Music lovers gathered at Waterfront Park on San Diego’s Embarcadero this afternoon for a special event. They had come to listen to the second concert of San Diego’s newest arts and music series, Blanket Sounds!
As concert time neared, blankets, beach chairs and umbrellas multiplied by the stage, and the growing audience anticipated performances by DJ Mr. Hek and San Diego’s World Punk Band QUEL BORDEL!
Everyone was welcome at this multicultural and multigenerational community gathering. Kids ran and played on the grass. Families enjoyed picnics.
I lingered for a bit, enjoyed the mellow Sunday afternoon atmosphere, and took these photos. There are two more free Blanket Sounds concerts to go this summer. Find out more here!
The County Administration Building rises under a blue San Diego sky.Members of QUEL BORDEL! warm up before the concert begins.Tall ship Star of India on San Diego Bay makes a scenic background.Rock-like sculpture is an art installation by artist Trevor Amery.The other side of Trevor Amery’s fascinating sculpture.Jake Skolnick of local San Diego band QUEL BORDEL! gives a thumbs up!Kids could color at an activity table.
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There’s a fascinating sign at the end of Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego. It’s located near scientific equipment used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to collect meteorological and sea level data in real time.
When I read the sign recently, I was surprised that this San Diego Bay tide station was moved to its present location in 2018. It belongs to the National Water Level Observation Network, a system of over 200 stations situated around the United States. The particular tide station has the capacity to support tsunami monitoring. Sensors collect and transmit data to NOAA every six minutes via a satellite antenna. If you want to see that real time data, click here.
The station also gathers information concerning water temperature and barometric pressure, which is very helpful in forecasting the weather.
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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!
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A fire erupts on the USS Midway while at sea! What might happen? Who would respond?
In a major new exhibit aboard the USS Midway Museum, you’ll learn this and more. The service, sacrifice and everyday life of Midway’s engineers is celebrated below decks. Visitors to the aircraft carrier museum tour the hot, loud and crowded spaces where Navy engineers kept the gigantic ship running, while ready to respond to almost any emergency.
You’ll learn about the hard work done by Hull Maintenance Technicians, Enginemen, and Damage Controlmen. You learn that the Boiler Technicians who created steam on the ship had to regularly endure 150 degree temperatures as they oversaw 2 million gallons of boiler fuel and 166,000 gallons of water. And there are the Machinery Repairmen, Machinist’s Mates and others.
You’ll see where the engineers slept, where they worked, and even experience a simulated fire aboard ship that shows the extreme danger their fellow sailors faced.
If you’ve never visited the USS Midway Museum, it is one of San Diego’s must-see attractions. If you haven’t yet experienced this exciting new exhibit, head on down to San Diego Bay and enjoy the newly expanded self-guided tour! (A second new exhibit concerns the USS Midway Marine Detachment!)
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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.
Near the center of the hangar deck of the USS Midway Museum, there’s a scale model of Freedom Park at Navy Pier. When completed, this large, new public park will occupy the historic pier that the USS Midway aircraft carrier has called home now for 20 years.
One can walk around the model and visualize in three dimensions how Freedom Park will appear when it has its Grand Opening, which is scheduled for Spring 2028. The park will include a formal parade ground, plenty of grass for recreation, gardens, benches, play structures, trees and winding walkways, and a monumental flag at the pier’s end which will be visible from downtown and across San Diego Bay.
This informative presentation provides an excellent overview of the plans for Freedom Park, including a detailed map and timeline for completion.
The parade ground will feature a central statue of John William Finn, San Diego area resident and last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the attack on Pearl Harbor. The park will also feature a Family and Sacrifice Monument, honoring the sacrifices thousands of military families have made, telling their stories. Navy Pier was once where many families waved goodbye to departing sailors.
A Footsteps of Freedom interpretive path will follow the length of Navy Pier and circle around the USS Midway, connecting with the present-day Greatest Generation Walk, where many military monuments exist today. (Including this Navy plaque, whose exact origin was a mystery, until some of this blog’s readers provided amazing information!)
Other features will enhance the new Freedom Park, such as a Digital Journey that people can follow with their smartphones.
Today, after viewing the model and taking a few photos, I asked a docent at the Midway Museum: where will visitors park their cars? (Most of the parking lot now atop the pier will be vanishing.) He informed me there is underground parking at the new RaDD complex across Harbor Drive. A small parking lot will remain near the entrance of the museum.
Of course, a project of this magnitude requires a lot of funding. There’s more money to be raised. If you’d like to buy a Freedom Park Legacy Brick and help with this effort, 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.
Demolition has begun of the crumbling structure on the east end of Navy Pier. The old building is the last remnant of San Diego’s historic Naval Supply Depot, which grew over the years into a major complex. You can read the fascinating history here.
Over the next few years, the surface of Navy Pier, including the large parking lot next to the USS Midway, will be converted into beautiful Freedom Park! The project is a partnership between the Port of San Diego and the USS Midway Museum.
Today I learned from a museum employee that before the walls of the old headhouse are torn down, workers are busy removing asbestos and doing the preliminary things that are necessary.
You can visualize how Freedom Park at Navy Pier will appear when completed by visiting this web page. I was told the park, which will honor “ordinary” heroes, will likely be finished in 2027.
When I was a young man I observed dozens of Army tanks parked inside this building and lined up along the pier. I wish I’d taken photographs. I believe that was back in the 1980s.
UPDATE!
The exterior demolition had begun in August…
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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.
Walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero near the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park and there’s a chance you’ll make a wonderful, unexpected discovery.
You might arrive during a concert and listen freely from many points nearby.
You might arrive during a rehearsal. The San Diego Symphony’s open public rehearsals allow you to quietly sit very close to the stage!
You might arrive during a special event before an evening concert. That’s what happened to me today.
San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer and the symphony’s Creative Consultant, renowned composer, writer, and director Gerard McBurney, were talking about the previous night’s Wagner “Die Walküre” performance, a collaborative presentation by San Diego Opera and the symphony. The two were telling stories, providing a fascinating discussion of the music and a look behind the scenes.
Gerard McBurney talked about an upcoming concert, which will feature The Firebird by Stravinsky. The history of the famous, bejeweled composition was colorfully related. We learned how an animated film will simultaneously play on Rady Shell’s video screen above the orchestra. There’s a very interesting interview of Gerard that you can read here.
Most exciting however, was the news that the San Diego Symphony’s major remodel of Copley Symphony Hall is almost completed! (One construction worker affirmed to me that it’s glorious.)
The (newly named) Jacobs Music Center Opening Night Concert will be on September 28, 2024. It promises to be A Triumphant Return!
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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 world record deepest diving submarine was cleaned today. The USS Dolphin at the Maritime Museum of San Diego had it’s outer hull scraped clean of algae and barnacles. It’s an operation that must be carried out every four months or so.
The specially designed USS Dolphin (AGSS-555) can list many historic achievements, including several world firsts. She retains the record for the deepest dive by an operating submarine. Learn more about her at the Maritime Museum of San Diego website here.
Nine years ago I climbed down into this incredible submarine and took interior photos. If you’d like to see them, click here. Better yet, head down to the museum and enjoy the experience yourself!
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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 amazing tall ship Cuauhtémoc is visiting San Diego and you are invited to step aboard her!
Those who walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero during the next few days will undoubtedly see the three high masts and many furled sails of Mexican Navy training vessel Cuauhtémoc.
ARM Cuauhtémoc, built in Spain in 1982, is extraordinarily beautiful. It’s now docked at the B Street Pier, across from the Cruise Ship Terminal, and the public is welcome to walk down the pier and come aboard. I was told by a friendly officer that the ship will be open to the public from 8 am to 8 pm through next Monday.
If you love tall ships (who doesn’t?) you’ve got to take advantage of this rare opportunity. (It’s been ten years since I last saw her in San Diego.)
The following photographs that I took this evening provide an idea of what you’ll find, but they really don’t do justice to the experience of being on the deck of an immense, truly spectacular tall ship!
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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!
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Today volunteers and crew members at the Maritime Museum of San Diego undertook a complicated operation. Very carefully, they slowly removed and lowered a spar on the Star of India called the mizzen gaff.
The mizzen gaff of the historic, 161-year-old tall ship hadn’t been inspected for 15 years, and it was time for another look. The United States Coast Guard is tasked with ensuring that working ships like the Star of India remain in safe sailing condition.
I stood and watched for a long while. You can see why special care must be taken when lowering this long, heavy spar. Imagine what might happen if somehow it slipped! Many lines held by steady hands were supporting and maneuvering it, making sure a calamity could not happen.
I watched for probably half an hour, and it seemed to my eyes that little progress was made in that time. That’s how carefully the operation was conducted!
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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)!
Why is the towering island of the USS Midway aircraft carrier wrapped up?
To protect San Diego Bay and the environment as the historic aircraft carrier (now a popular tourist destination) receives a new coat of paint! That’s what I was told a couple days ago by a USS Midway Museum employee.
But how strange it appears!
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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! 