Enjoy a few festive photographs that I took in Balboa Park today.
The House of Germany was having their lawn program at the International Cottages when I walked through the park, so I paused, grabbed a bratwurst on a roll with sauerkraut, ketchup and mustard, and sat down to listen. (At about two thirty the beer was already sold out!)
I’m not sure who these musicians were, but I saw on the House of Germany’s flyer pertaining to the program that four different groups would provide entertainment.
Before resuming my afternoon walk, I ventured into the House of Germany cottage and viewed interesting educational displays.
The summer lawn program season is approaching its end. Check out the HPR International Cottages website here to see fun events that remain!
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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 X.
An amazing free event that attracted creative talent from around our region was held in Chula Vista today. FilAm CreatorCon 2025 brought together lots of Filipino-American artists and their fans!
I was surprised by the huge popularity of this annual convention. It was my first time.
The interior of the Chula Vista Library was filled with artist tables overflowing with fantastic artwork: posters, prints, comic books, graphic novels, stickers, jewelry–you name it!
Several community rooms hosted panels or screenings; a fundraising art auction was open to all; and outside, on the library patio, there was plenty of food and even musical entertainment. Neighborhood families came out to the fun event, kids were active and exploring, and smiling artists were busy showcasing and selling their artwork.
What a great experience!
I loved the positive creative energy! I even recognized some of the artists or their great work!
I started out on the patio…
I saw the following information poster.
Bridge the Gap is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego dedicated to celebrating and preserving Filipino-American representation and heritage.
In the spring they have a Creative Summit which supports the next generation of Filipino creatives.
Now I’m inside the main Chula Vista Library.
Look! It’s super nice artist Mary Jhun!
You’ve seen many examples of her distinctive art on Cool San Diego Sights. Click here and here and here and here.
Some of her work:
Here’s another cool artist and illustrator: Robert Rodriguez (@robz_drawings).
Some of his great stuff…
Watch out! Godzilla is energizing his dorsal spines!
This is Raina Ramos (@thrillustrated). She likes to create dog portraits and other cool stuff, like Star Wars art!
Ron Rubio (@rubiobroscartoonstudio), Director, Animator, and producer of smiles!
He has worked on King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show! His brother who has worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and for Pixar and others was present, too.
Little Yellow Jeepney author Jocelyn Francisco, Ph.D. was at the con, too! Literacy is more important than ever.
The FilAm CreatorCon panel From Roots to Resonance: Crafting Filipino Stories with Universal Appeal was fully attended.
Look at all the people at FilAm CreatorCon in Chula Vista!
Big respect!
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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.
Then don’t miss the annual Trolley Dances, which are being performed in 2025 near three San Diego Trolley stations in Mission Valley!
The weekend event, produced by San Diego Dance Theater, is a fun outdoor adventure for mobile audiences.
I caught the first of six dances and took some photos. As you can see the Trolley Dances begin near the Fashion Valley Transit Center, in a corner of Town and Country’s resort’s riverfront park.
Mobile audiences go in groups from dance venue to venue, riding the trolley’s Green Line and walking a bit. Yes, it’s a very unique social experience!
The dancing is fluid, athletic, graceful. The performers I watched seemed to defy gravity as their dynamic movements and gestures expressed powerful emotion.
To learn more about Trolley Dances, visit this website, before all tickets sell out!
I snooped around and got these friendly dancers to smile before the noon audience arrived…
Here comes the audience now!
A lone figure approaches across the grass…
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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.
A lifelike bronze statue of a Navy SEAL frogman was installed this morning in downtown San Diego!
The frogman sculpture arrived by box truck, which parked on Kettner Boulevard near One America Plaza, just outside the future Navy SEAL Museum San Diego. (The museum opens very soon–on October 4, 2025.)
With extreme care, slowly, methodically, the new public art was removed from its crate and elevated to its black marble pedestal, which had been installed outside the museum a few days ago.
I and some bystanders were wondering how exactly the operation would proceed. We watched with great interest, and I snapped a bunch of photos.
Words engraved on the pedestal explain:
This statue is adapted from the original at the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. It depicts a SEAL placing a limpet mine, an underwater explosive device.
It was designed by master bronze portrait sculptor Lena Toritch, and honors the U.S. Navy SEAL combat diver: a symbol of unwavering courage, stealth, and precision, standing as a testament to their dedication, rigorous training, and selfless service to our nation.
Cleaning the top of the pedestal…
Injecting epoxy into four holes atop the supporting pedestal…
Aha! They’re going to use straps.
Tilting the diving frogman sculpture upright.
Up it goes!
So far, so good!
Centering it…
Workers screw in four rods, which will descend into the epoxy-filled holes on top of the pedestal.
Success!
As I understood it, the statue would remain this way for a while as the epoxy hardened. So I left.
I returned several hours later and found…
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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.
A brand new performance stage is being built in Balboa Park!
The stage, when finished, will occupy a corner of the San Diego Sculptors Guild outdoor courtyard, in Spanish Village Art Center!
Funny how history can repeat. Many years ago an outdoor stage occupied the same courtyard.
During a historical tour of the neighboring artist studios, I learned that today’s Studio 36 Sculptors Guild was an outdoor theatre in the early years of Spanish Village. The front was a lobby and ticket booth. Writers, actors and set designers would act out plays on the inner patio.
Today I was told performances of every type will be welcomed at this newly constructed stage. One member of the San Diego Sculptors Guild, Justin Hammond, is part of a band that will play here! The band’s name is Auva Xuln (@auvaxuln).
What a super cool venue!
Imagine wildly creative sculptures all around, like a fantastic, silent audience!
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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.
Today is the 238th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States. September 17th was the date in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the historic document in Philadelphia.
The City of San Diego has issued an official Proclamation that celebrates Constitution Week. I was fortunate to see it close up!
The City of San Diego Proclamation, signed by Mayor Todd Gloria, includes the following words:
…celebrating Constitution Week serves as an important reminder of the historic rights, privileges and responsibilities the Constitution affords us…
…Constitution Week commemorates the week the Constitution was signed and delivered to the Continental Congress. It laid the foundation for the birth of a new nation and became one of the most significant chapters in United States history…
…the Constitution lays out liberties like freedom, opportunity, and rule of law…
As a writer and individual who loves to create, I cherish freedom.
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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.
Waka poems are a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. A waka poem is unique in that it consists of 31 syllables.
An exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park contains examples of waka from Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) written in kana script. Each composition is beautiful, not merely as a poem, but as a visual work of art.
A sign in the garden’s Exhibit Hall explains: “Among the aristocracy of the time, romantic relationships often began through the exchange of waka… Since men and women had limited opportunities to meet in person, emotions were conveyed through poetry…”
Learn more about this exhibition at the JFG website here.
I was completely unaware of this type of poetry before visiting the garden today. Spellbound, I stood before the examples on display and read translations of each Japanese poem.
The English translations do not contain 31 syllables, obviously, but they definitely convey feelings indicative of romance. I noticed these wakas often employ metaphors taken from nature.
Here are a few of the translations:
There are many villages where the cuckoo bird sings. It’s a bird that I find attractive, but I don’t feel close to it. I like it, but it’s not mine, so I feel a bit jealous. Poet: The Tales of Ise
I won’t allow you to meet me, even if you imitate the crow of a rooster before dawn. Poet: Sei Shōnagon
I was dying to see you, but after I met you I want to live forever. Poet: Fujiwara no Yoshitaka
Should my heart waver and betray our love, then even the impassable waves of a tsunami would cross over the mountains. In other words, I would never be unfaithful. Poet: Author unknown.
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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.
The new Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is almost ready to open! Opening day is Saturday, October 4, 2025. That’s less than three weeks away!
This afternoon, walking past downtown’s One America Plaza building, I noticed the black marble pedestal that will support a Navy SEAL frogman statue has been installed outside. You can see it in my first two photographs. The nearby America Plaza trolley station is in the background.
I also observed new graphics have appeared near the museum’s front entrance!
Abandon Self – Embrace Team… The Deed is All – Not the Glory… Be Someone Special… The Only Easy Day was Yesterday
Responsibility – Service – Commitment – Discipline
How often do you see artwork made by visitors to a fine art museum–displayed prominently at that museum?
Should you visit the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park, that’s what you’ll find!
Composed of squares decorated by visitors to the museum, Make the Sun Shine is displayed in the Timken’s elegant Central Gallery.
Marisol Rendón, the museum’s resident artist this summer, furnished the golden circles, and the public, using markers, stamps and pens, created the surrounding rays. People took their inspiration from the many masterpieces that fill the museum galleries.
I was told Make the Sun Shine will be on view for a few more weeks.
The amazing Timken Museum of Art is always free to the public. It might be small, but it’s loaded with Old Master masterpieces. In fact, it’s the only museum in San Diego with a Rembrandt in its permanent collection.
Look how beautiful these shining suns are!
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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.
Here’s a collection of photographs for you to enjoy. I took them in Balboa Park today. Mexican Independence Day was celebrated in the Old Globe’s outdoor Copley Plaza!
I lingered for a little over an hour, listening to rousing mariachi music and watching joyful, colorful baile folklórico dancing.
A good crowd at tables around the outdoor stage enjoyed free Mexican candies and played Mexican lotería too! Many families enjoyed the festivities!
Anyone wandering about could also check out artists at their table. I recognized Maricruz Alvarado! You can see some of her beautiful work here and here!
What entertainment did I enjoy at this great Mexican Independence Day Celebration? Música Del Barrio with their pre-show music, Mariachi Continental SD, DanzArts folklórico dance, and the Radican Ensamble choir. There would be even more groups after I left to resume my Balboa Park walk.
The cultural celebration was produced by the Old Globe’s AXIS performing arts public engagement program. Learn more about AXIS here.
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 