Tag: san diego

Fun times at San Diego’s Fall Back Festival!

The 23st Annual Fall Back Festival was enjoyed this afternoon by many families in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter!

The Fall Back Festival always coincides with the end of Daylight Saving Time. Hence the name! The festival is produced by the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation and is held in front of the Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House.

This annual “children’s historical street faire” celebrates our city’s early history by providing diverse entertainment and lots of fun.

There’s food galore, Old West photo opportunities, a real blacksmith demonstration (courtesy of Old Town’s Blacksmith Shop), and folks representing the San Diego Model A Ford Club, Sunshine Quilters of San Diego, the Villa Montezuma Museum, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, Puppetry Arts Guild of San Diego, and more!

The entertainment began with the San Diego Lucky Lion Dancers. They were followed by colorful young dancers from Ballet Folklorico – GIFT of DANCE. Then came fun contests open to one and all, including a bubblegum blowing competition!

Did you miss the festival this year? Take a virtual tour by clicking 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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Preparing for the world’s most desired cruise!

The people you see in these photographs are extremely fortunate. They are the volunteer crew members of the Star of India, world’s oldest active sailing ship.

Next weekend, after a break of five years, the historic tall ship will be sailing from its home at the Maritime Museum of San Diego and out into the Pacific Ocean.

Today was the crew’s last chance to practice handling the ship before actually putting to sea–they must manipulate yards and sails very quickly and carefully. The iron-hulled Star of India, built in 1863, has no engine. And it’s a world treasure.

I stood on deck this morning, watching the crew members hard at work, feeling very envious.

A docent stood by me and we talked a bit. He gets to go out on the Star of India next weekend along with the many crew members. As he explained, the upcoming journey out of San Diego Bay is truly the world’s rarest, most desired cruise.

Want to go on that rare cruise in the future? You can volunteer at the Maritime Museum of San Diego and become a crew member!

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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)!

Restoration of replica Wright Flyer, world’s first aircraft.

Visitors to the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s Gillespie Field Annex in El Cajon yesterday were in for an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind treat!

An amazing, full-size replica of the Wright Flyer, invented and flown by Orville And Wilbur Wright in 1903, was on view as it is being restored. The famous Wright Flyer, (also known as the Kitty Hawk, Flyer I, or the 1903 Flyer) was the world’s first successfully powered and controlled aircraft.

The careful restoration has been ongoing inside one of the hangars at the Gillespie Field Annex. Right now the aircraft’s fragile wooden framework is laid bare, as the outer fabric has yet to be replaced.

A sign by the aircraft details its history, dimensions and construction. This particular Wright Flyer reproduction was obtained from Valentine Aero in 1979. When various repairs are completed, it will be proudly displayed at the Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park.

To read the sign, enlarge my photograph.

I took these photos of the Wright Flyer replica during my visit to Aerofest yesterday. The annual event allowed visitors to peer into this hangar, plus purchase all sorts of aviation collectibles in support of the museum.

I first visited the Gillespie Field Annex in early 2019 and blogged about what I saw. See that post here. (Please note that entry is no longer free–it’s $7, but well worth it!)

The first powered, controlled, sustained airplane flight in history. Orville Wright, age 32, is at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. His brother, Wilbur Wright, age 36, ran alongside to help balance the machine, having just released his hold on the forward upright of the right wing. The starting rail, the wing-rest, a coil box, and other items needed for flight preparation are visible behind the machine. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

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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)!

Fine photography exhibited in Balboa Park!

There’s a special place in Balboa Park where photography clubs meet and compete, and amazing photographs cover the walls.

Curious? Walk along Village Place east of the huge Moreton Bay Fig tree, toward the intersection that leads to the parking lot east of Spanish Village, and look for the small Photographic Arts Building. It’s home of the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs.

Several galleries filled with fine photographs are open free to the public on Saturday afternoons. I stepped through the door today, spoke with some friendly folks, and admired the work of exceptional regional photographers.

Clubs that meet here include the Darkroomers, Poly Photo Club, Photo Naturalists, and the Fallbrook Camera Club. According to an informative handout I received, the Southern California Association of Camera Clubs fosters enrichment programs for photographers of all skill levels through our member clubs and photographic programs. If you love photography, you’re encouraged to join!

After viewing the works on display, I asked a few questions. I learned that nearly all of the photos taken are digital, and that nearly all are photoshopped. Which is a bit disappointing to me, personally. I love a stunning, flawless picture as much as anyone, but I also love authenticity. Perhaps that’s just silly me, with my modest old camera, being jealous!

Do you love art or photography? This is definitely a place you want to visit!

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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)!

Little Amal walks in San Diego!

Little Amal walked in San Diego today!

The 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child made her way through Balboa Park, from the Old Globe to the San Diego Museum of Art and then down El Prado. Groups of musicians played while Little Amal touched hands with onlookers. A crowd of hundreds surged around the human-activated puppet, phones raised to capture the moment.

Little Amal has been walking around the world. Between 7 September and 26 November 2023, Amal is journeying 9,000 miles across the United States and Mexico in one of the largest free public festivals ever created. She is walking through 40 towns and cities from Boston to San Diego and 7 cities from Tijuana to Tapachula… So far, she has visited 14 countries including Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, the UK, the United States, Poland, Ukraine, Canada and Norway.

Little Amal’s walk is intended to draw attention to the plight of refugees, particularly the displaced children who suffer. The organization Choose Love is raising funds in connection with this amazing international event. If you’d like to donate to the cause of helping refugees, visit their website by clicking here. Donations provide education, food, shelter, emergency medical care, legal assistance and much more for children like Little Amal.

In San Diego, the event was produced with the help of the La Jolla Playhouse. Many smiling Without Walls volunteers carrying colorful umbrellas were in the crowd, distributing fans like the one you see in my photographs.

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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)!

Exhibition by San Diego River Artists’ Alliance.

The San Diego River Artists’ Alliance is a group of artists who love our beautiful San Diego River. They have a free exhibition open to the public in Balboa Park. The River: Sea to Source is now on display in Gallery 21 at the Spanish Village Art Center.

Fourteen member of the San Diego River Artists’ Alliance have pieces in this exhibit. The fine artwork depicts the life-giving river and its ecosystems.

These very fine works are for sale! A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the San Diego River Park Foundation.

My photos provide a sampling of what you’ll see.

The SDRAA artists work alongside the San Diego River Park Foundation, an organization that advocates for the river. The San Diego River Foundation organizes river and estuary clean-ups, engages in environmental restoration and education, enhances the river’s extensive park system, has helped to create numerous murals along the river trail (you’ve seen many on my blog!), and is presently building a new nature center in Mission Valley (the River Center at Grant Park).

If you’re in Balboa Park the next couple of days, make sure to swing by Gallery 21 in Spanish Village. The exhibition will be open through November 6, 2023, so that gives you only a couple more days to pay a visit.

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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)!

Sign up for tomorrow’s More Than Pink Walk!

You can still sign up for tomorrow’s Susan G. Komen More Than Pink Walk! I was told this today as I walked through Balboa Park. The headquarters for the big event is being set up along Sixth Avenue, south of Laurel Street, in its usual spot.

If you’d like to help researchers find a cure for breast cancer, and help those who’ve been diagnosed with the disease, check out this website. You can join the 5k walk tomorrow morning (Sunday), become a team member or a sponsor, join the pre-walk festivities, and more! Or you can simply make a donation to Susan G. Komen on their website and help them with their important work.

Tomorrow’s weather in San Diego will be perfect for a walk. Why not join?

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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)!

Old Town’s Día de los Muertos before the procession!

A crowd of thousands gathered this evening in Old Town San Diego for the annual Día de los Muertos procession.

The candlelight procession would begin around sundown in front of the Immaculate Conception Church and move slowly down San Diego Avenue to the historic El Campo Santo cemetery.

I walked from Old Town San Diego State Historic Park to the cemetery and back again as people were still gathering for this very popular event.

What did my camera find?

Face painting at many stations, as living faces were decorated to look like colorful sugar skulls. And beautiful chalk art in the State Park left over from last weekend’s Day of the Dead event. And many costumes, elegant Catrinas and walking skeletons.

An altar was set up in the El Campo Santo cemetery, and there was the old wall and a special board where people could draw hearts and write messages for deceased loved ones. The graves were joyfully decorated, too.

As I returned toward the State Park, people had already begun to line San Diego Avenue to view the coming procession. But it was rapidly becoming too dark for my camera. So this series of photographs ends with a smile at Fiesta de Reyes in the State Park.

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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 trees on Saturday in Balboa Park!

Kate Sessions, the Mother of Balboa Park, holds a pine cone by the grass.

This Saturday, November 4, visitors to Balboa Park can pick up a free tree sapling to plant at home. The distribution of free trees is part of Forever Balboa Park’s two-day event Plant It Forward 2023: Growing Our Urban Forest.

Forever Balboa Park will be handing out 100 tree saplings in the Plaza de Panama from 9 am to noon. (First come first served, one sapling per household.) In the afternoon there will be a park cleanup that you can join, if you’d like.

Learn about the Plant It Forward event, the free trees and park cleanup by visiting this website. (You’ll also find videos about tree planting, choosing the appropriate tree, and more.)

Help grow San Diego’s urban forest! Plant your own shady, beautiful tree!

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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 photo memories from November 2018.

November has arrived. Time to post another five-years-ago blog!

November 2018 was the last time Star of India sailed. I captured photos back then of the historic tall ship heading out into the ocean. (The Star of India is sailing again this November 11th and 12th!)

There were several Veterans Day events, too, including the annual parade. (This year the parade is on the 12th.)

I also enjoyed a variety of adventures, including a visit to the Cabrillo National Monument tide pools and a peek inside a World War II bunker.

Here come links to past blog posts for you to explore!

Click the following links for lots of photos…

Polynesian canoe Hikianalia visits San Diego!

Faces tell stories at Veterans Day parade.

The triumphant return of the Spreckels Organ!

Bells of Peace ring on a special Veterans Day!

Mayflower descendants gather in Balboa Park!

Historical reenactment on Veterans Day in Balboa Park.

Photos of Star of India heading out to sea.

A visit to the Cabrillo National Monument tidepools.

Christmas trees appear in downtown San Diego!

Photos inside a World War II bunker on Point Loma.

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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)!