Sunrise above the city. EarthCam image of tall ship Star of India on San Diego’s waterfront, from the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s steam ferry Berkeley.
There’s a new live webcam that features a stunning view of the Maritime Museum’s beautiful tall ship Star of India and the Embarcadero!
The downtown skyline rises behind historic Star of India, as it appears from the city’s waterfront.
The cool EarthCam camera is mounted on the smokestack of the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s historic steam ferry Berkeley.
Then, while your at it, cruise around the museum’s website and learn more about one of the top three maritime museums in the world, which is located right here in San Diego!
Yesterday morning I took a short walk north of the Maritime Museum of San Diego. I headed up the boardwalk at the edge of San Diego Bay past the Hornblower fleet and Grape Street Pier and finally turned around in an area of the North Embarcadero called The Crescent.
The following photographs were taken as I walked from the Maritime Museum to a small dinghy pier in The Crescent. You’ll see many sailboats and other small vessels moored in the water. People live in them.
Should you continue north up the boardwalk, you’d pass the Coast Guard station, Harbor Island and San Diego International Airport, the beautiful and historically important Spanish Landing Park, and eventually reach Point Loma near Liberty Station. Four years ago I blogged about that long, interesting walk and posted photos here.
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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!
Have you ever wondered about that massive timber that lies in front of the Maritime Museum? The one people will sit on to gaze across San Diego Bay or at several of the museum’s nearby ships?
That’s the bowsprit of the old four-masted schooner Forester, built in 1900 to transport lumber from the Pacific Northwest to ports along the West Coast and destinations all around the Pacific Ocean, including China, India, Australia, South Sea islands and Peru.
The old ship, when her life of carrying logs of spruce and fir came to an end, was used as a tidal break near the northeastern end of San Francisco Bay. Eventually it was towed to a mudflat west of Antioch (the city stated in the plaque I photographed) and beached. There it became home of its long-time captain.
In 1975 fire swept through the abandoned ship and it burned to the waterline. The remains of Forester can still be seen along the shoreline of Martinez, California.
If you want to learn more about the history of the Forester, and see several interesting old photographs of the ship, there’s a great web page that you can check out by clicking here.
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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!
This beautiful October evening I walked along the Embarcadero as the sun slowly neared the horizon. Golden light was cast over San Diego Bay when the sun slipped behind a few clouds.
Many others were out walking by Seaport Village. Some lingered on the nearby pier. Those aircraft carriers you see across the bay are docked at Naval Air Station North Island, at the north end of Coronado. The rock band I passed while walking along the water at Embarcadero Marina Park North is called Thundermaier. They sounded really good.
It was a nice cool evening. Perfect for an easy stroll.
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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!
People walk and jog along San Diego’s Embarcadero near Tuna Harbor.
I did a lot of walking last Saturday! Downtown, Barrio Logan, San Ysidro… If I’m a little less active this weekend, it’s because my poor old legs are still sore!
Please enjoy some photos I took Saturday morning as I headed from Tuna Harbor on San Diego’s Embarcadero to 13th Street in East Village. I passed through Ruocco Park, walked a short stretch down Harbor Drive past Kansas City Barbeque, then turned east on Market Street.
Many of these sights you might have seen in the past on my blog. I did photograph a few new things, however, including the whale street art by Nicholas Danger, some Gaslamp Quarter historical artwork, and a very colorful mural by Pandr Design Co. Read the captions!
The photos you will see are the last I’ve taken with the old Canon Powershot that launched Cool San Diego Sights. Over the course of seven years my trusty friend must have recorded hundreds of thousands of images. But alas, its shutter began to stick and there have been other problems (which you might have already noticed), so I finally bought a shiny, much newer version Powershot, which I already love!
I hope my new camera successfully documents many more walks!
A couple hangs out by the Fish Tree, by artists Zbigniew Pingot and Toby Flores.
A vendor on the boardwalk was selling lots of colorfully decorated Día de los Muertos skulls.
Whenever I hear this friendly street musician playing beautiful music, I rest for a bit on a nearby bench to listen.
Ruocco Park on a late summer’s day is very green and inviting.
I’m about to walk through some unique public art titled The Riparium, by artist Roman de Salvo.
Historical marker indicates the location of the San Diego Barracks from 1850 to 1921.
Kansas City Barbeque is where a couple of great scenes from Top Gun were filmed.
Street art by Mindful Murals, cool people I once met. I saw how they painted positive messages on handball backboards at Edison Elementary School’s playground.
Looks like these sunlit leaves along Market Street are turning, anticipating autumn.
Geometric street art near scooters parked in a straight line.
Someone walks past this fun street art by Nicholas Danger, another cool local artist!
Plaque in the sidewalk on Market Street recalls major renovations that were made in the once-seedy Gaslamp Quarter in 1981.
A mixture of Gaslamp history and present day entertainment in one photo.
As I passed Fifth Avenue, the hub of San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter, I turned my old camera south to take a picture.
The I.O.O.F. Building was built by the Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodges in 1882. Its cornerstone contains a stone recovered from Solomon’s Temple!
Eating on the street during the coronavirus pandemic.
Artwork on a Gaslamp Quarter utility box shows historical photo of the San Diego Mercantile Co.
Here’s a relatively new mural on Market Street that I noticed before but failed to photograph.
This colorful WOW mural is by the artists of Pandr Design Co., who’ve done work all over San Diego. Their artwork can also be found at various Major League Baseball stadiums!
Sculpted dog holds open a shop door.
There’s some construction along Market Street as I approach 13th Street.
I’m greeted by this face on the construction site fence!
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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!
Boats require a lot of maintenance. The 157-year-old Star of India, oldest active sailing ship in the world, is no exception!
This afternoon I walked around the Star of India’s main deck and saw that new coats of varnish have been applied to some of the historic tall ship’s rails, posts, belaying pins, various panels, signs, the ship’s wheel and other wooden elements. And the work continues!
A friendly volunteer explained there’s a lot of sanding to do first.
Once the varnish is applied and dries, San Diego’s beloved Star once again shines brightly.
To my eyes more beautiful than ever!
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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!
After two days of sweltering heat in downtown San Diego, early this morning it was nice and cool. Fog had rolled in from the Pacific Ocean overnight. Perfect for a long Labor Day morning walk!
I set out very early while most of the city was asleep. Once the sun had risen and there was sufficient light for photographs, I took out my camera. The fog lingered throughout my walk. The sun was just breaking through as I arrived home mid-morning.
These photos begin at the G Street Pier, where several fishermen were already up and getting ready for another day out on the wide ocean. I proceeded around Tuna Harbor, through Ruocco Park and Seaport Village, did a loop through Embarcadero Marina Park North, continued past the Marriott Marina, and ended up near the fishing pier at Embarcadero Marina Park South.
I haven’t captioned these photos. I like how the fog provides a sense of mystery. But you might notice construction continues on the San Diego Symphony’s new outdoor summer concert venue, The Shell.
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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!
The annual US Sand Sculpting Challenge was cancelled this year due the COVID-19 pandemic. The world-class event takes place each Labor Day weekend and draws huge crowds to San Diego’s Embarcadero.
Having gone to this mind-blowing international competition for the past six years, I’ve accumulated lots of cool photos! The world’s top sand masters can produce absolutely astonishing works of art!
To recall past wonders from this event, I’ve linked to blog posts containing hundreds of photographs. Before you check those out, however, in no particular order, here are some of the sand sculptures I’ve particularly enjoyed!
The following links provide six years of photographs from the US Sand Sculpting Challenge…
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!
Go on any walk through downtown San Diego and you’ll see a strange mixture of sights. Sometimes you have to stop in your tracks to look again.
Many of the visions that rise before your eyes seem contradictory. Urban hipsters drinking coffee and listening to live music . . . a few steps away from people who are homeless. The boarded window of a looted Gaslamp shop . . . and spray painted messages of empathy and kindness.
And there are the sights that are wonderfully odd. Downtown’s reggae dog. A surprising tree in a surprising place. An insurance company for sharknados.
So much strangeness is mixed in the ordinary life of a city.
The mysteries appear everywhere.
I took these photographs during several walks the past few days.
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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! 