Tag: love

Merry Christmas from Cool San Diego Sights!

It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the perfect time to gather with loved ones, and create meaningful, lasting memories.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Here are some fun photos that you might enjoy. I took these while walking around San Diego the past few days.

I spotted lots of Santas greeting passersby from shop windows. I found Frosty, Woodstock and some ugly sweaters, too! And a magical unicorn that doesn’t mind the chilly North Pole!

Cool San Diego Sights will take a pause tomorrow. I’ll be mostly offline. Perhaps we can all put our phones down for the day and experience life as it should be.

We remember warm Christmas experiences for the rest of our lives–not moments on small screens.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Make security blankets to comfort hurting kids!

Do you knit, quilt or crochet? Do you know someone who does?

Project Linus would love your help!

Project Linus gives warm security blankets to hurting kids, particularly those who have cancer or have suffered trauma. The effort is named after the lovable Peanuts comic strip character who carries a security blanket at all times. Project Linus has more than 400 chapters in the United States. Over the years, more than 4.5 million security blankets have been distributed!

The San Diego chapter of Project Linus had a display at last weekend’s Boston Tea Party anniversary event in Chula Vista. I spoke to several ladies and learned about the wonderful things they do. I was told they could always use more volunteers. Even if you don’t knit, quilt or crochet, you can help in other ways, such as donating fabric or transporting blankets.

Please visit this page concerning Project Linus in San Diego. There is contact information near the bottom of the page.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

The light shines through Switchfoot for Christmas.

An extraordinary concert was held this evening in San Diego. World-famous local rock band Switchfoot performed during December Nights at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. It was holiday concert that will be remembered for a very long time.

Switchfoot performed many of their hits, including Meant to Live and Dare You to Move, plus several of their new Christmas songs, such as California Christmas and Scrappy Little Christmas Tree. And there was Feliz Navidad and What a Wonderful World and Silent Night.

Thousands in the pavilion listened, sang along, waved their illuminated phones like candles.

Jon Foreman, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, came down into the audience as the concert began. His voice lifted. And that’s when the light began to shine through.

From the very first note to the last, the band opened doors to that inner light that shines through eyes during Christmastime.

It was the light that tells us we were meant to live for so much more. It was the light that tells us to live our short lives to the very fullest. It was the quiet light that waits in all of our hearts for a door to open.

Switchfoot opened that door.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Outpouring of love, for one who loved San Diego.

I never met San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler. Every voice I’ve heard agrees that he was a man who loved the fans, our city, and people in general.

He loved baseball. He gave so much to advance our team.

He was compassionate for the less fortunate, working to help those who are homeless.

Today there was an outpouring of love for Peter Seidler around San Diego. I heard it all day on sports radio. He touched so many people.

This afternoon, on the steps of Petco Park, members of the Padres staff were building a memorial full of flowers and memories. I walked by to see.

I offered my own thanks to Peter Seidler last year.

Thank you, again.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Little Amal walks in San Diego!

Little Amal walked in San Diego today!

The 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child made her way through Balboa Park, from the Old Globe to the San Diego Museum of Art and then down El Prado. Groups of musicians played while Little Amal touched hands with onlookers. A crowd of hundreds surged around the human-activated puppet, phones raised to capture the moment.

Little Amal has been walking around the world. Between 7 September and 26 November 2023, Amal is journeying 9,000 miles across the United States and Mexico in one of the largest free public festivals ever created. She is walking through 40 towns and cities from Boston to San Diego and 7 cities from Tijuana to Tapachula… So far, she has visited 14 countries including Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, the UK, the United States, Poland, Ukraine, Canada and Norway.

Little Amal’s walk is intended to draw attention to the plight of refugees, particularly the displaced children who suffer. The organization Choose Love is raising funds in connection with this amazing international event. If you’d like to donate to the cause of helping refugees, visit their website by clicking here. Donations provide education, food, shelter, emergency medical care, legal assistance and much more for children like Little Amal.

In San Diego, the event was produced with the help of the La Jolla Playhouse. Many smiling Without Walls volunteers carrying colorful umbrellas were in the crowd, distributing fans like the one you see in my photographs.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

What Is Love mural painted in Escondido.

Sebastian Stehr (@indian_t2b), a graffiti artist from Frankfurt Germany, finished painting a beautiful mural in Escondido about a week ago. His inspirational 15′ by 15′ mural titled What Is Love debuted last Wednesday.

Sebastian is working to complete 100 murals for his project Philosophical Graffiti, What is Love. His murals feature paintings of indigenous children accompanied by poetry. The mural in Escondido is his 86th so far. When all 100 are completed, Sebastian plans to publish a book concerning the project.

I missed the mural’s official debut, unfortunately, but I headed up to Escondido today to see it for myself.

I’ve learned that this mural, located in the alley behind Royal Traveler (125 North Kalmia), is the beginning of Esco Alley Art‘s extension to this same alley on the north side of Grand Avenue.

Several blocks of another alley to the south of Grand Avenue are already filled with amazing artwork!

Children imitate so they learn…then we better do righteous and good…

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Altars for Day of the Dead in City Heights.

Many beautiful altars for Day of the Dead were set up today in Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park for the 26th Annual City Heights Día de los Muertos.

The altars (ofrendas) were the centerpiece of the community event, which also included entertainment on a main stage, tasty food, and crafts and play activities for kids. Lots of smiling families were out enjoying the sunny San Diego day!

Neighbors circulated through the park, viewing the altars, reliving precious memories. Departed loved ones looked out from photographs. There was the traditional pan de muerto, papel picado, favorite objects of those who’ve passed, candles and crosses.

Even cool lowriders parked along the nearby sidewalk contained altars!

You can learn more about the ofrenda and its traditions here.

According to cultural descriptions of the celebration, the smell from the Marigolds helps guide the dead to the ofrenda, and the petals are often picked and spread in a pathway to lead the way.

The thought occurred to me that perhaps it’s the other way around. The altars with their many marigolds lead us who are alive to the dead.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Help keep San Diego clean and beautiful!

I Love a Clean San Diego is a sentiment shared by many. It’s also a local environmental nonprofit that works to keep our city healthy and beautiful!

The above smiling folks were in Balboa Park today, greeting those passing over the Cabrillo Bridge. They were handing out flyers about preventing pollution, and letting people know of many community clean-ups and other environmental activities that would love your participation!

As I crossed the bridge and proceeded toward the heart of Balboa Park, I saw volunteers walking along picking up trash!

I checked out the I Love a Clean San Diego website and learned about their latest effort. A couple weeks ago, more than 5,000 San Diegans joined I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) for the 39th annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Volunteers across the region restored, beautified, and preserved the health of over 100 local parks, canyons, creeks, and beaches and joined volunteers in 150 countries across the globe. As of 2:30 p.m. and with 85% of sites reporting totals, over 76,800 pounds of litter and debris was diverted from San Diego communities.

Wow!

Did you take part? Would you like to participate in future cleanups and make a definite positive change? Check out the I Love a Clean San Diego event calendar 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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Day of the Dead at House of Mexico cottage!

Day of the Dead displays are beginning to appear in San Diego. I observed an amazing example today at the International Cottages in Balboa Park.

Inside the House of Mexico cottage, a large Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, altar has been created. There are sugar skull decorations, and papel picado, and marigolds, and candles, and framed photos, and pan de muerto, and a variety of beautiful Catrina figures, large and small.

Día de los Muertos is a beloved Mexican holiday that remembers family members and ancestors who’ve passed. Their spirits return to mingle with the living.

In San Diego, it’s an early November tradition that many love.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Ten year anniversary of Cool San Diego Sights!

WordPress notified me just now that my blog Cool San Diego Sights is celebrating its 10 year anniversary today.

Ten years? Good grief! That means I’m already ten years older!

It’s been fun so far. Hopefully there’s much more to come!

Back when I started Cool San Diego Sights, I didn’t imagine these posts I publish in my spare time, using photographs taken with a rather old camera, could end up on popular news apps like Google News and Newsbreak. Believe me, if you’ve discovered my posts in those places and wonder how they possibly rate as news articles, don’t ask me. As I understand it, it’s all determined by mysterious algorithms. Take my blog for what it is. A curious guy walking around San Diego taking photos!

But what a wonderful opportunity to express my love for my city.

And a great opportunity to meet all sorts of interesting people, too!

Perhaps I’m most thankful that Cool San Diego Sights has allowed many people to discover my Short Stories by Richard website. As a consequence, my short story One Thousand Likes is now included in a 12th Grade textbook, and part of at least one English Literature course at a major international university.

Ten years ago I had no conception such a thing might happen. If there’s a lesson here, it’s that persistence can pay off. Never lose hope!

Once again, thanks to those of you who swing by Cool San Diego Sights from time to time for a few moments of enjoyment. I keep learning new things. I hope you make a few fun discoveries, too!

Onward!

Richard

P.S. I spied a mysterious garden today in a very unexpected place. That’s coming up!