Many beautiful flowers are now gathered near the base of the Tunaman’s Memorial on San Diego’s Shelter Island.
Last weekend, the annual Tunaman’s Memorial Mass and Celebration began at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Point Loma. A procession was then made through Roseville to the Shelter Island memorial where a service was held.
The many flowers remember tuna fishermen, particularly of Portuguese descent, who were lost at sea.
Even yesterday, almost a week later, the flowers were still bright and colorful.
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The Japanese cherry trees are in bloom on San Diego’s Shelter Island around the Japanese Friendship Bell!
Beautiful pink cherry blossoms now surround the traditional bronze bell, forged in Japan and given to San Diego in 1958 by its Sister City Yokohama.
The Sakura Grove (sakura in Japanese means a flowering cherry tree) was planted during the Japan-U.S. Nationwide Centennial Cherry Blossom Tree Planting in 2012. A nearby plaque explains the grove is a living symbol of friendship between the people of Japan and San Diego.
In 2022, I experienced the sublime ringing of the almost two and a half ton Japanese Friendship Bell. That doesn’t happen very often. If you’d like to read about the bell ringing and see those photographs, click 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.
The Point Loma Association’s volunteer Mean Green Team must have been busy lately. Because look at all the beautiful, bright spring flowers planted along Shelter Island’s long Shoreline Park pathway!
I took this series of photographs today as I walked along the edge of Shelter Island beside San Diego Bay…
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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.
Look for this surprising artwork in Point Loma, on the southwest side of Liberty Station’s Dorothea Laub Music & Arts Center, as you head from Rosecrans Street down Roosevelt Road.
Love it!
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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.
San Diego Tết Festival 2025 is being held all this weekend at Liberty Station. The cultural event celebrating Lunar New Year is free and a whole lot of fun! It’s the Year of the Wood Snake!
The big annual festival is a production of the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance. (In past years, this Tết Festival has been held in Mira Mesa. I went in 2017 and posted photos here.)
As the festival began late in the morning today–Saturday–excited families converged on the wide grassy field of NTC Park, drawn by tons of food, vendors, community organizations, kids activities, photo opportunities in the Cultural Village, a petting zoo and carnival rides. The main attraction, however, was the entertainment up on the main stage.
To begin the entertainment, Naruwan Taiko brought out their drums and boomed thundering, joyful energy out into the audience. This was soon followed by the day’s Opening Ceremony. Sea Cadets were introduced in front of the stage, a color guard advanced, and the national anthems of Vietnam and the United States were sung powerfully by a talented young lady.
A traditional Invocation and Prayer Ceremony followed. Elder members of the Vietnamese community made offerings and prayers for peace.
Then came politicians on stage, then firecrackers to one side, then Hoa Nghiêm Lion Dance! Much more would follow after I departed. (Would you believe it, five different lion dancing groups perform during the epic three-day festival!)
If you’d like to go to the big festival, here’s their website with all the information!
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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 USS Recruit has been humorously called the USS Neversail. Embedded in concrete at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, the landlocked dummy training ship was an official U.S. Navy vessel commissioned in 1949 (and re-commissioned in 1982) that never set sail!
After Naval Training Center San Diego finally closed in 1997 and Liberty Station was developed on the Navy’s old property, the USS Recruit remained in place, slowly deteriorating. Then about ten years ago, the sheet-metal-over-wood-framing mock destroyer received a new paint job.
Last year the USS Recruit finally opened as a ship museum, allowing visitors to enter a large ground-level room inside the training ship. The walls of the museum are filled with historical photographs and video of past service members recalling their unique experiences aboard ship.
I ventured into the free ship museum a couple weekends ago for my first time. I was told that the one room open to the public used to be filled with telephones. Young sailors could use the phones to call home.
Here are a few photos…
Sailors standing on the deck of the USS Recruit circa 1995.Old photos show construction of the largely wooden USS Recruit in 1949.USS Recruit commissioning day, July 27, 1949.One open door allows visitors to peer into an adjacent room.
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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 was walking through Liberty Station in Point Loma last weekend when I stumbled upon crafters working outside one building. They were power carving wood and assembling stained glass. When I poked my nose through the open doors of the nearby studio, I was greeted with a smile and shown lots of amazing stuff produced by creative people in the crafting community.
The San Diego Craft Collective has classes and equipment for creative makers of all ages. They have woodworking, clay and glass working areas, and there is bench space where people can work on their unique projects. A room full of sewing machines was very busy when I peeked in.
Walking every which way with my camera, I found macramé, puppets, ceramics, jewelry . . . you name it!
I’ve learned the spacious studio is also a great place to hold a birthday party or special event!
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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.
An extraordinary War Memorial can now be experienced inside the old Command Center building at Point Loma’s Liberty Station, former home of the Naval Training Center San Diego. The artistic Memorial is titled The Art of Immortalizing Heroes by PISANO Artistry.
A long hallway is filled with amazing three dimensional murals made primarily of painted drywall screws! Over 100,000 of them! The Memorial is also composed of thousands of dog tags and wooden stars.
On the wall opposite the 3D murals is a long corrugated panel that replicates both the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Freedom Wall.
About 2000 volunteers in the military and San Diego community helped to make this War Memorial. It also celebrates Liberty Station’s Centennial.
The artist is Joe Pisano. He envisioned a Memorial for Veterans who haven’t been able to visit the War Memorials in Washington, DC. It honors all those who’ve served in the United States Armed Forces.
I’m so glad I discovered this Memorial on Veterans Day weekend, so that you can experience it, too.
Does this unique artwork appear familiar? I covered Joe Pisano’s drywall screw art in 2023 at the USS Midway Museum. See that old blog post, complete with a photo of Joe smiling, here!
Vietnam Conflict panel. Three soldiers returning from patrol.Global War on Terrorism panel shows the Battlefield Cross in tribute to those lost in Iraq and Afghanistan..Unsung Heroes panel. A variety of heroes, past, present and future.World War I panel, with soldiers and a field of poppies.Korean War panel of soldiers on patrol.Funeral Honors panel, depicting Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.World War II panel, with Marines and Navy Corpsmen raising the flag at Iwo Jima.
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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.
What you see above is very rare. It’s a bronze and wood, 57 inch diameter ship’s wheel. It dates from the Age of Steel Riveted Hull and Steam, 1912 to 1930s. There’s photographic evidence that it might very well have been used in a navy’s super-dreadnought warship!
Joe Frangiosa was super excited to find this rare wheel. His amazing Nautical History Gallery and Museum inside Liberty Station’s Command Center building now features ship’s wheels from five different eras in maritime history. The huge wheel made its first appearance in his museum just a week ago!
Joe confided that this addition has been enormously satisfying. He installed the huge wheel in such a way that people can turn it and pretend to command the high seas. Kids love it!
Joe suggested you all visit his Instagram page here.
Check out my photos of the other four wheels. You might note that rope is tied around one spoke–the king spoke. When that bit of rope is located at the top of a wheel, that means the rudder of the ship is centered. A sailor can steer by feel in dark, stormy or foggy conditions.
The next wheel is made entirely of wood, with wood peg construction. It dates from the Age of Wooden Hull and Sail, 1775 to 1840.
The next wheel is made of iron. It dates from the Age of Wooden and Iron Hull, Sail and Steam, 1840 to 1887.
This next ship’s wheel is polished bronze and shines brightly! It dates from the Age of Steel Riveted Hull, Sail and Steam, 1887 to 1912.
Finally, this ship’s wheel without spokes is also bronze, but unpolished. It dates from the Age of Steel Welded Plate Hull, 1930s to 1945.
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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.
This weekend, San Diego Made is presenting their 10th Annual Holiday Market at Liberty Station. Local artists, crafters, makers and entrepreneurs are selling unique hand made products that you might not easily find elsewhere!
I happened to be walking around Liberty Station yesterday, so I paid the six dollar entry fee to check things out!
I discovered a sunny field blooming with creativity! Check out a few of my photographs to get an idea!
If you want to start your Christmas shopping, drop by NTC Park today, Sunday, November 10 from 10 am to 5 pm.
If you just want to relax and have a good time, there are other activities, too, like an art creation station, kids crafts, live music, mini-golf, and great food! (I had a very tasty barbeque chicken sandwich.)
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 