Tag: san diego

A colorful Chinese New Year Fair at Balboa Park!

If you love color, culture, food and fun, you should head over to Balboa Park tomorrow, Sunday, February 16, 2025. The second day of the Chinese New Year Fair, hosted by the House of China, will be taking place at the International Cottages!

I walked through the free festival today and photographed a wide variety of cool sights. In addition to the vendors of ethnic food and unique gifts, and the colorful cultural entertainment, the Hall of Nations features artists who are showcasing traditional Chinese art, including calligraphy, brush painting and gourd decoration. I found plenty of references to the Year of the Snake!

There’s something new and exciting to see everywhere visitors turn.

Sunday the entertainment lineup runs from 11 am to 4 pm, with lion and dragon dances and dancing by various groups, plus fashion models, music and more!

These three young journalists were at the event. Write, write, write! Start a blog! Be curious! Be persistent! Be passionate! You never know where your efforts might lead!

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Beautiful butterfly arrives at San Diego Museum of Art!

A large, very beautiful butterfly has fluttered into the San Diego Museum of Art’s library. It has spread its welcoming wings on the floor, inviting children to take a seat during the SDMA’s monthly Storytime in the Library!

This sculptural multi-piece rug, if I can call it that, arrived at the museum a couple weeks ago. It made its official debut today. I just happened to see a sign pointing the way!

The interdisciplinary Chicana artist artist who created this amazing fabric artwork is Katie Ruiz. Ring a bell? She’s the artist behind the Pompom Project. I blogged about one of her installations at Civic Center Plaza back in 2023. You can see those photographs by clicking here.

This new many-colored butterfly is a cozy place for kids to sit while listening to readings of fun art-inspired children’s books. It sort of feels like sitting in a (p)lush, flowery garden. You can see a video of its creation on the San Diego Museum of Art’s Instagram by clicking here.

Do you have children who’d like to enjoy Storytime in the Library. It’s free, every second Thursday of each month. Readings are at 10:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

The San Diego Museum of Art’s library can be found by walking through the museum’s sculpture court and Panama 66. Look around–you will find it! You’ll also find the big, beautiful butterfly that now makes the art library home!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

A refreshing sip of fine art at UC San Diego!

Very unusual public art stands near the center of the UC San Diego’s large La Jolla campus. While this surprising work of art might splash your nose, it’s not in your face. What I mean by that is: while you’re bent over enjoying a cool drink, you might not know that the fountain is a work of fine art by an important artist. There’s no sign or plaque indicating such.

This untitled work of public art—an exact replica in granite of commercial metal fountains typically found in schools, business offices and government buildings–is part of UC San Diego’s Stuart Collection of art. It was created in 1991 by internationally recognized conceptual artist Michael Asher.

Michael Asher believed that an artwork’s encompassing environment determines how we perceive it. As his Wikipedia biography explains: Asher’s work takes the form of “subtle yet deliberate interventions – additions, subtractions or alterations – in particular environments.” His pieces were always site-specific; they were always temporary, and whatever was made or moved for them was destroyed or put back after the exhibitions. This untitled work at UC San Diego is his first permanent public outdoor work in the United States.

I took a refreshing sip from the fountain during my last visit to UCSD. To my right stood a flagpole, and beyond that a historical marker indicating the campus is located on the old site of Camp Calvin B. Matthews, a rifle and artillery training base of the United States Marine Corps. (See my blog post concerning the historical marker by clicking here.) Asher placed the drinking fountain at this precise spot, directly opposite the historical monument, after a lot of deliberation.

There’s more to this “mysterious” work of art than you might suppose. Please read all about it by visiting the Stuart Collection website here.

This very special drinking fountain can be found south of the Price Center, in grassy, park-like UCSD Town Square.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Photographs of past storms in San Diego!

In September, 2014, a powerful microburst struck Mission Valley, destroying many trees along the San Diego River.

San Diego’s first real winter storm of 2025 has arrived. A whole lot of rain is anticipated, especially tomorrow evening.

Storms in Southern California are usually big news. Our climate is naturally arid, so we could always use the precipitation. But there can be destructive flooding. That’s what happens when people live in what is essentially a desert.

It can be hard to remember that places now lush with landscaping and trees supported mostly sagebrush before human development.

Cool San Diego Sights is now almost 12 years old. I’ve had many opportunities to take photographs during stormy weather.

These are a few of my most dramatic photos.

In February, 2016, very high winds drove boats into the rocks along San Diego’s Embarcadero.
In February, 2019, a big storm left debris under the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon bridge at Torrey Pines State Beach.
In January, 2024, Mission Center Road became flooded near the San Diego River. Cars were stranded.
In Februrary, 2019, Dan Plante of KUSI News was reporting at a flooded Mission Center Road.
In February, 2024, guys from The Weather Channel were reporting from a flooded Fashion Valley Road.
In January, 2016, cars were flooded in the lower level of the Fashion Valley shopping mall parking garage.
In January, 2018, I spotted many umbrellas during rain in downtown San Diego.
In January, 2018, cleanup at the Omni San Diego Hotel was required after a storm.
In January, 2021, extremely high winds bent palm trees in downtown San Diego.
In February, 2020, dark clouds over the ocean beyond Pacific Beach’s Crystal Pier portended a storm.
In October, 2021, dark clouds hovered over Balboa Park as a storm gathered.
In October, 2021, rain fell heavily at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, while a small audience on the dry stage listened to an organ concert and distant lightning.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Remnants of the old San Diego Sheriff’s Museum.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Museum once made its home in Old Town. Sadly, COVID-19 adversely affected its operation, and the museum closed its doors in 2020. Several times I had walked past the museum when it was still open, intending to pay a visit one day. I missed my opportunity.

Should you walk past the old location today (just south of the El Campo Santo cemetery on San Diego Avenue) you’ll find a few remnants of the San Diego Sheriff’s Museum still visible. I took these photographs from the sidewalk a couple weekends ago.

Fortunately, the San Diego Sheriff’s Museum maintains on online presence! Check out a virtual exhibit and more information on their website by clicking here.

The museum is working to find a new physical location. Their search for a new home is described here. If you’d like to help them out, you can provide a donation.

By the way, did you know there’s a San Diego Police Museum full of amazing exhibits? I visited it a couple years ago and posted photographs and descriptions 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.

Thank you for sharing!

A unique Valentine’s Tree decorated with Love!

Have you ever heard of a Valentine’s Tree?

A unique Valentine’s Tree greets customers inside Valentine’s Mexican Food in downtown San Diego!

At first glance one might assume it’s a Christmas Tree, but decorated entirely with red tinsel, ribbons, crafted roses and glittering ornaments. With a closer look the truth is revealed. The tree is wrapped with Love!

Valentine’s Day is next Friday. It appears that Valentine’s Mexican Food is ready!

(Their Enchiladas Rancheras are super yummy. Now I’m hungry!)

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Year of the Snake in San Diego’s Gaslamp!

Chinese New Year is being celebrated this weekend with a festival in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. 2025 is the Year of the Snake!

The 42nd Annual San Diego Chinese New Year Fair is a free cultural event taking place along two city blocks by the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum. The food, entertainment, lion dancing and more can be found at the corner of Third Avenue and J Street–the center of San Diego’s Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District.

I’ve been under the weather the last couple days, but I found the energy today to walk down from Cortez Hill to experience a little bit of the fun. I snapped these photos.

The family-friendly 42nd Annual San Diego Chinese New Year Fair is presented by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of San Diego.

The big event is taking place Saturday and Sunday, February 8-9, 2025. Hours both days are from 10 am to 5 pm.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Visions in downtown as San Diego sleeps.

In the darkness long before sunrise, downtown San Diego sleeps.

I often walk the city streets in the very early morning, when practically nobody is about. There are those times when I have to catch the day’s very first trolley. It can be a strange almost eerie experience. The stillness. The silence.

Here are some photographs I’ve taken during recent night walks.

There are sudden visions behind windows, on sidewalks, rising into the black sky.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

A fence made of giant colored pencils!

Is this the most creative fence in San Diego? The fence “posts” have been made to appear like giant, many-colored pencils!

The super fun pencil fence surrounds a small garden just outside the San Diego Craft Collective.

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.

Thank you for sharing!

Unhoused students write Odes to Common Things.

Unhoused students at Monarch School in Barrio Logan have written powerful words concerning their life experiences. Their many compositions (each an ode to a common thing) are collected in a series of published books. Several volumes of Odes to Common Things are available at the San Diego Public Library.

Today I noticed that the big video screen near the Central Library’s entrance was cycling through some of these thought-provoking odes. I stood there reading, and lifting my camera to take a few photographs.

The Monarch School serves homeless youth–unhoused kids who live in shelters, motels, single room occupancy housing, double- or tripled-up with other families, at camp sites, in cars, or on the streets. Monarch School is the only comprehensive K-12 school in the U.S. developed specifically to serve unhoused students and their families.

Would you like to read words that might move you–words written from the heart by youth who hope to lead a secure and happy life? Yes? See the availability of the Ode to Common Things books at the San Diego Public Library by clicking here.

Ode to Memories, by Derek. …I carry memories of my life–in my head, my brain, my heart. They can be beautiful. They can be scary…
Ode to Cats, by Fabian. …My cats make me feel happy, comfortable…Cats go to heaven…
Ode to Basketball, by Deveyon. …It makes me better able to work with new people, to make new friends…basketball is what I have.
Ode to Ice Cream, by Jaylen. …What’s good is its coldness, its sweetness, its flavor. It’s as sweet as a championship and as joyful as a party.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!