Tag: fun

Cool photo memories from June 2017.

A cattle drive through downtown San Diego!

That was probably the strangest event Cool San Diego Sights recorded during the month of June in 2017.

Five years ago there were other fascinating events, too, like the Wooden Boat Festival on Shelter Island, and the Ocean Beach Street Fair, and Flag Day in Old Town, and Family Day at Tecolote Canyon Natural Park.

Plus, I saw indications that another San Diego Comic-Con was fast approaching!

I’ve selected nine very different blog posts from June 2017 that you might enjoy checking out…

Click the following links to see lots of photos!

Photos of cattle drive through downtown San Diego!

Photos of Family Day at Tecolote Canyon Natural Park.

A glimpse of history at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Mormon Battalion celebrates Flag Day in Old Town.

Photos from Port of San Diego’s harbor tour.

First 2017 San Diego Comic-Con trolley: The Orville!

Photos of the San Diego Wooden Boat Festival!

Artists add life to the Ocean Beach Street Fair!

A walk through history in The Village of La Mesa.

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The “berry” sweet Vista Strawberry Festival!

Could the Vista Strawberry Festival be the largest, most popular street festival in all of San Diego County? From what I saw today, it might well be! It is the largest strawberry festival in these parts!

All of downtown Vista–nearly every street it seemed–was closed to traffic and packed with excited families and smiling neighbors, all enjoying a sweet Memorial Day weekend Sunday!

Did you know Vista was once considered the Strawberry Capital of the World?

There was so much going on at the festival, so many happy people dressed as strawberries, or eating strawberries, or buying strawberry art, crafts and concoctions, that I thought I had entered strawberry heaven!

To kids the enormous fun zone, complete with a zip line, must’ve felt like heaven.

Those who raced in the morning 5K, having joined the crowd after the run, appeared to be enjoying themselves, too!

I met lots of great people during my visit and, of course, ate a few strawberries myself. (But I didn’t muster the courage to try the strawberry tamales.)

I was pleased to learn Vista’s Soroptimists (those three smiling faces in one of the photos coming up) have raised lots of money to help young women in difficult circumstances get an education! Visit their website 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!

Flags, flavor and fun at the Santee Street Fair!

The annual Santee Street Fair returned to East County today!

I rode the San Diego Trolley up to Santee Trolley Square to enjoy an event I hadn’t previously experienced.

The festival began with the presentation of colors, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. In addition to youthful dancing and martial arts demonstrations, a Gold Star family took to the main stage. They were thanked for their sacrifice with a standing ovation.

Lots of neighbors came out to enjoy food, fun and fellowship. The kid zone’s rides were whirling. Smiling artists, vendors and community organizations were plentiful. I’ve never seen so many prize wheels!

After a bit, the sun peeked out from the clouds above. And it felt like a perfect Memorial Day weekend had begun!

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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!

Gaslamp shop windows anticipate Comic-Con!

Is it too early to get excited about Comic-Con returning full force to San Diego?

Of course not!

It’s been two years since the crazy, wonderful, international phenomenon known as Comic-Con filled the Convention Center and streets and hotels of San Diego!

As I walked down Fifth Avenue through the Gaslamp Quarter this morning, looking right and left for interesting material, I remembered that the big pop culture celebration is less than two months away now.

I’m starting to get fired up!

As usual, I’m taking Comic-Con week off from work. I’ll be walking randomly around downtown (where I live) making fun discoveries and photographing the endless cool sights!

Pretty soon the Comic-Con trolley wraps should be appearing! My eyes are peeled!

Not much to see yet, but these shop windows anticipate the big event…

UPDATE!

I spotted Sailor Moon a week or two later!

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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!

Loving life at the 2022 Escondido Street Festival!

A huge crowd turned out today for the 2022 Escondido Street Festival along Grand Avenue!

After a two years’ absence during the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual event in downtown Escondido is back bigger and better than ever!

In addition to numerous vendors lining several blocks of Grand Avenue, I observed a fun art show, tons of food, and multiple stages featuring diverse entertainment. I listened to both rock and roll and mariachi music! I saw colorful baile folklórico dancing!

Folks working to improve the Escondido community were also out greeting people. That first photo is of a smile from Love Esco, an organization that cares for neighbors through simple acts of kindness and tangible means of love.

A also got a smile from the Escondido Education Foundation, but I declined their offer of a free Escondido poster. (I got enough stuff already!) The foundation is a community driven fundraising organization which provides funding for essential resources, and programs that empower teachers, inspire learning, and promote innovation and academic excellence in EUSD.

Also, thanks to the Helen’s Book Mark used bookstore for the amazing deal on half a dozen books! If you haven’t seen their cool mural on the back side of the store, click 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!

Makers, dreamers, inventors come together in San Diego!

After a long pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego Makers Guild is looking to reenergize. Innovators and fun-loving creators are welcome to join!

I stumbled upon the San Diego Makers Guild tent at the Escondido Street Festival today. They are seeking cool new ideas and pathways to follow as makers move into a technology driven, ever evolving future. Interested? Hook up with them!

I was surprised to hear Dexter explain he’d helped build those awesome Cupcake Cars that have roamed around Balboa Park during past Maker Faires!

You can learn more about the San Diego Makers Guild by visiting their website 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!

Fun at Fiesta del Sol in Solana Beach!

Fiesta del Sol has returned to Solana Beach! The big event is bringing the community together this weekend on the streets above Fletcher Cove!

The annual spring festival always attracts huge crowds. There’s plenty of food, music, arts and crafts to keep families and fun lovers plenty busy.

I swung by in the afternoon to enjoy some of the experience!

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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!

Niki and Mingei and fantastic, exuberant creativity!

Are the above chairs awesome or what? I bet you’d like to sit in one!

When I visited the Mingei International Museum last weekend, I set my astonished eyes on this furniture. I then admired other fantastic furnishings, all designed by world-renowned French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle!

The many sculptures she created during her lifetime are widely known. But chairs and tables and vases and mirrors? Yes!

You’ll discover all sorts of crazily colorful objects when you visit the Niki and Mingei exhibition at the Mingei International Museum!

You’ll see an exuberant, irrepressible love of life.

Did I mention Niki became well known for her sculptures?

She has many around San Diego!

Should you walk outside the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, you’ll likely see two of her sculptures: Nikigator and Poet and Muse. And during your travels you might observe her sculptures at Waterfront Park, or UC San Diego, or by the San Diego Convention Center, or at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. If you haven’t stepped into Queen Califia’s Magical Circle at Kit Carson Park, you’re missing a mind-blowing, incredible experience.

Niki de Saint Phalle was closely connected with San Diego and the Mingei International Museum. She spent the later years of her life in La Jolla.

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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!

Huge fun coming to downtown’s Children’s Park!

Whoa! Check it out!

Look at the huge multi-level playground structure that’s being built for Children’s Park in downtown San Diego! The park is undergoing a major redesign, which will make it more . . . children friendly!

Children’s Park is located north of Harbor Drive, adjacent to Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade. That circular pool with its unique fountain between Front Street and 1st Avenue is part of it. The two-acre city park, with its many shady trees, is a very short walk from both The New Children’s Museum and the San Diego Convention Center.

The park has often been used as a convenient offsite location during Comic-Con. Evidently not this year!

You might remember how, years ago, Children’s Park was filled with numerous large rounded mounds that unfortunately concealed drug and other illegal activity. Those mounds were removed in phases.

Now this important downtown open space is being completely revitalized, with the addition of a playground, an interactive water feature, and a new vendor building.

If you’d like to learn more about the project, you can visit this web page.

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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!

Kids make silly critters at Natural History Museum!

Kids always have lots of fun at the San Diego Natural History Museum! They can check out cool dinosaurs and even living animals. And they can make silly critters out of recycled materials!

The creative activity takes place inside the NAT’s Nature Lab, which is open on Saturdays from 10 to 2. The Nature Lab also hosts school children during field trips to the museum and Balboa Park. It has a natural history library, too!

Have you ever poked your nose into this cool Nature Lab, which is located on the first level of the museum? I did last Saturday!

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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!