Alice gazes out at Adams Avenue from a fence behind White Rabbit Day Spa.
This morning I took a long walk down Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. I was pleased to discover all sorts of new murals and street art since the last time my camera passed this way, about a year and a half ago.
Check out all these photos of the cool artwork!
A beautiful new face has replaced a similar mural between Adams Avenue Tattoo and the El Zarape restaurant.The #SPACECLONES have invaded Normal Heights!An abstract bear mural by @SKYEWALKER_ART appears to contain lots of nature symbolism.A rainbow and fierce pink unicorn painted on a utility box. BE THE MAGICYOU ARE POWER FULL by Janine Wareham.MEOWER TO THE PEOPLE.THISSSS IS AWESOMEA colorful mural on the side of Konrad+King always attracts my attention when I’m driving down Adams Avenue.A very cool face in Normal Heights.Be uniquely you! #CreatesWithPaintsThe fingers painted on this electrical box transform into palm trees and telephone poles!Beautiful flowers and birds.Looks like a crown of prickly pears atop this female face. @ASHLEYLGNARAn ice cream cone cat drips on a silly dog! @MAW_CZMore cool street art along Adams Avenue in Normal Heights.A cuddly cat.
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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 San Diego Architectural Foundation’s 2019 OPEN HOUSE SAN DIEGO event is coming in two weeks! The public will be invited to freely tour over 100 locations around San Diego. Some of the tours will provide behind-the-scenes looks at some truly unique and fascinating architecture.
In anticipation of the big event, I thought I’d recall a few past blogs posts that concern architecture in San Diego. Most of these posts are from OPEN HOUSE tours in the past couple years.
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!
I was chuckling this morning as I walked through Little Italy.
Here are half a dozen humorous photos!
A friendly attendant stands by in a window of Little Italy’s Loading Dock.Whimsical figure above the front windows of Architectural Salvage.Glittery merchandise like a pot of gold in the window of Blick Art Materials.Two neighbors have a friendly oink over the fence.There are many bars in Little Italy. There is also a Doggie Bar.
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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!
Another perfect day for a walk, ride or four-legged run by San Diego Bay!
Favorite sights (plus a few surprises) greeted my eyes as I enjoyed a slow walk along San Diego Bay this afternoon!
Many others were out and about. The breeze was pleasantly cool. Blue sky and sunshine peeked through dramatic clouds.
I walked from the Maritime Museum of San Diego down to the Hilton San Diego Bayside, before turning for home.
Guys at the Maritime Museum of San Diego were busy cutting a chain on the barge.A museum volunteer cleans the top of Steam Ferry Berkeley. Good progress is being made on this historic ship’s exterior restoration!Cool guy Gary Reid provides soulful music by the USS Midway.Visitors to San Diego move along the Greatest Generation Walk toward the Embracing Peace statue.Bright flowers in the garden by The Fish Market restaurant.A couple pauses to gaze at fishing boats in Tuna Harbor.I aim my camera through stacked lobster traps. I believe the fuzzy white stuff is dead, sun-bleached algae.I think I recognize that pedicab driver.A bright sailboat on San Diego Bay, with Coronado in the background.I knew I recognized her! It’s Diane!Kyler MacKenzie plays gypsy music on his guitar near Seaport Village.A balloon twister guy heads off on his bike.Kids examine a kite near a tree at Embarcadero Marina Park North.Almost like a dream. Perhaps you can tell why I love San Diego.People with dogs on the grass, the Coronado Bay Bridge in the distance.A crow on some roots.The silvery Marriott Marquis and Marina. No rain in the afternoon, but dramatic clouds linger.Back near Seaport Village, I spotted this cool Popcorn Bar!Today is the second day of Seaport Village’s annual busker festival. George Gilbert from Fort Myers Beach, Florida entertains a good crowd.I always seem to see a snowy egret at this same spot in the Marriott Marina.Workers string some lights near the Marina Terrace.A pinwheel and a smile! You can’t go wrong with that combination!It’s a Wonderful Life.But getting old does present difficulties.The Flame of Friendship sculpture gleams up on the San Diego Convention Center.Walking along.Trees and clouds seen from Embarcadero Marina Park South.A large gull near diners at Burgers, Bait and Beer.Here come Spirit of San Diego and Admiral Hornblower. Both are coming from the South Bay on a harbor tour.A water taxi comes in from Coronado. That huge yellow Dole Atlantic ship is loading containers at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal.Those empty containers being loaded by the ship’s crane will fill up with bananas eventually and come on back to San Diego.A look up at the Hilton San Diego Bayside from its side that faces away from downtown.Near the bayside entrance to the Hilton there’s a place to take photos. Greetings from San Diego.Another perfect early March day on San Diego Bay.
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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!
San Diego’s own world-famous Murrugun the Mystic exhales a huge fireball during Seaport Village’s 2019 Busker Fest!
This is my fifth year blogging about Seaport Village’s annual busker festival. It’s so much fun, I try not to miss it!
This afternoon I randomly walked about Seaport Village, checking out the acts of great street performers from all around the United States and the world. I protected my camera from the wind and showers and took a whole bunch of photographs. Unfortunately, today’s attendance seemed reduced by the weather.
Tomorrow the sun is supposed to come out. Hopefully more people will then head to Seaport Village for this free weekend event!
The highlight for me was the two-act performance of San Diego’s own world-famous danger act and carnival sideshow performer Murrugun the Mystic! As I watched, I could plainly see he was enjoying himself!
Since I last blogged about Murrugun, he has appeared on even more TV shows. He has now been featured on AMC’s Freakshow, Cougar Town, CSI: New York, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! He also holds multiple Guinness World Records for sword swallowing!
I spoke to him briefly after his show, and I learned he’s devising a hollow tube contraption that he will insert into his throat. From that tube he will explosively shoot flaming arrows! Wow! I can’t wait to see that!
Here come fun photos! Enjoy!
Even with the drizzly, breezy winter weather, people came out to Seaport Village on Saturday to watch some of the best street performers in the world.Daniel Israel juggles while high atop a unicycle!Cate Flaherty is a professional circus acrobat with a big smile. Her juggling and balancing performance was great!George Gilbert entertains people by the water. For a grand finale, he magically made a pineapple appear under his hat!Nolan Webster included a lot of humor in his parlor magic show. That ball was actually attached to his nose! Cheater!The audiences at the Busker Fest were all smiles.Kids seemed to have the best time while the buskers performed. Many adults were very shy.Murrugun the Mystic calls an audience together near Seaport Village’s central fountain before beginning his amazing two-part act!Murrugun’s first act is a series of fantastic fire breathing and eating tricks, including shooting flames out of his mouth! He performed to one side, out of the wind.The second act was sword swallowing. Murrugun the Mystic is one of very few true sword swallowers in the world.That’s a genuine, long and very sharp sword poised on Murrugun’s tongue.Here we go!When all the way in, the sword has penetrated between his heart and lungs and ends at the bottom of his stomach, just below the belly button!Next comes a sword sandwich–six swords carefully aligned together. Over the decades, a scary number of performers have died doing this dangerous sword swallowing trick. Murrugun himself was once seriously injured.That’s a lot of sharp steel to swallow!In go six genuine swords!One of the most amazing human spectacles you’re likely to ever witness!Back near the water, Jonathan Strange was doing some mystifying ring linking magic with an assistant chosen from the audience.Molly Keczan includes lasso rope tricks in her fun The Farmer’s Daughter Show.The Farmer’s Daughter keeps balance as she walks along the top of glass milk bottles–with one good eye! A wildly successful show, in spite of her contact lens difficulty!While walking around I spotted Martika Daniels setting up for her act with a big smile.Martika’s amazing show included being stood upon while lying on a bed of nails!Ouch! Martika explained that stunts like this make some of life’s difficulties seem small by comparison. Her show was super positive and inspirational!Another awesome sword swallowing act!Buskers and audience members all seemed to have a great time, even if the San Diego weather didn’t cooperate today!
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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!
Early this morning I walked from Cortez Hill down to San Diego Bay. I spent a few quiet minutes between the Maritime Museum of San Diego and the Grape Street Pier.
The sun was very bright. It wasn’t long before I noticed wavy reflections of ships on the water!
Without reading the photo captions, can you identify each ship by its mysterious reflection?
Reflection on the water of Steam Ferry Berkeley.Reflection on the water of HMS Surprise and Steam Ferry Berkeley.Reflection on the water near USS Dolphin of Steam Ferry Berkeley.Reflection on the water of Medea, Pilot, America, San Salvador, and Californian.Reflection on the water of Admiral Hornblower.Reflection on the water of Star of India.Reflection on the water of Star of India.Reflection on the water of Star of India.
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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!
Side door to San Diego’s City Administration Building lies beyond a small garden containing cacti and succulents.
I was waiting for a trolley at the Civic Center station the other day when my eyes wandered over to the City Administration Building. A small desert garden caught my attention, and I remembered how a few years ago that semicircle of garden used to be a fountain.
The next Blue Line trolley was still five minutes away, so I walked over to look at a nearby plaque and a sign.
Bronze plaque near the small desert garden planted in the basin of The Phil Swing Memorial Fountain, which was dedicated on July 6, 1967.Sign explains the Phil Swing Memorial Fountain was re-purposed to a Desert Garden. In 1933, Mr. Swing introduced a bill to establish Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.Philip D. “Phil” Swing was appointed to the California State Water Resources Board in 1945. This beautiful garden honors his contributions to the conservation of desert lands and water resources.A trolley arrives at the Civic Center station near a small desert garden in downtown San Diego.
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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!
Today I walked into the Exhibit Hall at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park just in time to listen to a wonderful small concert.
I seemed to drift into a living dream as I listened to extraordinarily beautiful music played on the traditional Japanese koto and shakuhachi. The musicians, Kyoko Takeda and Jon Crick, talked about the pieces they performed, and the instruments they played.
I heard flowing streams, and the wind, and deer calling, and raindrops, and notes rising and falling, and echoing mysteries, and perhaps even a whisper of the essence of life.
After the concert, I walked about the Exhibit Hall and enjoyed looking at the current exhibition, which is titled Tradition and Beyond. Five talented San Diego potters have used traditional Japanese ceramic techniques to create organic pieces. I saw a flowing, easy, natural beauty, spun carefully from the human spirit, much like music.
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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 Balboa Park Activity Center is filled with many elite international athletes, including past Olympic champions, during the 2019 Dave Freeman Classic Open badminton tournament.
Some of the best badminton players in the world are competing this weekend in Balboa Park!
Today I headed up to the Balboa Park Activity Center and was blown away by what I observed. At the 2019 Dave Freeman Classic Open, the badminton action is unbelievably fast and furious!
For several minutes I stood and watched some amazing players perform at a very high level. These elite athletes move so lightning fast their bodies and rackets appear as a blur in nearly all of my photos. The shuttlecocks zoomed and floated. I observed strategy, agility, strength and precision. It’s a sport that must be seen in person to be fully appreciated!
Here are a few photos that provide a small taste of this cool badminton tournament!
Looking at plaques with past champions. The 62nd Yonex Dave Freeman Open 2019 is a USA Badminton sanctioned Classic Series Tournament with cash prizes.
Bronze plaque inside Balboa Park Activity Center dedicated to Dr. David Guthrie Freeman, one of the world’s greatest natural athletes of all time, a badminton legend for whom the tournament is named.The San Diego Badminton Club is one of the sports groups that meets and plays regularly inside the Balboa Park Activity Center.
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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 big bronze pelican standing by the Pacific Beach Lifeguard Station is one cool bird! His name is Pelican Brown.
Legend has it Pelican Brown was observed dancing at the ballroom that used to be located at the end of Crystal Pier. Dressed up in his best velvet vest, he danced the PB Tango!
This fun public art was created in 2004 for the City of San Diego by artists T.J. Dixon and James Nelson. A nearby plaque on the lifeguard station contains the poem The Ballad of P.B., which was written by Jan Phillips.
The amusing poem begins:
Pelican Brown was in search of a home where he could have fun and relax. He looked for a beach that was pretty and a sea that was swimming with snacks.
He flew up and down the long coastline looking both far and quite near. Then, one day he knew he had found it when his eyes saw the great Crystal Pier.
What happens next? Does the story have a happy ending?
Read the entire poem and learn more about the artists at the Project Pelican Brown web page, which you can visit by clicking 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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 