Tag: fun

90th Anniversary celebration coming to Balboa Park!

A big, fun event is coming to San Diego next weekend!

The International Cottages 90th Anniversary Celebration will be taking place Saturday and Sunday, September 6 and 7, in Balboa Park!

The International Cottages of the House of Pacific Relations date from 1935, when Balboa Park held its second “World’s Fair,” the California Pacific International Exposition. It’s now 2025–that was 90 years ago!

The anniversary celebration begins on Saturday, between 11 am and 5 pm, when the International Cottages will welcome the public with lots of great food and entertainment.

Then, on Sunday, between 2 and 3:30 pm, an epic program will take place at the nearby Spreckels Organ Pavilion, featuring organ music, bagpipes, multi-national choirs and more!

Bring the family! Spread the word!

(You can read more about the cottages and their free, almost weekly cultural programs by clicking 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.

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Watch a plein air painting demonstration in Balboa Park!

Visitors to Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park were in for a treat today. One of the resident artists had set up on the patio with easel and canvas, and was demonstrating the art of plein air painting! Plein air is French and means outdoors.

Michelle Joy Montrose, the artist, who works out of Studio 1, was there outside, painting one of the other studios in Spanish Village. Several chairs were set up behind her so that anyone could watch. That’s what I did!

Speaking to Michelle, I learned she aims to paint every studio, and perhaps create a coffee table book containing all the images. That should be very colorful!

I also learned that Spanish Village intends to have more of these free public demonstrations in the future. It’s a great idea. Engaging with artists on a sunny San Diego day is educational and a lot of fun.

Michelle was happy to talk about all sorts of stuff, including the creative process. She’s a writer, too!

Should you ever visit Balboa Park and walk through Spanish Village, make sure to see whether a cool art demonstration is taking place out on the patio!

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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.

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Make art, help kids in Balboa Park!

A very cool event is taking place in San Diego this weekend through tomorrow, Sunday, August 21, 2025. Artists from the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park are helping you to create your own art, in a fundraiser that benefits kids!

It’s Art Galore Days!

Between 11 am and 4 pm, head over to the Casa del Prado’s outdoor courtyard and look for various stations where you can make fun art!

Purchase $5 tickets and use them to create what you wish. You get entered in a raffle, too, where you can win a fine work of professional art!

The awesome thing is, funds raised will be used to support Spanish Village art education programs for kids and young students!

Some of the beautiful pieces you can win in the raffle:

You can create a snowman button!

You can paint tribal rocks!

You can paint a sunset (or anything you desire) with a frame!

Make a cool succulent shoe!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Join a free, fun Kayak Cleanup Event!

Would you like to help clean the wetlands of south San Diego Bay? Would you like to do so while kayaking on the beautiful water? Would you like to do so for free? YES!

No kayak, no problem. They’re provided. No experience kayaking, no problem. It’s easy going. Cleanup materials are provided, too.

Ocean Connectors organizes fun Kayak Cleanup Events that anyone can freely join. I happened to observe one such event today during my visit to Pepper Park in National City.

I spotted a sign concerning the event at the boat ramp, then wandered over to the parked Chula Vista Water Sports truck to ask all about it. Chula Vista Water Sports provides the kayaks. They partner with Ocean Connectors.

I saw the participating kayakers were busy across the Sweetwater River channel, removing bits of litter, cleaning our environment, cruising slowly, gently along. I think I might try this! Each event lasts 2 to 4 hours.

Check out this page to learn all about these Kayak Cleanup Events and book your future participation. Groups up to 15 can join. And yes, it’s all completely FREE!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Pickleball on the streets of San Diego!

Perhaps you’ve seen stickball on the streets of Little Italy in downtown San Diego–but pickleball in the middle of the Gaslamp Quarter?

Yes!

Gaslamp Urban Pickleball is a new multi-week event where anyone can play pickleball on two blocks of Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter!

As the event website says: Be Part of History — San Diego’s First-Ever Urban Pickleball Courts!

Every Thursday until September 25th, after 4 pm and until sunset, you can play this super popular sport with friends and neighbors, while people cheer you on from the sidewalk, nearby restaurants and bars. Win a prize, too! This cool event has been brought to downtown San Diego by the Gaslamp Quarter Association.

Interested?

To learn all you need to know, and to register, check out the Gaslamp Urban Pickleball website!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Free poetry parties, workshops in Balboa Park!

Poetry lovers! All sorts of activities await you in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park!

Free to the public and open to anyone at least 18 years old, these Balboa Park Poetic Programs celebrate creativity and the power of the written and spoken word. The three ongoing programs are: Poetry Party, Otherwise Improvise, and Poetic Legacy.

Poetry Party is a fun event held on the first Friday of every month from 3 to 5 pm in Balboa Park’s Santa Fe Room, at 2150 Pan American Road West (across from the International Cottages). The description on one flyer: Read your favorite poetry, listen, or make the scene. Be bold, adventurous, and experience the power of the spoken word.

Otherwise Improvise is held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month from 2:30 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge (located in the Casa Del Prado). Be creative! Have even more fun!

Poetic Legacy is a workshop that involves readings and discussions of contemporary and historic poets. Taking prompts from featured poets, participants are then encouraged to write their own poems. This program takes place on the last Friday of every month, from 3 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge.

The next Poetic Legacy workshop will be held August 29th and will feature poet Naomi Shibab Ney, recipient of numerous honors and awards for her work. In 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for 2019–21.

Want more information concerning the Balboa Park Poetic Programs? Email SLemire@sandiego.gov.

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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.

Feel free to share!

Upcoming activities for seniors in San Diego!

When I poked my nose into Balboa Park’s Senior Lounge the other day, I learned that all sorts of great activities are coming up in San Diego for seniors!

The first event I learned about was the AgeWell Services’ 2025 Intergenerational Senior Prom. It’s not a high school prom. It’s a formal or semiformal attire event for all ages, which includes foxtrot and west coast swing dance lessons, lunch, a raffle, and of course, dancing! A glam room will allow participants to have their hair and nails done. The ticket price for all of it is a mere 5 dollars! You can call 619-235-1191 for more information.

Also underway right now is the San Diego Senior Games. Seniors can compete in a wide variety of sports, including basketball, badminton, golf, soccer, table tennis and much more! You can register here. The games take place in August and September.

I also learned the AgeWell Services Craft Sale at Balboa Park is coming up on November 15th and 16th. Are you crafty? Sell the crafts you’ve made by hand at this annual sale that takes place at the Casa del Prado. Find out more by calling 619-525-8247.

You can find additional information about these activities and many more by reading the Fall issue of the AgeWell Newsletter by clicking here.

The pages of the Fall Newsletter are full of offerings for seniors in San Diego, from dances, to trips, to educational opportunities, to social events… Click the above link and check it out!

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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.

Feel free to share!

McDonaldland puppets in Balboa Park, and a mystery!

Years ago, McDonald’s gave a special treat to San Diego. The fast food restaurant donated two of their McDonaldland television commercial puppets to the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park. The two puppets are now perched up near the ceiling of the puppet theater, in shadow behind the audience seating. I happened to spy them yesterday!

I learned that over ten years ago McDonald’s donated their old McDonaldland puppets to various established puppet theaters around the country. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater received the famous, lovable Bernice, plus the horned pink creature in my first two photos. The theater affectionately calls the latter their “Pink Monster,” but little seems known about this particular puppet’s history.

Both of these McDonald’s puppets are quite worn after many years, so they now sit quietly, themselves watching puppet performances on the Marie Hitchcock stage.

Okay, here’s the mystery! Do you recognize the big “Pink Monster” puppet with horns? Was it in fact ever used in McDonald’s commercials? What was it called? If you do know anything about it, please leave a comment!

And now, meet Bernice! You quite possibly recognize her!

Here’s the photograph that I took yesterday…

Wikipedia’s McDonaldland page includes:

Bernice (performed by Tim Blaney and Tony Urbano) – A strange creature that was introduced in 1992 and that ate inedible things like the script in the three-part “Ronald McDonald Makin’ Movies” commercial.

You can find a great photograph of Bernice with Ronald McDonald on the RestaurantClicks website by clicking here!

As that website explains: The lovable Bernice appeared in TV commercials with Ronald McDonald for a decade, from 1992 to 2001… The main personality characteristic of Bernice remains her ability to eat anything. In one memorable commercial, Bernice eats the script and throws everyone into chaos.

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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.

Feel free to share!

Clowns, history, and the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater!

I was walking in front of the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park today when I thought to check the time. A performance would begin in five minutes! Okay, it had been a while, so I bought a ticket!

The show today concerned The Origin of Clowns.

Petrix the Clown took the stage and, with a gaggle of fun puppets, loosely (and humorously) told how clowns have evolved over the years–from the court fools, buffoons, and jesters to the improvisational commedia dell’arte, to European circus acts and mimes, and finally, to the American big top three-ring circus. The performance lasted perhaps twenty minutes.

If you have very young children, and you happen to be in Balboa Park on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, why not enjoy a happy puppet show? As a rule, performances are at 11 am, 1 and 3 pm. The shows change often, so you never know what to expect!

Oh–and more history. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater will be celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2027. Expect big things!

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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.

Feel free to share!

San Diego Ghostbusters catch ghost at Balboa Theatre!

A group of San Diego Ghostbusters entered downtown’s historic Balboa Theatre this afternoon in order to capture a Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor.

Fortunately, the ghost-catching mission ended in a success. After trapping the rambunctious spirit, the ghostbusting experts departed from the Balboa Theatre’s stage so a gathered audience could watch a classic movie: the original Ghostbusters!

Those in attendance, before entering the theatre, had the opportunity to meet some of the San Diego Ghostbusters, who arrived in Ecto-1 and Ecto-RR1 ready for action with their proton packs.

Yes, this unique event was a lot of fun! The showing of 1980s comedy Ghostbusters was part of the Balboa Theatre’s Retro Rewind programming.

The Real San Diego Ghostbusters group takes part in parades, festivals and other special events around San Diego. Perhaps you’ve seen them. Visit their website here.

With their appearance, these friendly Ghostbusters were raising money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. If you’d like to help out the charitable organization via Ghostbusters Give Back, click 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.

Feel free to share!