Tag: recreation

Basketball court takes shape at Waterfront Park!

A new basketball court is taking shape at Waterfront Park, just north of San Diego’s County Administration Building! Check out the above photo taken this afternoon.

A large swath of the garden that originally existed on the north side of Waterfront Park has been removed, and recreational facilities are beginning to appear. Right next to this basketball court will be two pickleball courts. There will be table tennis and fitness equipment. A dog park will also be created.

These facilities will be welcomed by many downtown residents.

According to a banner on a construction fence, estimated time of project completion is July 2024.

(I’ve been told the Serpent Tree, a colorful sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle that used to rise here, will not be returning. If true, that’s sad.)

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San Diego FC brings Chrome Ball to Santee!

San Diego’s future MLS soccer team, San Diego FC, brought its Chrome Ball Tour to Santee today!

A huge crowd turned out at the Town Center Park East recreational fields to watch and play in a big multi-team soccer tournament. In addition to the games, there were opportunities to learn about San Diego FC, meet sports fans and enthusiastic booster clubs, obtain team merchandise, and generally have a good time. The party continued even when the rain began!

The fun included the big, shiny Chrome Ball, which features the names of tour cities throughout San Diego County. The Chrome Ball Tour will continue through the end of 2024 and stop in 18 cities! You can see which cities are coming up by clicking here.

As I walked around and spoke to participants, I learned that the Star Wars group 18th Battalion supports San Diego Football Club, and that the Riptides are super passionate fans who also perform community service. And there were others–click here to see many diverse supporters of San Diego FC.

Are you excited that Major League Soccer is coming to San Diego? I absolutely saw that many people are!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Free art contest for seniors in San Diego!

Do you love to create art? Are you a senior? Answer yes to both questions and you might want to enter a free art contest in San Diego!

I learned about this art contest by reading The Scroll, a quarterly newsletter for seniors published by San Diego Parks and Recreation AgeWell Services.

If you’d like to read the Spring 2024 edition of The Scroll, and discover all sorts of activities and opportunities for seniors, click here! You can find information concerning the art contest on page 7. Or check out the graphic I’ve posted above.

Art submitted for the contest will be on public display for an entire month at the Cathy Hopper Clairemont Friendship Center. Media include acrylic, drawing, pastel, mixed media, oil and watercolor. Time to get inspired!

My friend Mark greeted me last Saturday when I poked my nose into the Balboa Park Senior Lounge while walking around. Folks had just finished playing bingo that morning in the lounge.

Mark reminded me that seniors 65 years or better get free admission to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park during this month of February! If you want to learn more about that amazing offer, click here!

Spread the word!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Learning to folk dance in San Diego!

Spirited people were learning how to folk dance this afternoon in San Diego’s historic Balboa Park Club building!

During today’s Dance Festival, which was sponsored by the San Diego Park and Recreation Department and the International Dance Association, folk dancing lessons were provided for beginners. The spacious ballroom was filled with joyful music representing diverse cultures. Several friendly teachers were on hand.

I watched for a bit as participants learned fun new steps in the ballroom.

As you can see from my photos, the dancing sculpture at the center of the grand foyer of the Balboa Park Club had been decorated for the event. Next door, in the Santa Fe Room, international crafts were for sale by a variety of smiling vendors. Some puppets were also visiting from the nearby Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater!

Would you like to learn how to folk dance? Or ballroom dance? Go to the website of the International Dance Association of San Diego County by clicking here, then check out their information and future events!

“Laughter, song, and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration, or healing: We are not alone.”

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

A talent show for San Diego seniors!

Did you know there’s a special talent show for seniors in San Diego?

I learned about the AgeWell Services 48th Annual Talent Show today when I wandered into Balboa Park’s Senior Lounge. The talent show is quite popular, and is held in the War Memorial Building in Balboa Park–just north of the San Diego Zoo. Participants must be age 60 or better.

Here’s a photo of the flyer if you (or someone you know) would like to participate or purchase tickets to the show!

Auditions are coming up very soon–on February 7, 2024. The talent show itself will take place on March 28, 2024. Tickets will go on sale starting February 7.

There are group discounts available for 10 or more. The entertainment is inexpensive and promises to be great fun!

If you’d like to either sign up for the audition or purchase show tickets, you can visit this web page. You can also call (619) 525-8247.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Cool labyrinth under the San Diego Trolley!

I know some of my readers like to walk winding labyrinths. Here’s a new one that anyone can enjoy–under the elevated tracks of the San Diego Trolley!

The new river park at SDSU Mission Valley has many recreational features, from basketball courts to exercise stations to a large children’s playground. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover this cool labyrinth while I explored the newly opened park!

You can find the beautiful labyrinth by walking west from the Stadium trolley station about a quarter mile (my estimate). Look for a cluster of picnic tables.

A relaxing way to meditate while walking off lunch?

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

The re-opening of downtown’s Children’s Park!

Children’s Park in downtown San Diego will celebrate its Grand Re-opening early next week, on November 14th at 9 am. Finally!

The major redesign of the park is going to make this space much more fun and community friendly. A huge playground is perhaps the upgraded park’s centerpiece, but there will also be exercise equipment, a leash-free dog area complete with obstacle course, and, eventually, an open concession shack offering food and refreshments.

As you can see in these photographs, which I took this morning, the familiar pool near Harbor Drive still features sprinkling fountains that attract seagulls and the eyes of convention-goers and passing trolleys.

The last time I took photos of Children’s Park the renovation had just begun. This blog post from May 2022 provides more information concerning this project.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

An autumn hike in San Diego’s Tecolote Canyon.

A special Autumn hike was enjoyed this Sunday in San Diego’s beautiful Tecolote Canyon Natural Open Space Park.

The hikers, equipped with plenty of water and sturdy shoes, started at the Tecolote Canyon Nature Center and proceeded north up the main trail.

The dirt trail passed under sycamores whose leaves were beginning to turn; it proceeded under ancient coast live oaks, past bright yellow bush sunflowers, and roller coastered up and down sun-drenched hills and through shady tunnels of wrinkled gray willows.

Much of this special hike skirted the narrow Tecolote Canyon Golf Course, whose green fairways could be viewed from above.

A southern alligator lizard with a very long tail sunned at the edge of the path. Birds flitted nearby. As the hikers approached the Genesee Avenue trailhead, an impassable stream forced the half dozen adventurers to turn back. And then we saw three amazing, perfect spider webs suspended up there above our heads.

Those webs made this hike special. As did the San Diego sunshine and a cool October breeze. And the fluttering leaves. And footbridges and wooden fences. And aromatic sage, and monkey flowers, and the call of a red-tailed hawk, and hikers and mountain bikers who passed by smiling. And, of course, the fact that the hikers with me were friends.

Trailside sign explains: This area is being filled with plants native to this canyon. Plants such as toyon, California wild rose, blue elderberry, black sage and others will increase not just plant biodiversity but also animal diversity…

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

New park at SDSU Mission Valley turns green!

Large sections of the new river park at SDSU Mission Valley appear to be almost finished!

Not only are there wide fields of new green grass, and newly planted trees, but basketball courts have been installed, along with climbing and other exercise equipment, a big playground for the kids and restrooms.

I stepped off the trolley at the Stadium station today and walked around. The area north of the station, where people can relax on benches on their way to and from Snapdragon Stadium (or future SDSU classrooms and dorms), is now open, green and inviting. You can see how this area looked when I took photographs back in March. Click here.

The wide grassy area that is mostly south of the trolley tracks is still fenced off, but one can walk along the fence and imagine how awesome this public park will be when it finally opens.

Kicking a soccer ball, picnics, kites, playing with a Frisbee, talking with friends, reading a book, completing a class assignment, going for a sunny walk–this will be the place to go!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Drone Soccer coming soon to San Diego!

Something super cool is coming to San Diego! Drone Soccer will soon be rolled out to some of the City of San Diego’s Recreation Centers!

What is Drone Soccer? Check out the U.S. Drone Soccer explanatory video here. Flying “soccer balls” powered by drones are maneuvered strategically, as players strive to score goals by flying their ball through an elevated hoop. (Sounds a bit of like Harry Potter’s airborne game of quidditch to me!)

Kids playing Drone Soccer in San Diego will learn all sorts of great STEM knowledge, including robotics, engineering and drone piloting–all the while having lots of fun!

Parks and Recreation had a canopy set up in front of the Municipal Gymnasium today letting people know this is in development. It’s still in the early stages, so there’s no dedicated San Diego webpage or social media page that you can follow just yet. I was told that should be finished shortly.

The hope is that next year, during the U.S. Drone Soccer 2024 National Championships at the San Diego Convention Center, some local teams will be ready to compete! How cool is this!!!

Are there any schools in San Diego that already have Drone Soccer teams? Are you a teacher? You need to check this out! Spread the word!

Meanwhile keep your antennae up. If I learn more in the days ahead, I’ll provide an update here!

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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 Twitter!