Rob Hutsel, President and CEO of the San Diego River Park Foundation, provided a guided walking tour this morning that I and several others thoroughly enjoyed. He explained how in the next 6 to 8 weeks the River Center will really be taking shape, with many of its features finally completed.
He explained how the center will be an active outdoor classroom for thousands of San Diego school children–particularly Title 1 schools within a 15 minute drive, serving urban, less affluent communities.
The River Center is designed to welcome city kids who might have no real experience out in nature. They will be eased into the experience from the moment school buses arrive, enjoying presentations in a 100-seat amphitheater by the entry courtyard. I learned there will be animal encounters hosted by Joan Embery!
Kids will then walk past a waterfall, separate into smaller groups, and walk down nature trails, where they will learn about the environment and the San Diego River: its geology, history, flora and fauna.
If you’d like to go on one of these preview tours, you have the chance tomorrow–Sunday, May 19–between 9:30 am and 11:30 am. Check out the San Diego River Days website for more information here!
In September there will be a big Grand Opening celebration! Stay tuned!
Construction gate at the future entrance to the River Center at Grant Park in Mission Valley. The area beyond used to be an abandoned sand mining site.Early visitors have arrived for the first tour that would preview the new River Center.The public can support the project by buying personalized pavers at the River Center’s entrance.Kids stepping off school buses will encounter wild animal tracks in a concrete walkway.Almost time to start our early Saturday morning tour!A rendering of the entry courtyard, showing The Den pavilion structure with restrooms and a sheltered sitting area that faces a stage and river trees. Famous animal educator Joan Embery is partnering with the River Center and will provide animal presentations (perhaps a hawk) for young students!This is where the 100-seat outdoor amphitheater with stage will be built.Much of the dirt area in the 17-acre River Center will soon be transformed into a beautiful park space. A gateway garden and expanse of grass (Grant Park) will be open to the public! Just beyond Rob will be an artificial waterfall!A walkway will wind toward the south side of the San Diego River. There will be lighting along the path. The environmentally friendly River Center will be powered mostly by solar.Where the walkway turns there will be a beautiful arbor–an acoustic shade structure.Just beyond the arbor, a dirt trail will lead into nature. Kids in small groups will be led by trained educators into the native river environment.Here we go! The irrigation pipes you see will eventually be removed.Kids can learn about how buckwheat seeds spread, and learn about plants and trees like prickly pear and lemonade berry, and willows and oaks.Gazing down toward the San Diego River in mid-May, when water levels are low. That’s Interstate 805 in the distance. I saw birds flitting about in the lush greenery.Now we’re back on the curving concrete walkway, looking at the visionary River Center at Grant Park project. Some big boulders were donated, adding beauty to the park space.Rendering shows families enjoying the grass of Grant Park when it’s finally completed.Master gardeners will be adding their expertise to the public park. The California Garden Clubs will also be contributing. The River Center and park will be alive with birds. As our tour concluded, a swallow flew overhead.Join the effort to open the River Center at Grant Park! Donations for this amazing (but expensive) project are appreciated!
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The extensive student art exhibit opened recently in the large makerspace room on the museum’s second floor. Excellent works on display include paintings, drawings, photography, graphic design, mixed media, multimedia and more. Dozens of unique creations reflect a diversity of viewpoints, and absolutely boundless human imagination.
I could see how these students, as the future unfolds, will be using their unique talents to add life to our dynamic, ever evolving culture!
All of these works were worthy of a photograph, but I’ll share just a few from my 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.
How awesome is this? Students at Morse High School in Southeast San Diego helped to make the above 1913 Cadillac Model 30 even more stunning!
This classic 5-passenger touring car was a hit at the 2022 Las Vegas Concours d’Elegance, where it appeared after the students re-detailed all the pinstriping, including the doors, chassis and wheel rims!
I saw the car at the San Diego Automotive Museum the other day and was impressed. According to a nearby sign, the museum will continue to provide and support opportunities for low-income youth in San Diego to explore the Automotive Industry and provide opportunities for Apprenticeships and Mentoring through its Vocational Academy launching in 2023.
To learn more about the museum’s IGNITE program, which combines career exploration, independent research, and skill-building through project-based hands-on learning to prepare students for internships and other pathways towards successful careers in the automotive industry, check out their special web page by clicking here.
If you know a potentially interested young person–or if you are interested yourself–check out the above link! It’s easy to sign up and get started!
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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 public has a special opportunity to tour the new River Center at Grant Park this Saturday. The amazing nature center beside the San Diego River in Mission Valley is currently under construction. Completion is scheduled for this summer. The goal is to have 10,000 students connecting with nature each year in the River Center’s unique outdoor classroom!
Saturday’s family tour is one activity of many during the San Diego River Park Foundation’s annual River Days event. Other activities along the river through this weekend include gardening, clean ups, wildlife hikes and bird walks.
To view a listing of all the free River Days activities in 2024, click 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)!
Yesterday, at the Chicano Park Day event in Barrio Logan, I stepped into the Turning Wheel Mobile Classroom, which was parked next to the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center. What, I wondered, was this University of San Diego community outreach program up to?
I was greeted by Drawing/Painting teacher and Chicano Park Fellow Miss Jessi Rogawski, plus two of her exceptional Lincoln High School students!
I learned that about 70 students in Miss Jessi’s classes have learned how to create murals, inspired by poster art in the Chicano Park Day Poster Archive.
Students choose a favorite poster, analyze it, then produce their own original sketches, inspired by the poster design. Through a multi-stage process, including enlargement and color mapping, the sketches would evolve into finished murals!
What a great opportunity for young people to learn both the history of Chicano Park, activate their imagination, collaborate, and develop their creative skills!
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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 awesome musical event was enjoyed today at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park!
Family Discovery Day brought together seven outstanding local college bands, a pair of organizations that promote musical education, and a table full of instruments that the public was invited to play!
The bands participating in the epic three hour concert included: the Southwestern College Concert Band; the California State University San Marcos Concert Band; Point Loma Nazarene University; the San Diego State University Symphonic Band; the Cuyamaca College Concert Band; the University of San Diego Concert Band; and the Grossmont College Concert Band. Some of the pieces were conducted by students!
San Diego Civic Organist Raul Prieto Ramirez, when not introducing these excellent student bands, also performed beautifully on the famous Spreckels Organ.
I stayed for about an hour and was impressed by the fine musicianship. Complicated pieces were played with ease and precision. I really enjoyed SDSU’s fantastic, haunting Angels in the Architecture, by Frank Ticheli.
SDSU also provided the musical instruments that could be tried by curious kids to one side of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
That’s Raul Prieto Ramirez on the left. Not only is he a world class organist, he’s a super cool guy! He’s working to expand the reach of the incredible Spreckels Organ and one of San Diego’s most amazing concert venues.Music Discovery is a two year program of the San Diego Youth Symphony for young children, with classes at Liberty Station or Balboa Park.Music produces smiles!
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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)!
It’s a museum-like place that the public can tour, whose mission is: Advancing knowledge of the brain and mental health through research, education, and the arts.
I enjoyed a look inside the Brain Observatory recently and much of what I saw was astounding. I was shown about briefly and learned about the unique facility’s history and mission.
The Brain Observatory houses a fully-functional research laboratory. Students and visitors can learn about the brain by utilizing authentic, state-of-the-art scientific equipment and by exploring real data, including samples from a large collection of donated human brains.
Founded in 2005 by Dr. Jacopo Annese, the Brain Observatory began as a brain research lab at UC San Diego. Ph.D. scientists from around the world, including a Nobel Prize winner from the Salk Institute, are on the Advisory Board.
The Brain Observatory uses MRI and microscopy to understand the biological basis of normal brain function and neurological disease. Advanced scientific equipment is also used to educate youth who take part in school programs.
Curious? The public can tour the Brain Observatory by reservation. In addition there are lunchtime lectures. Learn about these great opportunities by clicking here.
Dr. Jacopo Annese enthusiastically talked about his endeavors during my short visit. He has big plans. My own brain tried to assimilate so much information.
Brain Observatory tours and lectures, and the programs for students, are certain to be very stimulating!
A look inside the Brain Observatory in downtown San Diego. This space was last occupied by the SDSU Downtown Gallery.The fascinating Brain Observatory uses scientific equipment to slice brains and conduct microscopic investigation.Education is a focus of the Brain Observatory. Student artwork hangs on one wall.Photos of people who donated their brains to science.
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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)!
Could kids find and create art at the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering? Yes!
Today was Expo Day, a free event held at Snapdragon Stadium. Thousands of young people wandered through the stadium’s concourses, viewing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) displays, and partaking in experiments and activities provided by about a hundred exhibitors!
The annual event is absolutely gargantuan and impossible to cover in one blog post. I’ve blogged about Expo Day several times in past years, when this educational extravaganza was held at Petco Park.
Winding through the crowd, I discovered the Art Pavilion and, with permission from various exhibitors, my camera got busy.
Enjoy a few photos of artwork created by students, teachers and artists attending the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering. Read the captions!
Families explore the Art Pavilion during Expo Day 2024, a San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering event at Snapdragon Stadium.Are those molecules or cool sculptures? Kids get creative with the help of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.Two hands, liquid and bending light by artist and educator Sheena Rae Dowling.This cool STEAM artwork, full of creative ideas, won a blue ribbon!Demand evidence. Think critically. Erica, a biology student at National University, created this scientific artwork!The Art Club of Patrick Henry High School created these colorful Science Pyramids: Temples of Truth. If you point your phone at the artwork, you can experience augmented reality bursting from each pyramid!Beautiful art depicting native flora and fauna presented by the San Diego Natural History Museum.Space exploration art from a C.A.R.T. student.Lunna, founder of VAINANA, creates art with bananas to fight hunger and promote food sustainability.The colorful work of EcoArts Kids. Students create environmental art in afterschool programs at several San Diego elementary schools.Part of the SoRoART group exhibition of soft robotics by SDSU students. Air periodically inflates these lungs, as if they’re breathing!
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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 thought-provoking mural is boldly painted on a wall in National City. The wall stretches beneath the Dunkin’ Donuts on Plaza Boulevard, just east of Interstate 805.
The east side of the mural asks: “If not me then who…” The long south side encourages those passing by to: ”Make a statement by Making a Difference.”
It surprised me to learn this mural, painted in 2019, honors fallen soldier Lieutenant Commander Landon L. Jones, who died when his helicopter crashed into the Red Sea. A number of Dunkin’ Donuts franchises around San Diego dedicate their stores to a particular fallen service member. These stores are operated by Tali Burton, a U.S. Marine Veteran.
The mural was painted by Coronado residents, and was designed by a Coronado High School student!
To understand the full story, click here for an excellent article.
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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)!
When I returned to Washington Park in Escondido yesterday, I noticed that four more positive murals have been painted by local students on two of the community center buildings. Click here to see the murals I found during my walk through Washington Park last spring.
Here’s a great article that concerns these four new murals. They were painted later in 2023 by Del Lago Academy students in teacher Sudi Memarzadeh’s class.
I like how, in the first two photos, young human figures are together covering over hurtful words. Goodbye loner, poor, hate and ugly. Hello bright, positive colors!
The next mural honors Mahsa Amini and the women’s freedom movement in Iran…
Women, Life, Freedom.
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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 San Diego Sights! 