Today was Samantha’s first day volunteering at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. From one who is a big fan of the museum–thank you!
I walked slowly around the museum’s historic ships in the early afternoon, watching Sunday volunteers at work, and learned a few new things. There’s always something different and interesting to discover here!
As you can see, along with Samantha, many were working to maintain the Star of India.
Applying a clear UV-resistant acrylic to the main deck of Star of India.Volunteering, and being members of a sail crew, seems to produce smiles!Out on the museum’s barge, I saw the Robert Sharp is now pink! Don’t worry, I was told, that’s just a primer coat.Hammering away on the Star of India’s forward capstan.A group was setting out on a Sunday sailing adventure aboard tall ship Californian.I haven’t yet enjoyed a Californian sailing adventure, but I promise to, one day. Looks incredible!There she goes!
Stay tuned for more photos from Chula Vista, Allied Gardens, La Jolla . . . and who knows where else!
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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!
The Maritime Museum Dancers performed today. They graced the dance floor of the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s historic steam ferry Berkeley!
In addition to elegant, spritely dancing, the performers sang both together and individually, and one even read poetry!
These particular costumes and entertainments would have been enjoyed over two hundred years ago in England, in the early 19th century, around the time of the Regency Period.
The Maritime Museum Dancers often perform on another museum ship, HMS Surprise, the replica British Royal Navy ship used in the filming of Master and Commander.
Lucky museum visitors were enraptured by today’s performance, which included line dancing, a quadrille, and a duet. Near the conclusion of their performance, the group sang a gently stirring rendition of Greensleeves.
Alas my love you do me wrong To cast me off discourteously; And I have loved you oh so long Delighting in your company…
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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!
It is essential, to maintain our humanity, that we remember the Holocaust, and the terrifying inhumanity of a time and place when six million ordinary people were systematically murdered.
RUTH Remember Us The Holocaust is an extremely powerful exhibit now on display in Chula Vista. It occupies a corner of the Chula Vista Civic Center Library–a quiet, thoughtful space set aside for the Chula Vista Heritage Museum.
Display cases filled with photographs remember the experiences of Holocaust survivors who arrived in the South Bay with important stories to tell and broken lives to renew. One survivor, in particular, is highlighted: Ruth Sax. As a girl, she lived the horror of Jewish persecution by the Nazis. Ruth would end up in three different concentration camps including Auschwitz.
Those who wish to learn from history will see how Nazis in pre-World War II Germany began with anti-Jewish propaganda and discrimination, and ended with ghettos, concentration camps and extermination centers.
“The smell, deaths, lice, beatings, isolation, tattoos, gassings, cremations, humiliations . . . and the starving, shaving, hiding, markings, threats . . . this was the Holocaust. I felt dead inside . . .” These words were written by Ursula Israelski.
Many of the Holocaust survivors who arrived in San Diego’s South Bay brought with them similar memories. And many, appreciative to be in a free country, were able to live normal lives again–to the extent normal is possible after such life changing experiences.
According to one graphic in a display case, the mission of this exhibit is to shine “a light on the darkness of the Holocaust by creating awareness so that we are guided by leadership, respect, hope and that our history teaches love is stronger than hate and kindness is stronger than power.”
Come and see it with your own eyes.
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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 ongoing exhibit at the South Chula Vista Library celebrates the centennial of the Chula Vista Fire Department.
Today I visited this library for the very first time, knowing that a vintage fire engine would be on display.
I was excited to discover a large, museum quality exhibit just inside the library entrance!
The Chula Vista Fire Department originated in 1921. For over a century now, they’ve saved many lives and been an integral part of this South Bay community.
The displays I looked at concerning dedication and heroism impressed me the most.
Not only do library visitors see historical photographs, artifacts, and firefighting equipment, but at the center of the exhibit stands the Chula Vista Fire Department’s original fire engine, The Gallopin’ Goose!
I’ve added captions with some additional fascinating info. If you have a chance, I definitely recommend a visit!
Chula Vista Fire Department. Established May 2, 1921. People who care about people.The Chula Vista Fire Department’s original Seagrave fire truck, on display at South Chula Vista Library. “The Gallopin’ Goose” was purchased in 1923, the same year City Hall was built at 294 Third Avenue. The new City Hall was also a fire and police station.Artifacts from the very early days of the Chula Vista Fire Department.The Firemen’s Ball was an annual dance that began in 1922. It raised funds for the Firemen’s Benefit Fund. Children were also helped in the community during Christmas.Originally, firefighters used buckets of water passed from hand to hand. But the “bucket brigade” method wasn’t very effective. The development of the firehose was of critical importance.One display in the exhibit concerns training.Photos, descriptions and firefighting equipment in one corner of the extensive centennial exhibit. Fire Station No. 5 is located directly next to the South Chula Vista Library.Firefighting equipment includes breathing apparatus, turnouts (protective clothing) and helmets.Dogs heroes help with ignitable liquid detection, and urban search and rescue.Six Chula Vista firefighters traveled to New York City after the attacks of September 11, 2001. They worked the night shift at Ground Zero for ten days.Artwork celebrates the firefighting heroes of Chula Vista.The museum display is dedicated to Captain William Gavin.If you’d like to show your support for the Chula Vista Fire Department, read the above sign!
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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!
As I walked up Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter early this evening, I had a sudden encounter! A fierce-looking Trandoshan from the Star Wars universe raised its head by the sidewalk!
I quickly learned this detailed model of a Trandoshan was drying in the sun, having been recently brought to life by Saturnino Martinez 3rd, a make-up artist, cosplayer, filmmaker, comic and Gray Jedi Master!
Saturnino posed for my camera while facing off against his own creation!
If you see the Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan walking around the Gaslamp during the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, it’s probably him!
Super cool!
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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!
There are many reasons for optimism this year when it comes to our San Diego Padres baseball team. The potential is there for a very successful 2022 season.
And Opening Day is only a couple weeks away!
I walked around Petco Park this morning and in the early evening, just to see what preparations might be underway.
From Gallagher Square I noticed the bright green field looks immaculate. Walking around the ballpark, I saw that many new signs and graphics are coming.
What I also discovered was the Padres plan to shine!
Because it’s now TIME TO SHINE!
UPDATE!
I saw a huge, very cool Time to Shine mural on Petco Park after the season had begun.
As I finally get around to posting this newer photo in mid-June, the Padres are in first place, half a game ahead of the Dodgers!
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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!
I walked a little through downtown San Diego this morning and this evening. And the first thing I photographed was the above sign We Stand With Ukraine.
Later, I’d see other instances of San Diego businesses and residents standing in solidarity with the Ukrainians, who have been suffering for a month now during the brutal Russian invasion orchestrated by Putin.
The civilized world has been watching the shocking events in Ukraine with horror and great sadness.
May reason, compassion, and human liberty prevail.
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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 beautiful fountain invites meditation near the entrance to the Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library in La Mesa. I discovered it by pure chance while walking in La Mesa last weekend.
And, to my surprise, I learned the fountain, topped by a sculpture, is by none other than James Hubbell, whose mosaics also grace nearby Briercrest Park!
This public art in the Community Health Library’s outdoor courtyard is titled Moving Circles (O’s on the plaque). Water runs from the sculpture, then drips down from rugged stonework into a blue basin, where a watery mosaic ripples in the sunlight.
Moving Circles is dated 2002. I was told this particular project by renowned artist James Hubbell was separate from his work at Briercrest Park.
If you’d like to see those nearby park mosaics, which are also amazing, I took photographs of them, too. I posted those pics 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!
Last Saturday I enjoyed a tour inside the new Design and Innovation Building at UC San Diego. The special tour, part of the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s annual Open House event, was one of many opportunities for the public to go “behind the scenes” at fascinating places around the city.
The Design and Innovation Building opened late last year. This great article describes the building as “A place where disruptive ideas come together to spark learning, technology, collaboration and new ventures.”
Inside the building it feels very spacious. Hallways are lined with large inside windows, allowing one to see activity in classrooms and labs and practically everywhere you turn. From the third floor you can look up through part of the ceiling to see the fourth floor. Even during the tour when the building was quiet, I had the feeling that I was moving freely through an incredible, connected, creative space.
The floors, from first to fourth, are called: The Basement, Maker Space, The Design Lab and the Entrepreneurship Center. Our student tour guide described how ideas proceed upward through the building, forming in The Basement, undergoing design and testing in the Maker Space, then rising to the Entrepreneurship Center where products can be brought to market. The Design Lab is where “faculty from the arts, humanities, engineering and the sciences join forces to solve complex issues related to education, health, mobility, communication and urban planning.”
The building will eventually include a good old restaurant on the first floor, but above all it was designed to inspire innovation.
I was excited to discover a museum-like room on the fourth floor of the building, with a gallery full of inventions! The exhibit is titled Patent Models: A Celebration of American Invention. It was so cool, I think I’ll post a separate blog concerning it!
Now, to give you a taste of what our tour group saw, on with the photos…
Looking into a classroom on the first floor of the Design and Innovation Building.Bits of stimulating art on the first floor.Looking down from the second floor.A room where there are seminars open to the public. At the conclusion of the building tour, our group heard a talk here about the selection of San Diego-Tijuana as 2024 World Design Capital.We walk out onto the second floor terrace, with great views across UCSD, including the nearby trolley station.Walking through the Maker Space on the second floor.Display includes rapid prototyping.I took this quick pic as we moved along.Windows into the future.A metalworking shop, if I recall correctly.Tables where people with unique ideas can freely interact.Gazing up from the third to the fourth floor.One fascinating room at the Design Lab: Speculative Ecology and Bioarchitecture.A room on the fourth floor where students can speak to entrepreneurs.Social Contract on a fourth floor wall. I am joining an inclusive, collaborative community of partners. Together we will extend and expand the innovation economy in San Diego…Nearby post-it dreams. Seeing beyond the horizon…Curating your knowledge and influence to create or envision something new…Solve problem in a new way…Opportunity and solutions with flare…
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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! 