The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla is like a friendly palace filled with endless treasure. Step through its front door and you’re surrounded by jewels.
Shelves filled with knowledge and beauty. Works of art on the walls, around corners, in nooks and crannies. Comfy places to sit, read, listen, write and fill oneself with wonder.
I headed to La Jolla and stepped through the Athenaeum’s front door yesterday.
In addition to works of art that I hadn’t previously seen, I enjoyed looking at the newest exhibitions in the library’s galleries.
Here are a few of the jewels that I discovered…
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Over the years, I’ve noticed different colorful works of art near the museum entrance. This latest mural, with the craziest spaceship you’ll ever see, is tons of fun!
Look closely. Do you see Grape Day Park across the street from the launch site?
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
I hope this series of photographs conveys the pure joy transmitted by a group of dancers at today’s Fall Back Festival in San Diego.
The group is called Ballet Folklorico – GIFT of DANCE. Their gift imparted to the audience was a love of life.
I’ve seen these same beaming smiles at other San Diego events. GIFT of DANCE teaches young people Mexican folklorico dancing. Check out their Facebook page 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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
There’s a special place in Balboa Park where photography clubs meet and compete, and amazing photographs cover the walls.
Curious? Walk along Village Place east of the huge Moreton Bay Fig tree, toward the intersection that leads to the parking lot east of Spanish Village, and look for the small Photographic Arts Building. It’s home of the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs.
Several galleries filled with fine photographs are open free to the public on Saturday afternoons. I stepped through the door today, spoke with some friendly folks, and admired the work of exceptional regional photographers.
Clubs that meet here include the Darkroomers, Poly Photo Club, Photo Naturalists, and the Fallbrook Camera Club. According to an informative handout I received, the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs fosters enrichment programs for photographers of all skill levels through our member clubs and photographic programs. If you love photography, you’re encouraged to join!
After viewing the works on display, I asked a few questions. I learned that nearly all of the photos taken are digital, and that nearly all are photoshopped. Which is a bit disappointing to me, personally. I love a stunning, flawless picture as much as anyone, but I also love authenticity. Perhaps that’s just silly me, with my modest old camera, being jealous!
Do you love art or photography? This is definitely a place you want to visit!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
The Brain Observatory in downtown San Diego appears to be an intriguing place. It’s been open for a year or so, if memory serves. It’s located in the space that the SDSU Downtown Gallery once called home.
According to their website, The Brain Observatory is not only a research institute with state-of-the-art scientific equipment, but students and visitors can examine a large collection of donated human brains.
There is also an art gallery at The Brain Observatory. Check out a fascinating exhibition featuring six artists here.
As I walked down the sidewalk past The Brain Observatory early this morning, I noticed a skeleton sitting inside one window holding a brain.
Does the skeleton intend to place the brain into its own skull?
Or is this simply a bit of fun for Halloween?
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
The Old Town San Diego Foundation is a non profit that supports school field trips to Old Town–a program that is available to over 11,000 students each year.
Perhaps you remember your own 4th Grade field trip to Old Town, and how your eyes opened wide to San Diego’s rich history and the many cultures that come together where we live.
The State of California has brought back in-person school field trips and educational tours to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park after the disruption caused by COVID. So it’s time to get those awesome school trips back in gear!
Thank you for helping our fourth grade class go on an awesome, wonderful, super fun field trip! All of us fourth graders had an amazing time. My favorite part was going to see the amazing things the blacksmiths made. I also learn a lot from the Mormon Battalion!
Sincerely,
Elliott
Bay Park Elementary
And below are some of the awesome people I met at Old Town’s Dia de los Muertos event who are helping to make this all happen!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
How much do you know about the history of El Cajon?
Step into the Knox House Museum and you’ll be transported back in time. You’ll experience what life was like for El Cajon’s first settlers and its early residents.
You’ll learn how, in 1876, Amaziah Knox built a residence and hotel in the seeming middle of nowhere. Rising two stories tall, boasting seven rooms, it was the first commercial structure in El Cajon.
You’ll walk through the parlor, kitchen, living room, sewing room, and bedrooms, furnished as they might have been from 1895 to 1912. You’ll see original objects that were owned by the Knox family, plus many old photographs of El Cajon taken during its early years..
The El Cajon Historical Society operates the free Knox House Museum and welcomes visitors with a great tour of the old house. Check out their website for the location, open days and hours.
My own visit last Saturday was an eye-opener. I peered at photos of a very early El Cajon, with its small handful of structures. I learned that the hotel was cleverly built in a popular camping place for teamsters, miners, and drovers traveling to the Julian gold mines after 1870.
I saw how the hotel and the young city expanded, and how agriculture played an important role in the growing prosperity. Grapes covered many acres in one old photo. They were dried and exported as raisins.
I learned how the home’s parlor served as El Cajon’s very first post office, with Mr. Knox the official Postmaster.
Did you know the United States Cavalry was once stationed in El Cajon, and that El Cajon and Lakeside boasted a stagecoach line?
No? You should visit the museum! Or check out their informative website by clicking here.
My tour guide Rick told me the historical society is looking for new volunteers. Do you live in El Cajon or East County? Would you like to help keep this important history alive? Contact the El Cajon Historical Society here.
Or consider a donation. Worthy organizations like this are struggling, especially after the disruptions caused by COVID.
One last thing. The El Cajon Historical Society is eager to teach young people about the fascinating history of this city they call home. They are offering a slide show for local classrooms! Do you know any teachers? Pass the word!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Would this morning’s solar eclipse be seen in San Diego? An overcast sky worried many who wished to observe the highly anticipated event.
A huge crowd lined up in Balboa Park near the Fleet Science Center to obtain eclipse glasses. Amateurs set up telescopes, large and small. With the help of Fleet scientists and volunteers, kids enjoyed several fun educational activities, including the creation of pinhole boxes for safe indirect viewing of the eclipse. At one side of the plaza, a laptop showed live images of the eclipse from some cloudless location. Families sat waiting on the edge of the park’s nearby fountain. Minutes were ticking away. Would those clouds above us thin in time, as everyone hoped?
And then–there it was! The crowd cheered! The moon was glimpsed off and on as it gradually passed over the sun’s disk in an annular eclipse that would, at its maximum, obscure about 70 percent of Earth’s own life-giving star.
Several minutes later, the sky would mostly clear, and many in San Diego would take delight in the awe-inspiring spectacle.
Enjoy these photographs of the big eclipse watching party in Balboa Park!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
What would the world be like without teachers? Very poor and very dull.
You probably remember some of your teachers fondly, how they inspired you to learn, grow, expand your horizons, become confident.
Today would be a great day to convey your gratitude!
To help pay for my own indebtedness, I’d like to pass along some information that teachers in San Diego might find very useful.
Write Out Loud offers a variety of inspirational programs that encourage reading and writing. Teachers can make free use of them.
Here they are:
Let Your Voice Be Heard is a poetry contest open to San Diego County students in grades K – 12. Learn about it here.
READ-IMAGINE-CREATE is a contest where Middle and High School Students will READ either the full book, or selections from CIRCE by Madeline Miller or MYTHOLOGY by Edith Hamilton.. Students will RE-IMAGINE the images, themes, or characters and then CREATE a project in a medium important to them. Learn about it here.
Poetry Out Loudis a FREE program for High School students. Students select poems from the National Poetry Foundation Anthology, and memorize, interpret, and recite their poems in a competition at the entry level. Two winners from each competition advance to the Regional Competition and one Regional winner advances to the State Competition. Learn about it here.
“Ripples from Walden Pond”is a 55-minute one-person play written by Richard Platt appropriate for Middle and High School Literature and History Students.Performances are followed by a talk-back with the actor, Steve Smith. Study Guide is provided. This program is provided without cost, through the generosity of passionate private donors. Learn about it here.
Do you know a teacher in San Diego? Let them know these great programs are available!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
How does one combine short outdoor walks with story time at a San Diego public library? Story Strolls!
During my visit to the San Ysidro Library last month, I observed one of these Story Strolls along walkways near the building entrance. Words and illustrations from children’s books are printed on signs, to be viewed by walkers in sequence, as if pages are being turned. It’s such a cool concept that I took these photos.
According to the City of San Diego website, eight branch libraries have featured such strolls. Most are in English. This one in San Ysidro is in Spanish. By scanning QR codes with your phone, you can also hear the story read aloud.
All of the library Story Strolls have a nature theme and debuted in June.
(If these signs appear a little dirty, we’d recently had some rain.)
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 