Tag: mysterious

Huge wire insects swarm on park fence!

Dozens of very large insects have swarmed onto the chain link fence at Adams Community Park in Normal Heights! They seem to be attracted to the nearby Adams Recreation Center!

The insects, made of twisted metal wire, include butterflies, beetles, praying mantises, flies, ants, spiders, damselflies, ladybugs, moths, ticks, bees, dragonflies…and bug-eyed species that seem to defy classification!

Does anyone know who created this very cool wire artwork? Was it a project of school kids? Were these fashioned at the recreation center? Please leave a comment if you know anything!

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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!

Mysterious art at Caltrans Otay Station.

Here’s another San Diego mystery to solve! I can find nothing whatsoever about this very unique public art when I search the internet.

A flock of white sculpted seagulls rises at one corner of the parking lot at the Caltrans Otay Landscape Maintenance Station. (A sign at the facility entrance reads Caltrans Otay City Landscape Station.)

This prominent artwork has three different sides and can be observed when driving along Beyer Boulevard near Dairy Mart Road, or when exiting California State Route 905 onto Beyer Boulevard. The flying gulls appear to be individually attached to canvas, plastic or some other flexible stretched material of light blue color.

What is it?

Who created it?

When was it created?

Does the art conceal an antenna (my assumption) or have some other special purpose?

If you happen to know anything that would shed light on this mystery, please leave a comment!

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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!

A very creepy corner of one city park!

Three months ago I enjoyed a great summer hike at Marian Bear Memorial Park in San Clemente Canyon. See those photos here. Today I decided to return and perhaps experience some autumn color, now that it’s October.

My walk was wonderful, as you’ll see in my next blog post, but there was one corner of this semi-wild city park where I thought I’d stepped into a very weird nightmare or horror movie!

Just in time for Halloween, take a look at the coming creepy photos!

As I hiked down a side trail that approaches Genesee Avenue from the east, the trees grew old and dense, the space beneath them darkened, and I soon found myself walking where few seem to tread among weirdly twisted roots and branches.

Had I entered an ancient, evil forest in Middle Earth? Were ravenous, sinister creatures eyeing me? Would I momentarily encounter the Blair Witch?

Those blood-red hacks in one tree trunk was too creepy for me!

I looked over my shoulder, turned my feet about, and doing my utmost to appear unfazed (in case any eyes were watching), I promptly scooted back to the park’s main trail!

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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!

Solve a riddle at the Alvarado trolley station!

Ready to solve a San Diego riddle?

Put on your thinking cap!

At the Alvarado Station of the San Diego Trolley, a long riddle appears near the top of the wall that separates this Green Line station from Interstate 8. The very clever public art was created by Roman De Salvo in 2005. The first part of the riddle is now partially obscured by plant growth, but I’ve been able to ascertain the exact words.

Can you solve the mysterious riddle? After racking my brain and coming reasonably close, I checked out the nearby Braille answer! (And learned a little about Braille in the process.)

Leave your guess as a comment, and I’ll let you know how close you are!

(Hint #1: If you can’t make out the words in my photographs, that’s unimportant. I’ve transcribed the words for you. Hint #2: If you’re unfamiliar with this part of San Diego, it helps to look at a map.)

ARTERIES VEINS AND CAPILLARIES FOR AUTOS RAIN AND CATENARIES ALL THREE LINES ARE SIDE BY SIDE ABOVE BELOW AND STRATIFIED ONE IS NUMBERED LESS THAN NINE ANOTHER WAS HERE AT THE DAWN OF TIME THE LAST WILL BE HERE AFTER A WAIT OR RIGHT AWAY IF YOU’RE NOT TOO LATE LOOK AROUND TO SOLVE THIS RIDDLE NAME ALL THREE TOP BOTTOM AND MIDDLE IF BEWILDERED FEEL THE HANDRAIL THE ANSWER THERE IS WRIT IN BRAILLE

The above sign on the waiting platform contains a little information about the Alvarado Medical Center Station’s unique riddle:

…Each word in the riddle is inscribed on individual stone tiles. The words form a pattern along the top of the south wall visually reinforcing the rhythm of the words. In classical frieze tradition, the reader is encouraged to walk along the station platform form one end to the other…

(If these photos seem a little unnatural, I’ve increased the contrast and darkened them slightly so one can make out the words.)

Did you figure it out?

Share your guess as a comment below!

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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!

Horseshoe recalls Codi, Old Town’s favorite horse.

Here’s another mystery!

Perhaps someone out there remembers Codi, Old Town’s Favorite Horse. I can find nothing about Codi when I search the internet.

This horseshoe with its plaque is likely noticed by very few people. It was placed inconspicuously at the top of some steps that lead under the train and trolley tracks at the Old Town Transit Center. These particular stairs aren’t often used.

I’ve lived in San Diego about twenty years, and I stumbled upon this horseshoe memorializing Codi just this afternoon!

Was this metalwork created at Old Town’s blacksmith shop?

Did Codi live in the corral beside Seeley Stable, where donkeys reside today? Did Codi provide rides or participate in parades? Are there photos of Codi?

Next time I see an Old Town San Diego State Historic Park ranger, I’ll try to remember to ask about Codi.

If you know anything, everyone would love reading your comment!

UPDATE!

Mystery solved! I now know the history of the horseshoe, and have posted photographs of Codi. To learn about Codi, click here!

CODI. January 1974 - November 2, 1995. Old Town's Favorite Horse.CODI. January 1974 – November 2, 1995. Old Town’s Favorite Horse.

UPDATE!

A couple months later I noticed the bit of graffiti had been cleaned away, so I took another photo…

IMG_4458z

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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!

Contemporary art created by thousands.

This morning, as I walked through downtown along Kettner Boulevard, I had to pause for a few moments in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Right smack dab in front of my eyes was some of the most amazing contemporary art.

What I saw was fantastic, complex, perplexing, sublime. The artwork contained numberless potential meanings, contrasts, mysteries. And it was created by the thoughts, longings and creative hands of thousands.

As clouds moved and the sun rose and a truck turned in front of me, I realized it was living art. And dangerous.

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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!

Amazing public art in Vista’s Civic Center Park!

I was pleased to discover some truly amazing public art inside Vista’s Civic Center Park last weekend. The small but beautiful park is situated adjacent to the Civic Center complex, and was very quiet on an early Sunday afternoon.

In addition to a fantastically strange and wonderful sculpture titled Wind Beams, I found four very fine bronze sculptures of children reading and at play!

I’ve tried to determine who created the bronze sculptures of children, but I can find nothing on the internet, and I could find no artist’s name on any plaque. If anyone knows the artist, leave a comment! The sculptures depict a small girl reading a book, a child riding a bike with arms outspread, kids and their friendly dog crossing a curved bridge or log, and two small children riding a large tortoise. The plaque that I photographed, which is mounted near the reading girl, explains these four bronze sculptures were dedicated in October 2012 as a tribute to retired Vista City Manager Rita L. Geldert.

The extremely cool Wind Beams sculpture was created by artist Robert Rochin. The year given is 2010. It’s an unbelievable thing made of four 10 feet long I-beams that move about in the slightest breeze. All I can say is these heavy steel beams must be well lubricated and perfectly balanced! Watching the beams move silently about like immense metal arms whirling in the sky is really strange, even surreal!

Wind Beams, by artist Robert Rochin, 2010.
Wind Beams, by artist Robert Rochin, 2010.

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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!

Mysteries in San Diego: solved and unsolved!

Occasionally during my walks around San Diego I stumble upon a mystery. Often there’s a solution to the mystery that I eventually discover; other more difficult mysteries remain unsolved.

It can be exciting to suddenly encounter the unknown!

Because it was too darn hot and muggy to be out walking today, and because I might not go walking for a few days, I thought we might travel back in time and review a variety of past mysteries. Several of these are still unsolved.

As always, if you know something that I don’t know, please leave a comment!

These mysteries still persist. Armchair detectives, get ready!

For the mystery of a vanished grave marker containing the name of an early San Diego character who was shot in the back, click here.

For the mystery of public art that few people see, that appears to be attributed to nobody in particular, click here.

For the mystery of old, faded signs on downtown San Diego buildings, click here.

For the mystery of musicians that were painted on downtown windows (and which have since vanished) click here!

The following mysteries were eventually solved!

For the mystery of an inexplicable lighthouse on an Old Town sidewalk, click here.

For the mystery of a fountain hidden in an almost never seen corner of Balboa Park, click here.

For the mystery of what seemed a forgotten Navy plaque on the Embarcadero, click here.

For the mystery of strange reflections on San Diego Bay, click here. (This mystery was my own photographic creation, but you might enjoy attempting to identify the reflections.)

For the infinite mystery contained in an ingenious invention that mimics the structure of the universe, click here and here.

And finally, for the mystery of a bloody crime scene that must be solved again and again, 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!

A better look at one very cool mural!

After my walk through Balboa Park today, I headed to City Heights where several new murals have been painted.

When I arrived at the corner of University Avenue and Swift Avenue, my searching eyes spied a very cool mural that I’d photographed a couple years ago. But this time a car wasn’t obscuring part of it!

I like this colorful mural so much I took advantage of the situation and got some good unobstructed photos.

The mural’s title is Journey Within Through the Sea of Soul, and it was painted by Celeste Byers and Aaron Glasson. It’s on the side of the Teros Gallery. The mural depicts the gallery owner riding a Chihuahua ship on a distant planet upstream into herself!

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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!

A strange mixture of sights downtown.

Go on any walk through downtown San Diego and you’ll see a strange mixture of sights. Sometimes you have to stop in your tracks to look again.

Many of the visions that rise before your eyes seem contradictory. Urban hipsters drinking coffee and listening to live music . . . a few steps away from people who are homeless. The boarded window of a looted Gaslamp shop . . . and spray painted messages of empathy and kindness.

And there are the sights that are wonderfully odd. Downtown’s reggae dog. A surprising tree in a surprising place. An insurance company for sharknados.

So much strangeness is mixed in the ordinary life of a city.

The mysteries appear everywhere.

I took these photographs during several walks the past few days.

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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!