One cool thing about San Diego’s Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park is that it can inspire heroism. Sure, we ordinary mortals might not possess superpowers, but we do have the power to do great good in this world.
After museum visitors check out the current, very extensive The Myth of Superheroes exhibit, they pass a display concerning real life heroes. Three boards indicate that Heroes are windows to our PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE.
What have Comic-Con Museum visitors–young and old–contributed?
How can you aspire to be a HERO?
Practice kindness…Passion… Be inspired…I spread joy to people…
Who has been a HERO in your life?
Family… Friend…My grandfather…My Dad…
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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.
There’s a San Diego-based nonprofit organization that rescues dogs from high kill shelters and the streets of Mexico. The Animal Pad rescues all breeds with its connections in Baja California–particularly in Ensenada and Tijuana.
Early this afternoon, as I walked through San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, I met smiling volunteers who were engaged in community outreach. I learned a little about the good work they are doing. The Animal Pad rescues dogs from Southern California as well as Mexico. They provide veterinarian care and rehabilitation for the rescued dogs before four-legged friends head to loving foster homes.
The Animal Pad also has a youth education program and operates the fun Camp Tappy Tails for dog loving children ages 7-12. Their La Mesa facility hosts birthday parties, too!
The Animal Pad website explains: The Animal Pad is only able to do what we do through the efforts of a wide network of volunteers, fosters, donors, sponsor organizations, and adopters. It truly takes a village. And we are always looking for help! The Animal Pad is seeking new avenues for fundraising, veterinary and pet supply connections, and anything else that can assist TAP in helping these innocent souls.
Would you like to adopt a new friend? Do you want to be a hero and help out in some other way? Go to The Animal Pad website 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.
Hey, San Diego, would you like to Light the World this holiday season? Head on down to Old Town San Diego this month and visit the Giving Machine!
The Giving Machine is located on Twiggs Street, near Old Town Trolley Tours, beside the parking lot opposite the Cygnet Theatre. The machine might be mistaken for a typical vending machine, but when you operate it, a charity of your choice benefits!
Charities that benefit when you use the Giving Machine include Save the Children, Catholic Charities, Corazon de Vida, Birthline of San Diego, Gently Hugged, and Mentors International. Struggling people, including the homeless, are helped locally and around the world.
Donations that you can make range from $5 to $120. I was told that donating $20 for a live chicken is a popular choice. There are places in this world where an egg-laying chicken would make a big difference to a seriously impoverished family.
I learned that the machine has been up for two days now, and has already had 209 transactions for a total of $16,000 in giving. The Giving Machine will be operating in Old Town through December, 2024.
I also learned that these Giving Machines can be found around the nation, including another in Irvine, California. It’s a project of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so it’s no surprise the machine is located a short distance from the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in Old Town.
Whatever you might believe, certainly compassion is very important. The Golden Rule is universal.
This is one fun and easy way to help others! Take a photo by the nearby Christmas tree, too!
By the way–San Diego Padres ace pitcher Joe Musgrove and ex-Chargers superstar Eric Weddle will be at a big ribbon cutting ceremony at the Giving Machine this coming Tuesday at noon! It’s rumored Santa Claus will be present, too!
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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.
Attention holiday shoppers! The big annual Balboa Park craft sale is fast approaching!
San Diego’s AgeWell Services Craft Sale will be held at the Casa del Prado next weekend, November 16 and 17, 2024, from 9 am to 3 pm each day.
Senior crafters (age 60 and better) will be displaying handmade goods inside Room 101 and on the two outdoor patios.
The family friendly event is free to the public!
So mark your calendars! Then make sure to come on down to Balboa Park to discover beautiful crafts and works of art made with loving hands. You’ll find heartwarming Christmas presents for loved ones–or for yourself!
You’ll be rewarding creative seniors in our San Diego community, too!
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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.
I arrived late yesterday to the Gaslamp Quarter’s Día de los Muertos celebration. The classic cars and lowriders were already departing, so I couldn’t photograph their colorful Day of the Dead hood and trunk altars.
Fortunately the event continued today, so I made sure to arrive early!
Enjoy these photos of touching Day of the Dead altars. They remember and honor loved ones who’ve passed away. The traditional altars attain a unique quality when combined with Mexican American lowrider culture, which thrives in San Diego.
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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.
Día de los Muertos at the Sherman Heights Community Center has become one of the most anticipated Day of the Dead celebrations in San Diego. In 2024 the week-long event turned thirty years old.
The many traditional altars inside the community center, erected by local families and organizations, remember loved one who are deceased. All around the center a joyful festival is enjoyed by families who engage in activities that celebrate life, past and present.
Walking the short distance from downtown to Sherman Heights, I arrived at the event yesterday.
I was fortunate to join a group that was touring the Día de los Muertos altars (ofrendas in Spanish). Daniel was explaining to several people (including folks from Germany) how these altars originated in Pre-Columbian times and evolved to include Catholic elements when Spain entered the American continent. Most of the altars include symbols of the four elements defined in ancient times: earth, water, fire and air.
In Mexican ofrendas today, earth is still represented by marigolds and offerings of food, water by drink, fire by candles, and air by papel picado, which flutters in a breeze.
Daniel explained that because Day of the Dead has universal themes–family, human mortality, the circle of life and love–and because of commercialization and the influence of popular culture, the holiday is spreading worldwide. He noted that other cultures have inserted their own special symbolism into Day of the Dead celebrations.
I took photographs of the many altars. Most were extremely elaborate.
So many loved ones that have passed on–but who live still in memory…
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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 San Diego Symphony has placed a community ofrenda in their box office lobby for Día de los Muertos. The beautiful Day of the Dead altar can be found inside the front entrance of downtown’s Symphony Towers. Step inside, turn left and you’ll see it.
The community ofrenda was designed by local Mexican-American artist Maricruz Alvarado. She has been creating beautiful ofrendas for 25 years.
(By the way, I recently posted photos of a gigantic skull that Maricruz made! See it by clicking here!)
Members of the community are invited to contribute photographs and other momentos to the San Diego Symphony ofrenda in memory of deceased loved ones.
I swung by for a look early this morning…
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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.
As I entered Balboa Park for a late Sunday morning stroll, I noticed tents and a stage coming down on the grass near Sixth Avenue. I then spoke to smiling people who had worked to organize the event.
When I was told about the Walk in Remembrance With Hope, I wanted to help in a small way with my blog.
The walk was a memorable way to celebrate the lives of loved ones lost to suicide & to raise awareness about suicide prevention. Funds raised stay in San Diego County for suicide outreach & prevention and survivor support services.
If you’d like to read more about the organization, find comfort, or help spread human compassion, please visit the Survivors of Suicide Loss San Diego website by clicking 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.
I met Elie Kennedy today. She was at a table painting small, smooth stones inside the UC San Diego Park & Market building. She was participating in today’s Destination JOY event, which would bring San Diego Trolley riders into her smiling presence.
Elie makes lives in San Diego better. She does this by spreading hope and love with positive, affirming messages painted beautifully on stones. Perhaps you’ve seen Elie at art and craft events around the city. I also met her seven years ago in Balboa Park.
Elie has helped sick kids at Rady Children’s Hospital paint happy, hopeful stones. Above all, she’s an advocate for Suicide Prevention and Awareness. Her own family experience, and a day of painting stones on the beach for a loving memorial, propelled her down this road. The selling of her stones raises funds to bring awareness to the issue of suicide prevention.
Today, seeing the stones arranged on that table and her smile lighted my day. Chased away dark thoughts. Reminded me of important things.
Can you imagine being homeless or very poor and hungry? How difficult your day-to-day life would be. How depressed you might feel. How hopeless and inescapable the situation might seem?
I was walking home from San Diego Comic-Con a couple days ago when I met a couple of smiling guys selling water by the sidewalk. They had this sign:
What would you say to make someone’s day?
When I stopped to learn what those words meant, I discovered these guys are working to help the homeless and hungry in San Diego with Lids of Encouragement.
On their table I saw container lids with positive messages written on them. Lids of Encouragement uses these lids to seal care and food packages for those in need downtown. I told them I’d write a blog to help their effort.
I found this article written a couple months ago. It explains how the founder himself was homeless for a while. He must certainly understand what it’s like. The organization has been around for many years now. Lids of Encouragement might be small but it’s still going strong!
I also see students in downtown San Diego are writing encouraging messages on many of the lids.
You can check out the Lids of Encouragement website by clicking here. Perhaps you can help them in their very important mission to make lives better.
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 