The 2019 Cherry Blossom Festival at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park drew huge crowds! I enjoyed stopping by on the weekend and was pleased to see so many people.
The festival is now over.
Late this afternoon I entered the garden again to experience the cherry blossoms in a more tranquil setting. Sunlight slanted through the pink and white flowers, making them shine.
If you love beautiful gardens but dislike crowds, now is the time to go!
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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!
I wrote a very short story about people and cherry blossoms a couple years ago. It’s titled A Short Bloom. You can read it here.
Many colorful butterflies seem to have landed atop an electrical box in Golden Hill, forming a heart.
Walk down one particular sidewalk in Golden Hill and you might find this inspiring street art.
The messages painted on the electrical box are simple but powerful.
Simple, inspiring street art reveals the sun’s bright message . . . Still I rise.I am riding a rainbow with a bow and arrow. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
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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!
Balboa Park is magical at any time, but as nightfall approaches, and the last rays of golden sunlight touch buildings and trees, the magic flames, becomes even more powerful.
I got off work early today and used the extra bit of daylight to walk about the park and take photographs.
These are the best…
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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!
Sunlight was casting its spell on flowers, leaves and webs in the Alcazar Garden.
Stay tuned!
A massive, truly magnificent, 300 year old bronze Kannon statue debuted several days ago in a beautiful corner of the Japanese Friendship Garden, as well as their new sparkling stream . . . and today I took photos!
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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!
Part of a cool mural on a building behind the Park ‘N Fly Lot 1 on Pacific Highway.
Today I got off from work a little early, so I decided to use my extra time for a walk from the Middletown trolley station down to the Embarcadero.
My main intention was to get photographs of a long mural I’ve glimpsed while driving along Pacific Highway near San Diego International Airport. The mural is a fair distance from the street, on the back of an old building behind the Park ‘N Fly Lot 1.
I snapped some photos of the cool mural, but as you can see, the results were not all that great. After doing some internet searching, I still know nothing about this artwork.
My walk turned west on Laurel Street as a series of airplanes came in for landings overhead. My eyes moved right and left searching for interesting sights, but nothing struck my fancy until I came to the big white anchor in the grassy median at the intersection of Harbor Drive and Laurel Street.
I vaguely recall learning something about this historical anchor–where it came from–but now when I do some searching I come up with nothing. The big anchor has been a landmark occupying that spot for as long as I can remember.
My leisurely walk south along the Embarcadero stalled when I came to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. I’m a member, so naturally I had to enjoy the elegant passenger deck of the steam ferry Berkeley to do some quiet reading. When I noticed through a window that the sun was about to slip behind clouds, I ventured outside and took more photos.
The photograph of Sea Shepherd’s vessel Farley Mowat reminds me that I blogged about their mission to protect the critically endangered vaquita porpoise a couple years ago.
My walk then resumed, and I proceeded along the water to Broadway Pier.
The long mural near Pacific Highway is blocked by parked cars and too distant from the sidewalk for a good photograph.An airplane comes in for a landing at San Diego International Airport near the intersection of Pacific Highway and Laurel Street.Here comes another plane for a late afternoon arrival.A plane lands at San Diego International Airport, just beyond the large white anchor at Harbor Drive and Laurel Street.A close photo of the anchor. If I obtain more information about its history, I’ll post an update.After I circled the big anchor, my camera captured the skyline of downtown San Diego.Now I’m on the Embarcadero by the water, in the Crescent Area that I visited in my last blog post.Photo from the steam ferry Berkeley of the Farley Mowat, which is presently docked in San Diego. Sea Shepherd’s vessel will soon return to the Sea of Cortez to resume its urgent mission protecting the critically endangered vaquita.The sun is still shining on the floating barge behind the Berkeley.People enjoy exploring the Spanish galleon replica San Salvador.The sun shines out from behind clouds . . . and the masts of America, Californian and San Salvador.People relax on one of the benches along the edge of Broadway Pier. The fog-like marine layer is coming in over Point Loma as nightfall approaches.Spirit of San Diego is coming in from a harbor cruise.Piloting the incoming ship, with the USS Midway Museum in the background.Downtown buildings reflected in windows of the Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier.Late sunlight shines from high-rise buildings in beautiful downtown 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!
A giant smiling lemon greets me at the 22nd Annual Lemon Festival in Chula Vista!
I’ve never been to Chula Vista’s Lemon Festival before. So this year I thought I’d take the trolley down to the South Bay to experience this big annual event!
Not only is the Lemon Festival, which takes place along a stretch of Third Avenue, a whole lot of fun, but visitors have the opportunity to learn about the history of Chula Vista and how it once was a major center of the Southern California citrus industry.
With construction of the Sweetwater Dam completed in 1888, and the arrival of the railroad in the South Bay, Chula Vista became the perfect place to grow sun-loving lemons. At one point in the early 20th century there were nearly two thousand acres of lemon groves in the area. Chula Vista even called itself the Lemon Capital of the World.
Today lemon trees are chiefly found in backyards. After World War II, the large groves began to make way for houses. Some of the developers would leave one lemon tree in the backyard of new homes.
I did see loads of lemons during the 22nd Annual Lemon Festival: lemon art, lemon costumes, lemons in treats, lemonade . . . Lemon yellow everywhere!
See for yourself!
About 50,000 people would turn out for the yearly lemon-themed event.These ladies had all sorts of sweet lemon treats for sale.Some friendly people from the Restored Church posed so that a blogger could take a funny photo at their Lemon Festival booth.Artists at the Lemon Festival had all sorts of colorful artwork for sale that contained bright yellow.This lady registering people to vote had a cool lemon slice umbrella hat and smile.More ice cold lemonade! Sounds good on a hot summer day in San Diego’s South Bay.Even this funny pooch in a wagon was selling lemonade!The Chula Vista Historical Society had a booth with books and fascinating information.Their display showed Chula Vista’s agricultural past. Many growers and packing companies once exported lemons around the world. Some of the beautiful old crate labels have become valuable collectibles.The display explains different grades of lemons, including culls, which were blemished, and used to make juice, furniture polish, and other lemon by-products.The festival had just started and these ladies with the Third Avenue Village Association, that puts on the popular event, were almost done decorating their booth.Another booth at the Chula Vista Lemon Festival featured lots of interesting historical photographs.Someone points to a photo of workers in a lemon grove at the Higgins Ranch in Keen Valley, 1901.Aerial photo of the Boltz lemon ranch in the mid 1920’s.Typical Chula Vista lemon packing plant, circa 1920’s.Old photos of Chula Vista streetcar and train at Third Avenue.Bonita lemon pickers, 1913.Meanwhile, people spin a lemon-themed prize wheel at the festival.At the Lemonade Bandstand, entertainment included live music, a largest lemon and lemon peel contest, a lemon costume contest, and lemon pie eating contest.People watch the Lemon Squeezers play rock and roll music with a twist!Cool local band, the Lemon Squeezers, at the Chula Vista Lemon Festival.That great music has people smiling and dancing!Batman and Wonder Woman dropped on by and posed for a photo by the Lemon Bar sign.All that fun has made me thirsty for some lemonade!
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I love to watch sailboats out on San Diego Bay before sunset.
Sails stretch in the wind and capture the late sun.
Turning, fluttering, then swelling again, the dreamlike sails glide through their radiant dance. A ballet of light between the water and sky. And then the curtain closes.
Here I go again posting more photographs of sailboats.
I took these today from the end of Broadway Pier.
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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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