In San Diego’s Civic Center Plaza, near the Civic Theatre Ticket Office, you’ll find these words:
Blooming is the wild body unmarred by the limits of this world
Its petals temporary but you’d never know it
The two lines were written by Paola Capó-García, San Diego Poet Laureate 2025-2027. A special City of San Diego webpage provides her biography.
Paola Capó-García lives in North Park. Her accomplishments and accolades as educator, author and journalist are numerous.
The thought-provoking words in Civic Center Plaza are actually the conclusion of her poem Wild, which you can read here. Her poem explains the difference between blooming and blossoming.
Are you blooming?
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Balboa Park’s International Cottages are celebrating their 90th anniversary this weekend! They were established in 1935 for the California Pacific International Exposition.
The festivities kicked off today with the House of Pacific Relations International Cottage Parade of Flags!
Members of all the different Houses paraded through Balboa Park, to finally assemble at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Many participants wore traditional dress, representative of their nation.
Shame on me. I didn’t realize the parade was today. I was fortunate to catch the tail end of the colorful parade, as some of the nations filed proudly into the organ pavilion.
If you’re curious, that’s the House of Scotland Pipe Band with their drums and bagpipes under the huge United States flag. They were joined by young members of the Helix High School Highlanders band!
After the parade, there would be the National Anthem, speeches and cultural entertainment on the organ pavilion stage, then on the lawn at the International Cottages. (I’ll share those photos in my next blog post.)
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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.
As I walked along the Paradise Creek Trail in National City, I noticed someone in an orange vest moving about near the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge, in a shrubby area at the edge of Paradise Marsh. He was working just off the roadside trail, a little north of the Pier 32 Marina. I had to ask what he was up to.
I had met Rob of Tierra Data. His company is working with the Port of San Diego to restore habitat by removing Acacia cyclops, also called coastal wattle. He was using super precise GPS to mark where he found living stumps. The stumps need to be effectively removed.
Acacia cyclops is native to Australia. Like eucalyptus trees, it thrives in San Diego’s similar climate. The plant has invaded parts of California, growing in fragile wetland habitats and among riparian communities.
I asked Rob how he recognizes which stumps belong to Acacia cyclops. He explained how seed pods lying in the soil around the stump allow for identification.
I’m so glad I paused to talk for a moment or two. Rob was pleased to explain his activity. (And he described birds he has seen and studied, too!)
There’s always more to learn!
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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.
During my walk through Balboa Park today, I came upon a quietly smiling gentleman in a lawn chair with a poster in front of him. I had stumbled upon the Listening Project.
Joshua was very welcoming as I asked him about his Listening Project. He said his only intention was to listen to people if they decide to engage. He’ll listen politely to absolutely anything you might say.
Joshua believes everybody needs to be heard, and that listening is a gift we give to other people. Our listening lets people know that they matter.
Our listening also helps us to grow as human beings.
Actually hearing and considering the thoughts of other people, I have to agree, is an essential part of being thoughtful ourselves–no matter what that other person might say. Nobody is exactly alike. We are all fallible, complex and have our own unique life experiences.
In these days of social media, which seems to reward division, deceit, name calling and unabashed rudeness, polite, thoughtful one-on-one listening seems more important than ever.
Sadly, it also seems we human beings can be a bit self-absorbed. Sometimes when we converse we are more concerned about what we will say, rather than what the other person is saying. We talk over each other. I can be guilty of this, myself.
Joshua listens confidentially and doesn’t judge. As his website explains: The idea for the Listening Project first came to me around three years ago. The idea was very simple: set up a couple of chairs in public places and offer people the opportunity to speak uninterrupted about anything they wished for five or ten minutes, with the promise that if they did so I would really listen.
Does he have some ulterior motive or hidden agenda? Merely this: I believe that through listening and connecting we can: shed fears or anxieties we hold about reaching out to ‘strangers’; cast off the stereotypes we live with; build bridges across the boundaries that we have created and which divide us; reduce the loneliness that many of us feel; and gain insight into what it might take to create broader ‘communities’ in our lives.
Yes, Joshua is out of the ordinary. In a very, very good way!
He wouldn’t mind if others followed in his footsteps, but he’s very humble about his “experiment” and wishes only that people choose their own path.
Are you curious about the Listening Project? I urge you to check out its website 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.
There are several beautiful rose gardens around Liberty Station in Point Loma. One that visitors might miss is located along the path that follows the edge of the nearby boat channel. It’s called the Hugh Story Memorial Rose Garden.
This garden is situated not far from the 52 Boats Memorial, which honors the ultimate sacrifice made by men aboard U.S. Navy submarines that were lost at sea during World War II.
Those who read the Hugh Story Memorial Rose Garden’s marker can understand why.
Hugh Story Memorial Rose Garden
Dedicated To The Memory Of HUGH GOODMAN STORY, SR. 1920 – 2006 Creative Leader – Motivator
Hugh served his country within the submarine service during World War II, making 5 war patrols in the Pacific and earning a Bronze Star and Combat V Unit Citation.
After the war, he remained in the Naval Reserve, attaining the rank of Commander. In civilian life, he spent thirty years building and managing refineries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Hugh is revered by this community for his twenty-four years of full-time volunteer service to Point Loma and San Diego. He is especially loved for the hundreds of trees that he and his fellow volunteers planted, and for the streetscape improvements they brought to the sidewalks, streets and boulevards of Point Loma. As past president of the Point Loma Association and its Beautification Committee, he formed the “Mean Green Team” to care for the Committee’s many undertakings. He inspired people of all ages, from Boy and Girl Scouts to retirees, to create, install, and maintain the urban projects that enliven Point Loma.
Hugh was equally unflagging in the time and effort he devoted to the Navy League, the Submarine Veterans of WWII, the San Diego Maritime Museum and Friends of the Point Loma Library.
Hugh Story made a difference. He did so in many ways, but always by improving life for those he touched through his selfless service to the community.
Friends and family of High Story provided funds for this garden which was dedicated March 19, 2010.
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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’m fortunate to be fairly healthy and active. I know that if I couldn’t enjoy my sunshine-filled walks, meeting friends–if I had severe mobility difficulties–I would become seriously depressed. That’s the way I’m made.
Knowing this, I was excited to learn about AbleGamers today at San Diego Comic-Con. AbleGamers is an organization that fights social isolation by making it easier for the disabled to participate in gaming. Here’s their website.
AbleGamers has been around for around 20 years. They have helped countless numbers of people find more joy and connection in their lives.
Their mission:
Creating opportunities that enable play in order to combat social isolation, foster inclusive communities, and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
With your help, we are working every day to make sure people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else for positive experiences through play. With our two decades as pioneers in inclusive play, thousands of hours working with people with disabilities, leading developers and engineers we create opportunities for players to find inclusive places to play and connect with family and friends.
AbleGamers partners with various organizations, including hospitals and rehabilitation centers, to reach more people with disabilities and provide them with a nearby location to assist in setup to enter the world of gaming.
No matter how severe the disability, today’s technology allows anyone to fully connect with other gamers. Gaming controls are made in such a way that even those without use of their hands can join the online community, having fun. Many of the major video game developers work with AbleGamers to make play more accessible.
I hope you are as inspired as I am. Please check out The AbleGamers website and perhaps help these good people in their mission.
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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.
Today, in the mid-afternoon, people were gathering along San Diego’s Embarcadero to watch Fourth of July fireworks. Families were camping in grassy spots and setting up lawn chairs and blankets in strategic positions next to San Diego Bay. After dark, four barges on the water would be launching synchronized fireworks during the 9 o’clock Big Bay Boom!
I enjoyed a long walk, observing the activity. As time passed, more and more people arrived until a good crowd was milling about on the Embarcadero’s boardwalk.
These photographs begin near the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, proceed through Embarcadero Marina Park South, then head up past the Marriott Marquis Marina, through Seaport Village, through Embarcadero Marina Park North, past Tuna Harbor, the USS Midway and the Broadway Pier, and end a short distance north of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
It was a sunny afternoon, with barbeques out and kites flying–another perfect day in America’s Finest City!
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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.
The 26th Annual Flag Day Parade was held late this morning through downtown La Mesa. Hundreds of residents came out for the patriotic Flag Day spectacle.
Flags lined La Mesa Boulevard. Families gathered along the sidewalks in anticipation. At ten o’clock, the big parade, a beloved La Mesa tradition, began!
There were marching bands, equestrian groups, politicians, scouts, local schools, churches, clubs and organizations, waving queens, costumed cosplayers, cool cars . . . even tractors! It appeared to me the entire community had come together.
The Flag Day Parade this year celebrated service organizations who work to improve lives in the city. Grand Marshalls were the La Mesa Kiwanis Club, the La Mesa Lions Club, La Mesa Optimist International, and the La Mesa Rotary Club.
Most of my photographs were taken a bit away from the crowd, which mostly gathered in the center of La Mesa’s historic downtown. At the end of the parade, I followed the big flag held by volunteers, and I took my final photo with hundreds of flag-waving spectators all around.
Ready? The big parade is starting…
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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.
Will you join these smiling young ladies and help the Santee Food Bank?
During my visit to the Santee Street Fair today, I learned that the Santee Food Bank could use your assistance fighting hunger. They’d love to welcome new volunteers, contributions of food, and reusable plastic bags that can be filled with food for distribution in the Santee community.
If you have it in your heart, please visit the Santee Food Bank website by clicking here.
Life is tough enough. Imagine going to bed hungry.
Your contributions–even modest ones–directly help people. Those people might be your neighbors.
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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 met an artist in Balboa Park today who creates beautiful crocheted hats and heartfelt poetry. Her name is Espi Love.
Espi had many different colored hats that she has crocheted, and with her typewriter she was composing poems for passersby. She wrote a poem for me about her hat.
It’s about whimsy, silliness and being unafraid. It concludes: we should all be brave as a playful child
I can definitely identify with silliness!
I hope you might see her next time you’re in Balboa Park. Look for her smile, and expect words of wisdom tapped out from her fingers. You might like one of her whimsical hats, too!
And yes! She has a website with lots of cool stuff! You can order one of her fun “Minky” hats online! Go to her 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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 