Many years ago I happened to attend a Spreckels Organ concert featuring an up-and-coming young organist who’d recently attended La Jolla High School. Her name was Chelsea Chen.
This evening, Chelsea Chen, now an internationally renowned organist, who has played in more famous venues and won more prizes than I can mention, returned triumphantly to San Diego, receiving loud and sustained applause for her performance during the 2022 International Summer Organ Festival.
Her fingers easily mastered Verdi, Bach, an Andrew Lloyd Webber medley, and many more–even a jazz piano piece based on the theme of The Flintstones. And, of course, she played her own stirring composition Taiwanese Suite, which incorporates beautiful folk music from Taiwan.
Her warm, graceful notes filled many ears.
As I listened I thought: That concert long ago feels like yesterday. How did the years fly by so quickly?
Enjoy the special moments.
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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 collection of very rare sea monsters has been discovered deep in the hold of a historic ship.
Visitors to the Maritime Museum of San Diego, descending into dark spaces inside the world-famous tall ship Star of India, have encountered strange, fearsome creatures usually considered the stuff of myth and folklore.
Sea monsters that have been observed include the Hippokampoi, the multi-headed Hydra, the carnivorous, eel-like Inkanyamba, and the Lusca.
Visitors, after examining specimens of sea creatures and ominous skeletal remains, and after studying reported sighting of other sea monsters around the world, have then relaxed in the luxurious Sea Monster Saloon, where they might read classics of literature such as Wild Sargasso Sea Monster and The Kraken of Monte Cristo.
Huh?
Well, if you don’t believe me, you’d better head over to the Maritime Museum of San Diego and check out their fun exhibit Sea Monsters: Delving Into The Deep Myth.
Kids will love it! Watch out for the waving tentacles!
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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 big celebration of life is taking place this week in San Diego. People from around the United States have gathered at the San Diego Convention Center for the 2022 Transplant Games!
Organ transplant recipients and living donors are participating in a variety of fun sports competitions. As you can see in the above photograph, cycling 5 km and 20 km road races along Harbor Drive were part of today’s activities!
Through this Wednesday, the public is welcome to visit the Transplant Games Village and Expo, located in Exhibit Halls A and B at the convention center. There you can watch some indoor competitions, such as basketball and table tennis. For a schedule of events, click here.
Many organizations that help those in the transplant community are also present.
I met authors who’ve written books describing the whole transplant process, making it all easier to understand. Other creators have produced videos featuring loved ones who were helped, or who helped to save a life by making an organ donation.
I saw organizations that create online community, gather inspirational stories, or offer practical guidance and mental health services. Medical providers and pharmaceutical companies also had tables. All of these smiling people were there to offer critical help.
Near the entrance to the Transplant Games Village and Expo, several beautiful quilts remembered loved one.
Everywhere I turned, I observed people full of happiness, gratitude and hope, and a strengthened love of life.
I came away feeling inspired.
Smiles from The Mended Hearts. The non-profit works to inspire hope and improve the quality of life of heart patients and their families through ongoing peer-to-peer support, education, and advocacy.
Robert Horsey has written the book Gifted and is producing a video concerning the complex topic of organ donation. According to his website: Even the largest football stadium in the U.S. could not fit the number of people on the national transplant waiting list.
Many transplant stories pinned to a board, courtesy Balboa Nephrology and Evergreen Nephrology.
Author Brenda Cortez is a living kidney donor. She has written a series of Howl the Owl books making transplant and medical procedures less scary for kids.
The Joe 238 documentary celebrates the decision to donate. According to the website: Through multiple stories of grief and recovery, we learn about healthy grieving, what it means to be a donor family and plant the seed for an honest conversation about organ donation every family needs to have.
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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!
An exhibition of fine tempera paintings created by San Diego artist Marianela de la Hoz is now on view at the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park.
Destejidas – Unwoven showcases the carefully crafted work of the Mexican born painter, who was an artist in residence at the Timken earlier this year. Visitors to the museum had the ability to watch her complete the piece Penelope’s Hands.
Marianela de la Hoz incorporates surprising symbols in her very personal artwork. Figures taken from literature, mythology, fairy tales, world history and religion are often inserted into more contemporary scenes. The many disparate elements can be jolting. They reveal the inner character of her subjects. The strange combinations might make us consider our own lives.
Human experiences in this complex world are cleverly combined with well known stories that were first told long ago. Our own secret stories are unwoven, then rewoven.
Destejidas – Unwoven can be enjoyed at the Timken Museum of Art through September 4, 2022.
Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad World, 2015.Lilith, the Other Letter of God, 2019.Mary Magdalene, 2019.The Hands of Penelope, 2022.
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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!
The San Diego County Orchid Society is hosting their summer Orchids in the Park show and sale in Balboa Park this weekend!
I was drawn to Room 101 in the Casa del Prado once I saw a sign pointing to the popular free event.
The show’s many tables were overflowing with orchids in many shapes, sizes and colors. Every flower was like a perfect jewel.
I found so many examples of nature’s beauty (tended by the caring hands of society members), that I had to capture a little bit of it with my camera…
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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 very beautiful tall ship has returned to San Diego. The Mystic Whaler is visiting the Maritime Museum of San Diego prior to a little shipyard work down in the South Bay.
I snapped photos of Mystic Whaler in January, as it was making its way up to the Channel Islands, where it now takes students on educational sailing excursions.
The 110-foot, 97-ton schooner was built in Florida in 1967, and once hosted cruises at its previous base in Connecticut. That explains the Mystic name.
I was excited to see this amazing tall ship again, and my camera promptly came out, of course!
Enjoy a few new photos…
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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!
That, of course, means the weekly La Mesa Classic Car Show was held this evening in the Village of La Mesa!
A large crowd was sitting along La Mesa Boulevard east of Spring Street, on sidewalk benches, on lawn chairs, or at tables outside restaurants, looking at cars as families passed by.
There were classic cars, lowriders, hot rods . . . cars that were perfectly restored or partially restored–it didn’t matter. And there were trucks, and vans, and uniquely modified vehicles that were one-of-a-kind. All were admired as works of art.
What an awesome event!
A community drawn together. Generations sharing one passion.
Voices sharing stories. . . the smell of food . . . the sound of a band playing nearby . . .
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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!
Should you find yourself at Escondido’s Grape Day Park on a Saturday afternoon, be sure to walk over to that green corrugated metal building near the old train depot museum. You’ll be able to enjoy a look inside the Bandy Blacksmith & Wheelwright Shop and see instructors, students and Bandy Blacksmith Guild members at work!
I happened to be walking by a couple Saturdays ago, so I took these photographs.
Students were learning the basics of blacksmithing near one of the forges, and several friendly gentlemen were busy inside the woodworking shop building a dray wagon that will eventually hold a portable blacksmith shop for public demonstration.
You can learn much more about the Bandy Blacksmith Guild by clicking here. Perhaps sign up for a class!
The history of the Tom Bandy Blacksmith is complex and interesting. You can read about that history and learn how the present structure ended up in Grape Day Park by clicking here.
When I read the page concerning past projects of the Bandy Blacksmith Guild, I was surprised that guild members produced most of the metalwork for the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s replica Spanish galleon San Salvador. (Yes, the same ship that took part in Comic-Con last week! If you’d like to see photos of San Salvador being built, click here.)
Another past project of the Bandy Blacksmith Guild was the restoration of the San Diego Centennial Cannon, which I once photographed inside the Whaley House Museum. You can view a photograph of that historic cannon 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!
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 pretty good crowd was walking around outside Comic-Con this Sunday mid-afternoon. The more popular offsite activations still had long lines–two hours in many cases! But some of the lesser offsites were already coming down, being dismantled, loaded back into trucks.
Comic-Con 2022 went by all too fast!
I had the energy for one more walk. Back to work tomorrow.
I hope many of you enjoyed looking at some of my photos this past week. Now I think I’ll take a few days off from blogging, to catch my breath.
But I’m sure there will be many more cool San Diego sights to come!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, 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!
Walking on a Saturday near the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con is something you’ll never forget. It is one of the zaniest, most colorful, most fantastic experiences imaginable.
If you dislike crowds, you might disagree. If you’re delighted by a flood of human activity and creativity, you won’t mind an occasional bump or pause. Your eyes will be so preoccupied you probably won’t notice.
Cosplay is everywhere. Fifth Avenue near the Gaslamp Quarter arch is where you’ll likely see the most costumes.
Everywhere you turn there are a million things to see.
Enjoy a bunch of photos. Come walk with me…
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, 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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 