historic San Diego venue. I’ll be there tomorrow. I plan to take photographs! I’m excited!
(Seven years ago I enjoyed a behind-the-scenes architectural tour of old Copley Symphony Hall. If you’d like to see those photos, click here.)
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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.
You don’t need to visit Australia to experience Waltzing Matilda in the morning light. Simply wander along downtown San Diego’s waterfront as the sun rises, and check out this sculpture at the new Research and Development District (RaDD)!
The sculpture, as you might have guessed, is titled Waltzing Matilda. It was created in 2014 by artist Alice Aycock.
When I photographed this newly installed public art back in February, there was no accompanying plaque with information. At the time, I thought the wavy, folded layers made it look like a head of lettuce! Long-time reader Paul commented it appears like a shell.
As you can see, a plaque did finally appear describing the playful sculpture. Waltzing Matilda references the expressive qualities of wind and water, its flowing form reminiscent of nature’s own characteristics. This monumental fiberglass sculpture defies gravity and explores movement, transformation, and perception in art…
According to Wikipedia, Alice Aycock was an early artist in the land art movement in the 1970s, and has created many large-scale metal sculptures around the world. Aycock’s drawings and sculptures of architectural and mechanical fantasies combine logic, imagination, magical thinking and science… Learn more about her work here.
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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.
Can seaweed be beautiful? It definitely is in an exhibit now on display on the first floor of San Diego’s Central Library!
The Curious World of Seaweed explores the science and historical importance of seaweeds, algae and kelp, and does so using fantastic images, such as the ones you see in my photographs.
Indigenous peoples have utilized seaweed for thousands of years. Taking various parts of certain seaweeds, they would create fishing lines, containers for water and funnels for fish traps. Edible seaweeds were commonly used for food–as they are today! Sushi anybody?
In modern times, the thousands of species of algae and seaweeds have been studied and more completely understood. These living organisms sustain ocean biodiversity and are an important part of our planet’s ecology.
The extensive exhibit is based on the research, photography and writings of Josie Iselin. Her latest book is also titled The Curious World of Seaweed.
As explained here, Iselin’s writing and art focusing on seaweed, kelp and sea otter puts her on the forefront of ocean activism, presenting and working with scientists and environmental groups working to preserve the kelp forests of our Pacific Coast.
There’s much to learn when viewing this exhibit, but what struck me most was the exquisite beauty and complexity of the different colored seaweeds. You’ll enjoy viewing the illustrations, photographs and works of art.
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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! 