Tag: news

World-record speed Turbinator in San Diego!

The absolutely fantastic 2001 Team Vesco “Turbinator” is now on display at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park!

This amazing 30-foot-long streamliner set the wheel-driven land speed record of 458.440 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats on October 18, 2001.

Anyone interested in cars, racing, engineering or technology would love to look at this one-of-a-kind speedster. It has a unique four-wheel drive system powered by a 3,750 horsepower engine from a helicopter! Can you imagine sitting in this slender vehicle flying in a blur across the salt flats? It seems a driver would need nerves of steel!

Check out the exhibit at the San Diego Automotive Museum and you can also see owner/driver Don Vesco’s NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award (presented in 2002) and a great video showing his incredible Turbinator in action!

Visit the Team Vesco Racing website by clicking here!

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Exhibit explores La Jolla surf culture, art and history.

A super cool exhibition recently opened in the La Jolla Historical Society‘s free Wisteria Cottage museum. The exhibition is titled La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft. As the name suggests, surf culture is explored in La Jolla and nearby communities, from the earliest days right up to the present.

There are all sorts of different surfboards on display. Each is cleverly designed and artistically unique. Local designers, shapers and surfers used these boards to conquer the world-famous surf found off La Jolla and other nearby Southern California beaches.

Subjects explored include the iconic Windansea Shack, which dates back to 1947 and has been featured in dozens of movies. Legendary surfboard makers and surfers, like Bob Simmons, are also celebrated. One of the notable board shapers honored is Rusty Preisendorfer, who, at the age of 16, began a factory in a garage a short distance from La Jolla Shores.

I was surprised to learn pop art icon Andy Warhol filmed the movie ‘San Diego Surf’ in 1968 in La Jolla.

As you might expect, the exhibit includes dozens of excellent surfing photographs, and examples of cool artwork, too.

I really enjoyed viewing a short film. It featured a variety of important personalities. Their words about surfing were often poetic or philosophical.

One interviewee called surfing spiritual. Another called it a beautiful dance. Another explained that surfing brings you to close to yourself. It’s peaceful and calming, said another. The experience is deep and powerful, another voice affirmed. Skip Frye, world-famous surfer, surfboard designer, shaper and environmental advocate, likened surfing to being in close touch with God’s creation.

La Jolla Surf: Culture, Art, Craft will be open to the public through May 25, 2025. Learn more about it here!

A small taste of this awesome exhibit…

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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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Award-winning artist Clay Harris exhibits in Balboa Park!

The work of award-winning digital artist Clay Harris will be on exhibit for the next two weeks in San Diego.

Clay’s stunning artwork can be viewed beginning tomorrow (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) in Gallery 21, at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park. The exhibition is titled Images from the mind of a Mind Voyager! It will run through March 10.

I stumbled upon Clay today as he was setting up the exhibition. He’s the coolest guy you could ever hope to meet.

After checking out his fantastic images of birds, turtles and other marine life, I paused to learn about his art. The high quality digital art is printed on aluminum, and the process creates an uncanny sense of depth. The pieces I observed shine as if light is being reflected from water.

Clay Harris over the years has had his art displayed at many festivals and in many galleries. So many people have asked that he create large pieces for their homes.

I encourage everyone to head down to Balboa Park and check out this special exhibition. And meet an award-winning artist who will make you smile!

Some examples:

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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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New banners and cool events in Balboa Park!

Two new banners have recently appeared in San Diego’s Balboa Park, announcing two super cool events.

The above Da Vinci’s First Flight banner was just hung above the front entrance of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

I spoke to the Air and Space Museum’s social media photographer today as she captured images of the new banner. She told me the Da Vinci exhibit is awesome. One of her favorite things about it is the mind-blowing 36-foot replica of Da Vinci’s hang glider! Okay, that does sound really incredible!

You can learn all about the special exhibition by clicking here.

I was excited to see the above Cherry Blossom Festival banner today near the entrance of the Japanese Friendship Garden.

The very popular annual festival takes place March 13 – 16, 2025. Read details at the Japanese Friendship Garden event webpage here.

To get an idea of how amazing the Cherry Blossom Festival is, check out photographs I took of it in 2017 and 2018.

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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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Bringing a Survival Piece to life in La Jolla!

Why are there 12 hexagonal planters containing citrus trees in front of the La Jolla Historical Society‘s Wisteria Cottage? That’s what I wondered when I paid a visit to the society’s museum yesterday, to view their new exhibition about the history of surfing in La Jolla. (I’ll be blogging about that shortly.)

It turns out the dozen redwood planters with citrus trees is a 2024 project titled Exterior Orchard, A Conversation with Survival Piece V. The uniquely designed orchard examines the necessity of ecologically focused and sustainable food systems in a future where farming practices may become obsolete.

The installation was inspired by the La Jolla Historical Society’s recent exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work. The Harrisons, founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, were visionary thinkers and designers who developed fascinating Ecological Art. They created plans for a Portable Orchard such as this in 1972.

The hexagonal redwood planters were built by students from High Tech High Mesa. The trees and planters, I was told, can be adopted. Funds raised will help support the La Jolla Historical Society’s work.

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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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Hammering railroad spikes in downtown San Diego!

When I think of railroad workers manually driving spikes with hammers, I think of black-and-white photographs of workers laying tracks across deserts and mountains in the 19th century. I imagine the hammering of that Golden Spike, joining the rails of the first transcontinental railroad.

Well, here in downtown San Diego, in this high technology 21st century, a group of railroad workers were using spike mauls today to hammer (you guessed it) good, dependable spikes!

Tracks that support the Amtrak Surfliner, North County Transit District’s Coaster, and freight trains are undergoing maintenance this weekend. (I saw a big tamping machine in the distance, which is used to pack ballast under the tracks.)

The last time I saw a person swinging a spike maul, a John D. Spreckels impersonator was hammering a Gold Spike at the 100th Anniversary of the San Diego and Arizona Railway event in Campo. See those fun photos 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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Enormous soccer ball in San Diego’s Gaslamp!

Am I hallucinating? There’s an enormous soccer ball in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Square!

I spoke to a security guard in Gaslamp Square who indicated the gargantuan soccer ball appeared Thursday and will vanish tomorrow. The gigantic inflatable promotes the MLS 2025 soccer season kicking off yesterday on Apple TV.

Gaslamp Square, located conveniently between popular Petco Park, the bustling San Diego Convention Center, and the iconic Gaslamp Quarter archway sign, seems to have become our city’s small version of Times Square. It’s overlooked by the nearby Hard Rock Hotel. There’s the big MTS video board installed last year. There’s the history of Gaslamp Square being a center of exciting outdoor activities during Comic-Con.

Come to think of it, I remember how, in 2017, a small aircraft was mounted here on a pedestal to promote a Red Bull Air Race over San Diego Bay.

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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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Living Art Experience in Southeast San Diego!

A joyful celebration of culture and history was enjoyed this afternoon in Southeast San Diego. The Friends of the Malcolm X Library: Living Art Experience honored Black History Month with dance, music, poetry, a fashion show, plus local artists and a live painting demonstration. Refreshments were included!

The community room at the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library was filled with energy as the free, family-friendly event got underway. Words from the stage expressed gratitude to our Creator, and the audience was encouraged to remember our ancestors and think of those who would follow us after we leave this world. Lift Every Voice rose from many voices.

A fun fan dance followed! It seems half the room participated!

I enjoyed looking at the art, crafts and clothing displayed at various tables. I took several photographs during this wonderful, very colorful event.

Reginald Green, an instructor for Veterans Art Project (VETART), had a table full of artwork. He works out of VETART’s ceramic and glass studio in Vista.

VETART provides a process-intensive arts encounter proven to help Veterans and Active Duty (some with post-traumatic stress, TBI, and MST) find their voice and work through the life-changing process of transitioning from military to civilian life.

Some more photos…

Christie’s Place was present. As their website states: Love Grows Here.

Christie’s Place is the only agency in San Diego whose mission is dedicated to serving women, children and families whose lives have been impacted by HIV/AIDS.

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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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Autonomous cars test on San Diego streets!

In the past few days, I’ve spotted autonomous Waymo cars navigating streets in San Diego. Bankers Hill is where I saw two of the cars, to be exact. Both had drivers behind the steering wheel. I had my camera at the ready this afternoon to capture the above photo. Yes, there is a driver in there.

Waymo is the company that has those driverless autonomous taxis operating up in San Francisco. You hail them with your phone and input the destination.

Here in San Diego, and other test cities, Waymo cars are being driven through certain neighborhoods in order to gather data, refine maps, and learn about the peculiarities of different places. Here’s an article that thoroughly describes the Waymo tests in San Diego. They began very recently.

I can see how many people are wary of driverless cars. The concept is revolutionary and still pretty new. One hears of glitches.

I suppose, however, that at some point in the future, driverless cars will be ubiquitous in every city around the world and taken for granted, just as other groundbreaking technologies eventually become the norm. I grew up with a rotary dial telephone . . . and an astounding invention: the electronic push button calculator!

We live in exciting, uncertain times when technology is taking gigantic leaps forward. Artificial intelligence, chips in heads, advancing robotics, virtual reality worlds… Where will all of this take us? How will this change us?

I wonder. Will the automation of practically everything make life more fulfilling?

I guess humanity will take the journey and find 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.

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Dreamscapes of nature’s wonders in San Diego!

Walk through Galleries 14/15 at the San Diego Museum of Art and you might think you’re strolling through a bright dream–a dream of intense beauty that is both real and unreal.

Ruud van Empel: Theatre is an exhibition that opened a little over a week ago at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

Ruud van Empel is a Dutch photographer and visual artist who makes spectacular digital collages like the ones you see in my photos. He finds beautiful plant forms in nature–in forests, marshes, deserts, and wherever he travels–then digitally combines them into images that look both alien and familiar. To me, the images are of a paradise. He’ll introduce the human form into some of the creations.

When you visit this exhibit, make sure to watch the short film, which describes Ruud van Empel’s creative process. I’m envious. He gets to journey through some of our world’s most amazing natural places while simultaneously creating dreamlike worlds of his own.

If you’d like to view his beautiful worlds, step into the two free combined Galleries 14 and 15. You can access the galleries near the entrance to the courtyard Panama 66 restaurant, located on the west side of Plaza de Panama and the museum. Simply walk through the door that leads to the public restrooms. Ask someone working at Panama 66 if you’re not sure where to go!

Ruud van Empel: Theatre will be on view through July 27, 2025.

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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 this!