A group called Give Love New York is in San Diego this weekend during 2017 Maker Faire. You can find them near the Old Globe in Balboa Park, passing out carnations and inviting passersby to dance and converse and smile and sing and play games and write messages containing kindness, positivity and wisdom!
This unique Give Love project is the brainchild of Alive Worldwide. Their mission is to use creativity to encourage and spread human compassion.
Very cool! Events such as this could be held in every corner of the world! It’s very easily done. Why not?
Two smiles and free carnations from Give Love San Diego, at 2017 Maker Faire in Balboa Park!With the help of the Old Globe Theatre, spreading kindness worldwide @givelovenewyorkGiving words of wisdom. Share your thoughts on a written note, then come back later and retrieve new wisdom to take home.Try it!Challenge yourself daily.Freedom is found by sacrifice. Question the unknown.Love hard. Love strong. Love always.Be open. Treat others with understanding. Give Love San Diego!
Flames rise from the fingertips of Robot Resurrection at 2017 Maker Faire San Diego in Balboa Park.
Balboa Park has been invaded! Cool robots of every size and description are roving throughout the park during 2017 Maker Faire San Diego!
Maker Faire San Diego seems to grow bigger every year. During this amazing event, eye-popping inventions and marvels of technology take over the heart of Balboa Park and many of its museums.
This morning I walked around feasting my mind on all sorts of creative stuff. Students, inventors, hobbyists and local clubs were proudly showing off their unique ideas and feats of engineering. Examples of 3D printing and robotics were everywhere.
Maker Faire San Diego continues in Balboa Park through Sunday. If you can, check it out for yourself!
Here are a few of the cool robots you might see!
2017 Maker Faire San Diego features lots of very cool robots, including 28 foot tall Robot Resurrection.A human operator emerges from the chest of the gigantic flame-throwing robot! If this thing could walk it would be a formidable battle robot!Human and robot fingers meet.Robot Resurrection has a couple of tiny pals. Here’s one.Here’s the other!The very cool Electric Giraffe has returned to the annual Maker Faire San Diego.The Electric Giraffe can move about while using an array of sensors in its head. When the neck is raised, this crowd-pleasing robot is 17 feet tall!This cute cow robot is named Milky White. It can move its eyeballs, eyelids, ears, tail and jaws!People at San Diego’s annual Maker Faire in Balboa Park check out a very creative robot designed by a friendly young man.Many schools from around San Diego demonstrate robots and other engineering projects during Maker Faire.The Robotics Society of Southern California has a sophisticated humanoid robot that moves realistically.The Glendale Robotics Academy had their Party Rover on display in the Japanese Friendship Garden.Kids check out another robot in the garden.A performance artist becomes a fun robot. People walking down El Prado posed for photos!This robot named Darth Zamboni was created by the Top Hat Technicians of High Tech High North County. It launches balls!Small autonomous cars on a track inside the San Diego History Center. They were being controlled remotely in order to gather navigational data.Autonomous car technology being developed today utilizes deep computer learning.A student participating in the First Robotics Competition demonstrates a small vehicle that their team built. Many robots can be seen up close in the San Diego History Center.This competitive robot corrals balls and then launches them.Cool robots of every size and description are on display throughout Balboa Park during 2017 Maker Faire San Diego!
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What makes the annual La Mesa Oktoberfest such an awesome event?
It seems the tasty ingredients that make La Mesa Oktoberfest so awesome aren’t very secret. Because I recorded them with very little effort this afternoon.
La Mesa Oktoberfest is said to be the largest Oktoberfest in San Diego County. It’s held each year in historic La Mesa Village. Thousands turn out to enjoy the fun.
So what are those tasty ingredients?
Food, drink, friends, good conversation.Sausages.Cool cars.Colorful dancing.A massive Spaten Hofbrauhaus Biergarten!More sausages.Lederhosen.Thrilling rides.Inspiration.Cuckoo clocks.Sidewalks jammed with happiness.More sausages.A huge container of mustard.Smiles.Family.And more sausages!
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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!
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Many generous Boy and Girl Scouts volunteered to beautify Cabrillo National Monument during Operation Gum Drop Removal!
I noticed during my visit to Cabrillo National Monument today that troops of Boy and Girl Scouts were busy around the park cleaning up chewing gum and other trash!
This very cool volunteering event was part of National Public Lands Day. It was also an opportunity for Scouts to earn special badges and enjoy a free lunch with park rangers!
Wow! Great job Scouts! Your positive outlook and dedication to community service has made San Diego even more beautiful! So here’s a big Thank You!
Scouts helping to remove gum and trash were awarded a Scout Ranger Patch, and enjoyed a complimentary lunch with Park Rangers! How cool is that!View of Cabrillo National Monument’s Visitor Center from afar. I could see Scouts working hard throughout the park!
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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!
This year, Trolley Dances includes several performances at San Diego’s downtown Central Library!
Trolley Dances in 2017 is as cool as ever!
Trolley Dances is an annual event in San Diego that uses unusual public spaces as settings for dance. The inspired, provocative performances are produced and choreographed by the San Diego Dance Theater.
Buy a ticket for this year’s event and you’ll be led on an adventure for mind, body and spirit. Mobile audiences, following Trolley Dances group leaders, disembark the San Diego Trolley’s Blue Line at various stops to view performances from Chula Vista to downtown San Diego.
Trolley Dances runs for only two weekends. It’s a brilliant concept that’s a lot of fun and full of surprises.
A few of the performances this year take place at San Diego’s downtown Central Library. I took some quick photos so that you can get a taste of what you will experience!
A mobile audience has arrived on foot from a nearby trolley station. They are led into downtown San Diego’s dynamic public library to enjoy fantastic dance performances!The dances all contain raw organic energy and beautifully expressed emotion.The dancers use the Central Library’s public entrance as an unusual stage during Trolley Dances. In another superb dance, which I didn’t photograph, the nearby escalators were used to produce an outstanding dramatic effect.Outside the library, in the courtyard, the audience now watches dancers framed in glass windows!The dancers come outside and engage the audience.Grace and power.A day enjoying the Trolley Dances makes for a great adventure!
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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!
Every year, the lives of almost 3 million shelter animals are terminated. It’s a colossal, heartbreaking tragedy that defies understanding–because it needn’t happen. Remember Me Thursday is a global event that shines a light on the plight of shelter animals, and on the positive choice of animal adoption.
Here are a few photos from the special Remember Me Thursday candlelight vigil held this evening in Balboa Park. Those who participated gathered near the corner of Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street. The annual event was created five years ago by Mike Arms, President and CEO of Helen Woodward Animal Center.
Remember Me Thursday has spread worldwide and now hundreds of animal welfare organizations participate.
This evening in Balboa Park, hearts were lit for innocent animals in San Diego and around the world waiting for adoption. Like you, they simply want to live and be loved.
Smiles from the Helen Woodward Animal Center during Remember Me Thursday in Balboa Park.People gather to remember animals waiting in shelters to be adopted–and those who have lost their lives.The deeply touching Remember Me Thursday poem by Mike Arms.A gathering in Balboa Park and an urgent message. Millions of shelter animals around the world simply want to live and be loved.A banner invites messages of hope and gratitude.A wish that pets know the selfless love that they provide us while on Earth.A few powerful words for the best hamster a boy could ever have.As the sun sets, people wait to watch a thought-provoking video and hear the reading of Mike Arms’ poem.Many candles were then lit.
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!
Many beautiful works of bonsai art could be viewed today in Balboa Park.
Here are more photos that you might enjoy! I took them this afternoon at the San Diego Bonsai Club exhibition, which was held inside the Casa del Prado in Balboa Park.
The art of bonsai has always fascinated me. A tiny, carefully tended tree can speak so much about life. About time and human struggle, about balance and poise.
It’s funny how artists can create a profound feeling of untamed natural beauty using orderly, controlled methods. It is absolutely contradictory. But there is much in art–as in life–that is hard to explain.
A sign outside the Casa del Prado directs visitors to an exhibition by the San Diego Bonsai Club.Demonstrations were part of the event. These friendly people in the Casa del Prado’s inner courtyard were patiently working on their bonsai trees and explaining the process to those who were curious.The many specialized tools of a bonsai gardener.One member of the San Diego Bonsai Club created a cool display that contrasted her bonsai with photos of trees in local landscapes.Like any other good art, bonsai evokes emotion. Nature inspires the bonsai artist. Styles can include Windswept, Formal Upright, Informal Upright and Forest.This bonsai Prostrata Juniper has been trained and pruned to appear ancient–the product of wild, tempestuous nature.A tiny Japanese black pine is one object in a small room-like scene.A fine work of art created by a lover of bonsai.An ornamental porcelain berry arranged in an beautiful pot.These tiny succulents are in a tiny wheelbarrow!Visitors to the San Diego Bonsai Club exhibition in Balboa Park enjoy looking at a small, very beautiful oriental sweetgum tree.
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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!
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Donations were collected during the House of Puerto Rico’s lawn program in Balboa Park to assist with disaster relief.
Here’s an opportunity to help the people of Puerto Rico who’ve been thrown into a terrible crisis by Hurricane Maria. The devastation brought by this natural disaster is unprecedented. Every bit of help is vitally important.
By sheer coincidence, the House of Puerto Rico had their International Cottages lawn program today in Balboa Park. A collection jar was there for donations, and proceeds from food sales went to hurricane relief.
I also learned that there’s a donation button on the House of Puerto Rico website, which you’ll find here.
Please consider providing these good people with a bit of support.
Puerto Rican food at the special event included arroz con gandules, pastel de masa and alcapurrias.If you missed the event, click the link I’ve included to visit the House of Puerto Rico website. There you will see a Hurricane Maria donation button.Among the many displays inside the House of Puerto Rico cottage are panderetas, cencerros and other musical instruments.Students inside the Balboa Park cottage learn about the special economic challenges of Puerto Rico, which is an unincorporated U.S. territory in the Caribbean.Many people have loved ones in Puerto Rico. Heroic efforts are underway to help those affected by Hurricane Maria.
Fred Grand, President of the Old Town Chamber of Commerce, reads a proclamation during a special Constitution Day ceremony.
Bells rang in San Diego at exactly one o’clock this Sunday afternoon to celebrate Constitution Day. A special ceremony took place on the steps of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Old Town, where a gathering of people rang bells they had brought for the occasion.
The patriotic ceremony was organized by the San Diego Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and featured a proclamation by Fred Grand, President of the Old Town Chamber of Commerce. Attendees also sang the Star-Spangled Banner, America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee), America the Beautiful, and God Bless America.
To celebrate the United States Constitution and the freedoms the document guarantees all citizens, many bells rang today simultaneously all across America. Bells pealed in Pennsylvania, where the United States Constitution was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787.
The Daughters of the American Revolution supports Old Town and have for almost 100 years. You can see their historical markers on the big rock in the southeast corner of the grassy Plaza de las Armas, at the Casa de Estudillo, the Cosmopolitan Hotel, the San Diego Union print shop, the Rockin Baja restaurant (over their front doorway), and another on Taylor Street near Presidio Drive. The DAR will soon be placing another marker at the site of the First San Diego Courthouse.
Priest of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Old Town talks to people in front of the historic church after Sunday Mass.At one o’clock, people of many backgrounds and beliefs gather on the church steps to celebrate the United States Constitution, which enshrines individual human liberty.This old bell of the Daughters of the American Revolution features an inscription from the United States Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.One historical plaque, which marks the end of the Kearney Trail in Old Town San Diego, was placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1920.Another historical marker placed by the DAR can be found inside Old Town’s Casa de Estudillo.Kathleen Winchester, historian of the San Diego Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is presented with an official proclamation on Constitution Day.The patriotic gathering sings The Star-Spangled Banner.
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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 fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
Every year, Fiestas Patrias, which celebrates Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, includes traditional entertainment for the entire family.
This morning I missed a bus to Ocean Beach at the Old Town Transit Center, so to pass the time I walked the short distance over to the State Park to see if anything was going on. And I discovered that Fiestas Patrias was being celebrated today!
I lingered for a few minutes and took some photos, headed over to OB (as you will see), then returned to Old Town a couple hours later to really soak in the event. Fiestas Patrias is a yearly celebration of Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. San Diego, a small town founded near a Spanish presidio in Alta California, thereafter became a part of Mexico until 1848.
Many diverse traditions have intermingled during San Diego’s history to make our city what it is today. The rich and colorful culture of Mexico has remained an essential part of life in San Diego!
A mariachi welcomes visitors to the historic Casa de Estudillo in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.A friendly horse came for a visit as I took some photos outside the Casa de Estudillo during Fiestas Patrias.Traditional dances were being performed on the central plaza’s main stage. Las damas y los caballeros took turns being el toro and el matador!The annual event features authentic costumes from a time when San Diego was a small Mexican town in Alta California.Kids were decorating traditional cascarones eggshells.A demonstration inside the Casa de Estudillo of yarn being spun. During the Spanish period, sheep were first introduced along with cattle and horses at the Mission San Diego de Alcalá.Nearby, ladies were demonstrating Colcha Spanish Colonial embroidery, which was typical in San Diego in the early 1800s.At the same table, another lady was cutting out festive Mexican papel picado.The historically authentic musical group Los Californios wait for their turn on the stage at Fiestas Patrias in Old Town San Diego!
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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 fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
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