Look what I stumbled upon while walking past the gigantic old Moreton Bay Fig tree, by the San Diego Natural History Museum. Folk dancing!
The Cabrillo International Folk Dancers had made the wooden platform under the massive tree their dance floor. That’s because, I was told, the Balboa Park Club ballroom, where they usually dance, was being used for another event.
Learn more about the Cabrillo International Folk Dancers and consider joining the fun group by clicking here!
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Did you know a large sanitarium once stood in downtown San Diego at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Beech Street?
I had no idea, until I saw the surprising The Agnew Sanitarium 1906 cornerstone on display inside the San Diego Police Museum!
The Agnew Hospital and Sanitarium was founded by David Gochenauer. It began in a private residence in 1900 and was a training school for nurses.
The cornerstone you see in my photograph was laid for a big new building at 464 Beech Street on June 9, 1906. You can see a postcard image of the Agnew Hospital and Sanitarium and more description of its history here.
One more interesting fact. Alonzo Horton, whose historic Horton’s Addition development would help to transform New Town into today’s downtown San Diego, died in 1909 at age 96 . . . at Agnew Sanitarium.
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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!
Fashion designer Arnold Scaasi created elegant gowns for many First Ladies and famous movie stars.
What happens when four Scasssi dresses inspire San Diego Mesa College fashion students?
You end up with four unique new creations, now on display at the San Diego History Center!
Visitors to the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park are encouraged to examine contrasted garments during the museum’s just-opened Fashion Redux 2023 exhibition.
Dresses by Arnold Scaasi in the museum’s collection represent the Glam 1980s. The four fashion students got a good look at them and, recalling that decade of printed blouses and big hair, were inspired to produce clothing that is similar, but new! Bold color and padded shoulders, anyone?
The Mesa College students whose artistry is on display are Ramses Alfaro Mendoza, Leo Cotton, Eddie Villarreal and Robbie Matawaran.
Here are the Scassi dresses…
And here are the inspired new creations…
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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!
Little remains of the colorful old Horton Plaza shopping mall in downtown San Diego.
Shoppers who once wandered through the creatively designed complex, which debuted back in 1985, might enjoy heading over to the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. There’s a great scale model of Horton Plaza now on display!
Living downtown for over two decades, I’ve used my camera to document various developments in and around Horton Plaza during my walks. Most recently, I took photos of how the whimsical, touristy shopping mall is being redeveloped into a mixed-use technology and biotech campus called Horton. You can see those photos here.
The display of the Horton Plaza model at the San Diego History Center coincides with their newly opened Fashion Redux 2023 exhibition. Fashion students from Mesa College viewed garments in the History Center’s textile collection dating from the “Glam 1980s” and were inspired to create their own bold clothing. I’ll be blogging about that soon!
Horton Plaza Model. Metal, paperboard, plastic, wood. Gift of H.S.D./Horton Associates.
Commissioned by the Hahn Company, the model was built to illustrate and “sell” the Jon Jerde Group’s design of Horton Plaza to the public.
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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!
The Cervantes Festival was held today in San Diego!
The House of Spain hosted the fun cultural event in Balboa Park, with visitors enjoying entertainment, authentic Spanish food, a kids art table and more. I’m told the festival kicked off in the morning with young people reading from Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote.
When I arrived, people were watching flamenco dance on the International Cottages lawn and devouring tasty Spanish paella, jamón serrano, Manchego cheese (made in the La Mancha region of Spain) and other gastronomic goodies.
I walked about for a bit, looking for sights related to the great Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. I found small sculptures of the timeless character Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza in a display case inside the House of Spain cottage!
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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!
I love this carousel horse! It was created using thousands of glass beads! Visitors to the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park can’t miss it!
The beaded horse and several smaller animals occupy a large display case on the museum’s ground floor, which is free for visitors to enter.
Look at all the colorful designs made with tiny beads. The patterns and figures on these animals are full of cultural symbolism.
The horse itself was created in the mid-1990s inside the museum by Rosendo Carillo de la Rosa and his family, who traveled to San Diego from the Huichol community in Jalisco, Mexico.
The large carousel horse is made of fiberglass, glass beads and beeswax. The smaller animals, like the snake and jaguar, also representing the Huichol Sierra Culture, are formed using wood instead of fiberglass. Several different artists crafted these amazing bead animals.
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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!
Much of the garden at Waterfront Park on the north side of the County Administration Building has been removed. I noticed the orange construction fencing today during my walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero.
A worker told me they’re installing new pipes. As I understand it, much of this area will then be converted into basketball and pickleball courts and other outdoor recreational facilities, which can be enjoyed by downtown residents.
I noticed the fencing protects several trees. It’s also around world-famous artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s colorful Serpent Tree sculpture. I suspect these will not be moved.
How sad the beautiful garden is going away. I took photos of the lush garden one bright morning several years ago and posted them here.
I also went on an architectural tour of Waterfront Park and learned more about the garden’s design here.
If you know more, leave a comment!
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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!
A very unusual yacht with a very unusual name is visiting San Diego. I saw the research yacht Gene Chaser this morning docked at Broadway Pier.
Gene Chaser is essentially a super high tech floating laboratory. I had to search the internet to learn about it. This article explains the ship’s capabilities and the aim of its owner: scientist, inventor and entrepreneur Dr. Jonathan Rothberg.
The yacht is fitted in such a way that technological breakthroughs can be made while traveling the world’s oceans seeking new solutions and knowledge from nature.
The article explains: To support the fast pace of creating and using new technology, GENE CHASER has extensive rapid prototyping capabilities — best in class 3D printing, CNC, laser cutting, and electronics fabrication are all on board. All of which complement the cutting edge molecular biology laboratory and high power computational infrastructure at the heart of the ship.
Comparing my photos with that in the article, it’s apparent major changes have recently been made to the vessel. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before!
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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!
I’m always amazed by the local talent that appears every two years at the museum’s longest running art program–almost a century now! Students from regional schools around San Diego and Tijuana have selected work displayed in SDMA’s Galleries 14 and 15.
This year the theme is Comfort and Calm. In an age of COVID-19, barbaric war, political hatred, talk of the world’s end, and addictive, omnipresent social media that provides a deluge of shallowness, nastiness, confusion and absurdity, I can definitely understand why young people would seek comfort and calm, and how artistic expression can provide that refuge.
The artworks you’ll see are not only very well done but inspiring. Thank goodness, the human spirit is resilient.
You can freely access Galleries 14 and 15 from a corner of the May S. Marcy Sculpture Court and its Panama 66 restaurant. Look for the following sign and head through the nearby doors that lead to museum restrooms.
Enjoy a few examples of this great youth art…
Sunset, Thrace Hollmann. Torrey Pines Elementary School, Grade 4.Along the Border, Katelyn Wang. The Bishop’s School, Grade 12.Spring Rain, Joana Jiang. Francis Parker School, Grade 11.Look Around, Carley Chen. The Bishop’s School, Grade 10.Sunset Fields, Ivory Rose Foley. Gillispie School, Grade 4.My Nature, Olivia Dooda. Johnson Elementary, Grade 2.Hilltop Home, Hadley Lischke. Gillispie School, Grade 1.Warmth, Ava O’Connor. Westview High School, Grade 12.Sleepy, Gabriella Hernandez. Chula Vista High and School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Grade 12.
Have you noticed electrical boxes around downtown San Diego that appear like special works of art? Many of these boxes were painted in 2021 for the San Diego Museum of Art’s previous Youth Art exhibition.
You can find those photographs by clicking here and scrolling down.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 