In 2019, about one week after its installation, I posted a blog concerning this amazing, stainless steel, sea snail sculpture, which is called Growing Home. It rises near Petco Park in East Village, in front of the Park 12 – The Collection luxury apartments.
You can read more about this phenomenal public art and see my original photographs by clicking here.
Last night I walked past Growing Home. Wow. I was so struck by its glowing brilliance that I had to take more photos.
And here they are!
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Enjoy a collection of fun photographs taken this evening before and during the 55th Annual San Diego Bay Parade of Lights!
Thousands lined San Diego Bay as boats strung with lights and decorations for the holidays floated by in a festive procession. The theme for 2025 was An “Out of this World” Christmas!
I took photos before the boat parade began while I walked along the Embarcadero. I started near the Maritime Museum of San Diego, headed south past the USS Midway Museum and Seaport Village, then back, with a brief stop at the end of Broadway Pier. As I walked along the sun set and the evening grew darker.
Parents were buying lighted bubble balloons and whirly wands for their excited kids from boardwalk vendors. A bunch of lighted bicycles went by! Out on the pier food trucks were parked behind a small grandstand from which the crowd could watch the parade.
By the time I returned to the Maritime Museum it was night. The brightly lit parade boats, after coming down from Shelter and Harbor Islands, were beginning to pass by!
The USS Midway and its aircraft were illuminated colorfully, as was the exterior of the County Administration Building and other bayside landmarks.
Christmas is now only four days away!
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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing Cool San Diego Sights on a phone, you can open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
This evening, before the Spreckels Organ Pavilion’s Classic Rock Band’s concert featuring music of The Beatles got started, I walked a bit. I meandered around Balboa Park and took these photographs.
The sun was setting. Here and there building lights were appearing. The Spreckels Organ Pavilion was jammed with concert-goers. A few people were walking down El Prado, or by the Botanical Building as the sky gradually darkened…
The music began…
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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.
Hundreds of Star Wars fans gathered in Balboa Park this evening to light the night with uplifted and dueling lightsabers. It’s an annual tradition during San Diego Comic-Con, organized by the Underground Lightsaber Fighters of San Diego.
The family-friendly event was billed as the Light Saber World Championship, but the competition seemed entirely informal. As far as I could see, it was mostly parents and kids having a blast.
After dark, near the fountain by Park Boulevard, simulated lightsaber battles would begin. First it was kids against a gentle “master” lightsaber fighter. Then the masters faced each other. The roar of the crowd determined the winner!
Two rules were announced. Be safe. Have fun!
I could clearly see there was a ton of fun!
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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.
A weird glowing jellyfish–perhaps giving birth? A wildly creative lamp? Some alien creature from the planet Pandora? A dream-thing resplendent with arcane symbols?
As I walked in darkness this morning through downtown San Diego, a very strange, seemingly living thing caught my eye. It was shining in the studio window of artist James Watts!
In the darkness long before sunrise, downtown San Diego sleeps.
I often walk the city streets in the very early morning, when practically nobody is about. There are those times when I have to catch the day’s very first trolley. It can be a strange almost eerie experience. The stillness. The silence.
Here are some photographs I’ve taken during recent night walks.
There are sudden visions behind windows, on sidewalks, rising into the black sky.
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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.
Two walks through downtown San Diego. Yesterday, and early this morning before sunrise.
Another helping of colorful and tasty holiday photographs!
San Diego’s famous U.S. Grant Hotel is brightly lit Christmas green and red for the 2024 holiday season.Advertisement on a downtown San Diego bus stop shelter promotes the Holiday Bowl, which is coming up on Friday, December 27.The plaza in front of 550 West C Street has become a magical holiday wonderland.A beautifully lit wreath in the same plaza.Last year’s illuminated “Christmas crane” is back in the sky above downtown San Diego!Santa has landed at a building under construction!Someone from Italy also took photos of this Christmas spectacle while standing on the sidewalk beside me. She commented this is a sight you’d only see in America. I’ll take that as a good thing!If you want to feel good, drop into the Donut Bar and say Hi to my friends.Hungry for a super scrumptious chocolate yule log? Call the Donut Bar and they’ll make one for you!
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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.
I took these photographs this morning while it was still dark. They show new public artwork in downtown San Diego. My camera was placed up against the construction fence surrounding the not-yet-opened Progress Park (at the corner of Broadway and Harbor Drive) at the new RaDD complex.
This very cool sculpture, which is illuminated in the night, is titled Shhh Pavilion: The Hopekeeper.
Yes, that’s an interesting name! Even more interesting is the fact that the sculpture’s geometric structure utilizes Voronoi tessellation.
Huh? What?
Learn more about this sculpture, Voronoi tessellation and this new public park coming to San Diego’s waterfront by visiting a past blog post 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.
Have you seen the towering construction crane in downtown San Diego that’s lit up at night for Christmas? It’s hard to miss!
I tried to take good photos early this morning.
The festive holiday crane is bright green, red and several other colors.
It’s one special crane that will lift heavy steel beams and your spirit!
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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)!
You know it’s the holiday season in San Diego when Christmas colors illuminate downtown’s U.S. Grant Hotel!
During the night the hotel turns bright green and red. I took these photographs as I walked down Broadway very early this morning, while it was still dark.
You might notice some scaffolding. The building’s exterior is presently undergoing a refresh.
Did you know the U.S. Grant Hotel was built by the son of President Ulysses S. Grant, has hosted twelve United States Presidents, and was the very first location for San Diego Comic-Con?
Learn more about the elegant hotel’s amazing history 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)!