A cool sight before the 54th Annual North Park Toyland Parade gets started!
Here are lots of photos from today’s 54th Annual North Park Toyland Parade!
This was my first year watching the Toyland Parade. I headed to North Park and walked about a little before the parade began. Then I found a spot on the sidewalk and got my camera ready!
Kids head toward the parade route, which begins along University Avenue in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood.These kids were selling fresh mistletoe before the parade got started.Folks chat in the staging area before the hometown holiday parade begins in the late afternoon.And here we go! Boy Scouts lead the parade carrying flags.After a bunch of local San Diego politicians go by, here comes the Grinch!It’s the Gift of Dance! Some very lively Mexican folklorico dancing adds zest to the parade!Whirling color.A fun truck with a Christmas tree in back.Looks like Santa-clown.This fun parade entry sported a miniature North Park landmark sign.I believe this is a student attending Saint Didacus Parish School.Lots of candy was being handed out to thrilled kids along the parade route.Kimberly Wong was the 2017 Miss Toyland Parade Queen!Friendly folks from the Cambodian Nazarene Church.This silly guy with the John P. Squibob group posed for my camera.Happy people go by.San Diego’s Al Bahr Shriners seems to be in every parade around the city.More goofy clowns.Here come those fun little parade vehicles the Shriners always drive.Here come some North Park Little Leaguers.A Mexican and Canadian flag, and a really good time. I believe these are kids at Jefferson Elementary Steam Magnet.Everyone loves a parade. Including the participants!Here comes the Madison High School marching band!Marching cheerfully down University Avenue wearing Santa hats. Many familiar holiday tunes were performed during the parade.Yikes! It’s Bumble, the Abominable Snowmonster of the North! Watch out Rudolph!And here comes another fierce Grinch! Is nobody safe?Here comes a bunch of super cool vehicles. Check this out…Check out the hydraulics action of this awesome lowrider! These guys were bouncing their cars like mad all along the parade route!The parade crowd loved these crazy cars.It’s the Sweetwater High School Red Devil Corps!Here comes Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Woodstock on an elf-driven motorcycle!These are members of the Realm of Andor, part of the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society. They meet Sundays in Balboa Park at Morley Field.Everyone is in the North Park holiday parade. Even the Junk King!This guy’s cool Star Trike appears to be modeled after the Starship Enterprise. I wonder if it’s difficult to obtain dilithium crystals?And at the end of the North Park Toyland Parade, good old Santa Claus waves to everyone from atop a fire engine! Merry Christmas!
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Aseltine School’s 2017 Holiday Food Drive takes place Wednesday, December 6, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, at Uptown Tavern in Hillcrest.
If you’re in San Diego, please consider participating in the Aseltine School’s 4th Annual Holiday Food Drive. It will be taking place on Wednesday, December 6, 2017, from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm at the Uptown Tavern in Hillcrest, which is located at 1236 University Avenue.
Bring non-perishable food items such as peanut butter, canned chicken and tuna, cereal, canned fruit and vegetables, soup and pasta. The food you bring will support students and families in need.
Aseltine School is a supportive, positive place where K-12 students are helped to overcome a variety of difficulties. Their innovative program transforms young lives. Learn more at Aseltine’s website.
Your generosity will be greeted with lots of big smiles!
Flames rise from the fingertips of Robot Resurrection at 2017 Maker Faire San Diego in Balboa Park.
Balboa Park has been invaded! Cool robots of every size and description are roving throughout the park during 2017 Maker Faire San Diego!
Maker Faire San Diego seems to grow bigger every year. During this amazing event, eye-popping inventions and marvels of technology take over the heart of Balboa Park and many of its museums.
This morning I walked around feasting my mind on all sorts of creative stuff. Students, inventors, hobbyists and local clubs were proudly showing off their unique ideas and feats of engineering. Examples of 3D printing and robotics were everywhere.
Maker Faire San Diego continues in Balboa Park through Sunday. If you can, check it out for yourself!
Here are a few of the cool robots you might see!
2017 Maker Faire San Diego features lots of very cool robots, including 28 foot tall Robot Resurrection.A human operator emerges from the chest of the gigantic flame-throwing robot! If this thing could walk it would be a formidable battle robot!Human and robot fingers meet.Robot Resurrection has a couple of tiny pals. Here’s one.Here’s the other!The very cool Electric Giraffe has returned to the annual Maker Faire San Diego.The Electric Giraffe can move about while using an array of sensors in its head. When the neck is raised, this crowd-pleasing robot is 17 feet tall!This cute cow robot is named Milky White. It can move its eyeballs, eyelids, ears, tail and jaws!People at San Diego’s annual Maker Faire in Balboa Park check out a very creative robot designed by a friendly young man.Many schools from around San Diego demonstrate robots and other engineering projects during Maker Faire.The Robotics Society of Southern California has a sophisticated humanoid robot that moves realistically.The Glendale Robotics Academy had their Party Rover on display in the Japanese Friendship Garden.Kids check out another robot in the garden.A performance artist becomes a fun robot. People walking down El Prado posed for photos!This robot named Darth Zamboni was created by the Top Hat Technicians of High Tech High North County. It launches balls!Small autonomous cars on a track inside the San Diego History Center. They were being controlled remotely in order to gather navigational data.Autonomous car technology being developed today utilizes deep computer learning.A student participating in the First Robotics Competition demonstrates a small vehicle that their team built. Many robots can be seen up close in the San Diego History Center.This competitive robot corrals balls and then launches them.Cool robots of every size and description are on display throughout Balboa Park during 2017 Maker Faire San Diego!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
Sign inside Visitor Center at Cabrillo National Monument describes the fascinating 3D Cabrillo project.
The Visitor Center at Cabrillo National Monument has a cool exhibit of 3D printed intertidal organisms. An explanation is provided of how the tide pool animal models were created, and shows how the general public and interested educators can easily access essential resources via a dedicated website!
Student curriculum, simple instructions and the 3D Cabrillo biomodel .STL files library (and a link to raw Autodesk files) are all found here.
For 3D Cabrillo and the particular models seen in this exhibit, free imaging software and an iPad were used to capture images of intertidal organisms preserved by La Jolla’s world-renowned Scripps Institute of Oceanography. After models were edited on a computer using design software, they were sent to a 3D printer at the San Diego Central Library’s Innovation Lab.
This program was adapted from the Scan Our Seas project created by Dr. Andrew D. Thaler.
Do you know of any school students who’d like to learn more about marine biology, the environment and technology? This is definitely a very cool (and fun) project!
Many colorfully painted 3D printed models of intertidal organisms are on display inside the Visitor Center.3D printed Starburst Sea Anemone.3D printed Dorid Nudibranch.A video shows the 3D printing process, including editing the tidepool animals.3D printed Wavy Turban Snail.3D printed Ochre Sea Star.Students are encouraged to create nature journals. Writing is fun, too!3D printed Scallop.3D printed Garibaldi.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of interesting photos for you to share and enjoy!
Admiral Hornblower on blue San Diego Bay. It gleams in the last rays of daylight.
This evening I glimpsed dreams of gold on the darkening blue…
The ship moves across the darkening water toward a golden sunset.Young students row a Maritime Museum of San Diego longboat as the sun sets. Perhaps they dream of finding pirate gold.Rowing the longboat forward across the water. They move together, as if in one twilight dream.A trail of gold glistens behind Admiral Hornblower as it moves into the mysterious distance.
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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!
On a fence behind the Nature Center at Tecolote Canyon Natural Park one can find many colorful paintings of native wildlife. The fence follows a dirt road that leads to a hiking trail through Tecolote Canyon.
The paintings of spiders, butterflies, beetles and other insects were recently completed by students at University City High School. I believe the paintings of mammals, reptiles and birds have been on the fence for some time.
Colorful paintings of insects and other wildlife on a fence behind the Nature Center at Tecolote Canyon Natural Park.California Root Borer Beetle. Lucero Rayos.Black and Yellow Garden Spider. Nour Barbakh.Anise Swallowtail. Lawdyka Solano.Spotted Cucumber Beetle. Kayla Kenney.Tarantula Hawk. Andrea Angeles and Christian Covarrubias.Western Tiger Swallowtail. Tyler Coehrane and Lauren Ferrer.Darkling Stink Beetle. Morgan Boland.Roseate Skimmer. Issac Felcher.Silver Argiope. Zaynab Albaghdadi.American Lady. Aurora Godinez Quevedo.Green Lynx Spider. Jamison Legaspi.Harlequin Shield Bug. Jakob De La Cruz.Datura Weevil. Jacob Stoermer.Green Fruit Beetle. Makayla Srioudom.Vivid Dancer Damselfly. Miyoko Seldon and Andrew Bayot.Pruinose Squash Bee. Quincy Stone.California Sister Butterfly. Steffany Shapow.Coyote.California King Snake.Great Blue Heron.Striped Skunk.Southern Pacific Rattlesnake.Western Scrub Jay.Raccoon.Red Tailed Hawk.Southern Alligator Lizard.Anna’s Hummingbird.Bobcat.Pacific Gopher Snake.Gray Fox.Western Fence Lizard.Great Horned Owl.Spotted Towhee.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
Senna Osawa, Tamayo Watermelon, mixed media, Second Grade, Kumeyaay Elementary.
Look what I discovered!
The San Diego Museum of Art has a free exhibition of art that was created by local school students. It’s called Young Art 2017: Beyond the Ordinary. You can find it in Gallery 15, which leads from the museum’s outdoor sculpture court to the restrooms that are often used by diners at Panama 66.
Every two years, a new exhibition of Young Art is presented by the museum. All I can say is once you step through the door your jaw will drop! Dozens of outstanding, truly amazing works of art line the walls and fill a few display cases.
Inspired students from Kindergarten to Twelfth Grade, from schools throughout San Diego County, have created all sorts of fantastic still life artwork, including paintings, drawings, mixed media, photography and ceramic sculptures. Some of the students have written a sentence or two explaining their thoughts and creative process.
My quick photos of these few examples barely scratch the surface. I just chose some of the art that I personally like. Funny–perhaps my favorite piece was created by a talented young artist in Kindergarten!
If you visit Balboa Park, you must take a look!
Beyond the Ordinary. Young Art 2017. Amazing, inspired artwork in a free exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park!Catherine Zhao, Message in a Bottle, painting, Twelfth Grade, Westview High School.The Great Fruit Bowl, a drawing by many Christ Church Day School Second Grade student artists.Fizzah Arshad, Tea, drawing, Ninth Grade, Otay Ranch High School.Arissa Diaz-Lelevier, Multi-media Still Life, mixed media, Eighth Grade, Stella Maris Academy.Mirabella Komniey, Pitcher, mixed media, Fifth Grade, Vista Grande Elementary.Emma Cecil, Enticement, painting, Twelfth Grade, Torrey Pines High School.Camryn Melendez, Apricot Sunrise, drawing, Eleventh Grade, Westview High School.Eric Pak, Flora and Skull, painting, Twelfth Grade, Westview High School.Karina Spinazzola, Lemons and Lilies, drawing, Eleventh Grade, Westview High School.Anh Huynh, Distilled, painting, Twelfth Grade, Westview High School.Caden Glazner, Time for Tea, painting, Third Grade, Del Sur Elementary.Joy Zou, Tea Time, drawing, Eleventh Grade, Westview High School.Bella Anderson and Cate Hunsberger, Medieval Lunch, painting, Seventh Grade, Coronado Middle School.Skylar Britt, O’Keeffe Flower, mixed media, Kindergarten, Kumeyaay Elementary.Jenna Vo, Magritte Floating Still Life, mixed media, Fourth Grade, Kumeyaay Elementary.
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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 wall inside the San Diego Art Institute features artwork by 3rd and 4th grade students at San Miguel Elementary School.
Check out some fun artwork at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park!
Inside the museum-like gallery you’ll find a wall splashed with a large grid of images created by 3rd and 4th grade students at San Miguel Elementary School. The project is called Loteria Reinvented.
Loteria is a Mexican game of chance similar to bingo. Loteria utilizes a tabla–a random grid of pictures–and matching images that are drawn from a deck of cards. The students were introduced to the game’s history, then made versions of the game unique to San Miguel Elementary School. Each student reinterpreted an original Loteria card, drawing their version on a 17 by 23 inch panel!
The colorful wall can be seen at the San Diego Art Institute until late May. The student artwork will then be displayed at Museo El Trompo in Tijuana.
Each panel is a student’s reinterpretation of a Loteria card. Loteria is a Mexican game of chance similar to bingo.Cupcake. Dragon. Face. Glasses. Tree.Kitten. Fish. Teacup. Boat. Bull.Flag. Bridge. Dream Soccer. Lion. Shooting Star.Flower. Flying Girl.Visitor at San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park checks out Loteria Reinvented!
UPDATE!
I’ve learned that this was a project of Collective Magpie. They were the artists who developed “Loteria Reinvented” as a 3-month residency at San Miguel Elementary School. They worked with the students to create this collaborative participatory art!
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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!
People walk along Broadway near the entrance of the SDSU Downtown Gallery.
One of the sites that I visited this weekend during the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s OPEN HOUSE 2017 was the SDSU Downtown Gallery. I’d never stepped into the small art gallery before. Rotating exhibits feature the work of faculty and students at SDSU.
The building in which the gallery is housed, located at the corner of Kettner Boulevard and Broadway, served as the 1911 Station B power plant of the San Diego Electric Railway. The historic railway, which served a large area of early San Diego, was established by John D. Spreckels.
According to a short tour and handout I was given, a circa 1900 building at this location served as an earlier San Diego Electric Railway power house, railcar barn and paint shop. Some enormous doors still exist in the building today where train cars would enter and exit. I also learned the extravagant 1897 Los Banos bathhouse stood at the building’s northwest corner–but there remains no trace of that historic old structure.
In 1921, San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Company purchased Station B, and two additions to the building were subsequently made. The additions were designed by famed architect William Templeton Johnson.
Today the original Station B power plant contains powerful works of art, and forms a section of the base of the skyscraping Electra Building, a modern residential development built in 2008.
Please enjoy some photos of the gallery and the historic building.
If you love art and find yourself downtown while the gallery is open, swing on by!
Now part of the high-rise Electra Building, this originally was the 1911 Station B power plant of the San Diego Electric Railway.Historical ornamentation above the front entrance of the SDSU Downtown Gallery.Walk through these beads to enjoy a small but dynamic art gallery in downtown San Diego.Works on the gallery walls were produced by faculty and students at San Diego State University. Exhibits change every few months.Description of current gallery exhibit by faculty and students of San Diego State University. Every Which Way investigates artistic experience and human movement.Visitor to the gallery checks out thought-provoking artwork.Fear/Less, 2016, by Troy Guard.Works of human imagination along one wall.The serigraphs on this wall were made by students in the SDSU Graphic Design program. Imagery depicts ocean and desert ecosystems as migratory environments.More eye-catching works of art.Some of the pieces are quite unusual and creative.A short tour begins in the SDSU Downtown Gallery–Just one fascinating tour during the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s OPEN HOUSE 2017.We are shown various photos, including Station B behind Santa Fe Depot in the 1960s. The smokestacks were removed in the 1980s.Old photo of Los Banos, a bathhouse which was located just south of Santa Fe Depot. The neo-Moorish structure designed by William S. Hebbard and Irving J. Gill opened in 1897.One of the enormous, heavy doors is opened from inside the historic building. I was told these were used for a railcar barn.Our small tour group walks down the sidewalk along the Broadway side of the SDSU Downtown Gallery building.Now we are at the southeast corner of the large Electra Building, which rises above the historic San Diego Gas and Electric building.A symbolic painting inside the SDSU Downtown Gallery. Waves Inside, 2016, by Alison Zuniga.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
A young student’s colorful poster celebrates equal rights and protections. These are established by the United States Constitution. Equality for all. We the people.
Please enjoy a few photos that I took yesterday as I walked down Broadway past the Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse. My eye was attracted by happy, colorful artwork created by children on display in some windows.
These posters were designed by young students last year for 2016 Law Week. They celebrate principles that are enshrined in the United States Constitution.
(I have many blog posts coming up pertaining to this weekend’s San Diego Architectural Foundation OPEN HOUSE 2017 event. A couple of the locations will probably be featured on my Beautiful Balboa Park blog. And it might take me some time to prepare everything. Stay tuned!)
2016 Law Week Poster Contest winners in a window of San Diego’s downtown Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse. Students from a variety of local schools participated.…insure domestic Tranquility… We get along with each other.…in Order to form a more perfect Union… Make things better for all who live here.…Secure the Blessings of Liberty… We have freedom.We the People of the United States…
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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!
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