Tag: unusual

Oars row again through Chula Vista sky!

Wind Oars are rowing again through Chula Vista’s blue sky!

During previous walks through Chula Vista’s Bayside Park, I’d noticed the oars of the public art sculpture were missing from their posts. Yesterday I saw they’re back!

The wind-driven oars had been taken down temporarily to be refurbished once before, many years ago, so I assume that’s what happened again.

As I walked beside San Diego Bay yesterday afternoon, finding the oars rowing through the blue summer sky, I had to take a few photographs. The immense, newly opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center is visible in the background of one photo.

Wind Oars, as explained by Port of San Diego’s self-guided Chula Vista tidelands art tour, was created by George Peters and Melanie Walker in 2004. The kinetic sculpture is made of aluminum, polycarbonate and prismatic film.

You can visit the Air Works Studio website of artists George Peters and Melanie Walker by clicking here.

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Unusual sights on San Diego’s Embarcadero!

Anyone walking the length of San Diego’s Embarcadero might have observed three very unusual sights today!

First, starting at the south end of the Embarcadero, very close to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel, an immense NASSCO drydock has appeared!

This floating drydock, the NASSCO Builder, is usually stationed down at the NASSCO shipyard well south of here, in the vicinity of the Coronado Bay Bridge. It’s capable of containing very large ships. The public typically can’t get a close view of its immensity.

Today the NASSCO Builder was docked strangely at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, where the Dole banana boats usually unload! Someone with the Coronado Ferry said the gigantic drydock appeared there yesterday.

The next photo was taken from Embarcadero Marina Park South…

Nearby, at the Hilton, some wise words…

Next, I noticed some guys were repairing a purse seiner net on the pier adjacent to Seaport Village. This is seldom seen. More often, these large nets are repaired across Tuna Harbor at the longer G Street Pier.

These nets are unspooled into the ocean from purse seiners in order to catch bait fish, which are in turn used for sportfishing.

Finally, I noticed that America’s Tall Ship, the United States Coast Guard training ship USCGC Eagle, has returned to San Diego! It was out on the ocean the last few days, with future Coast Guard officers aboard, transforming themselves from young “swabs” to cadets!

I went aboard the amazing Eagle last weekend and took these photos!

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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.

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A mysterious musical instrument in La Mesa!

Does anybody out there know the history of the Anatole Accompanist Harp? An internet search provides no information whatsoever.

On display inside the La Mesa History Center‘s McKinney House museum is an unusual musical instrument. It is labeled: The ANATOLE ACCOMPANIST HARP – 1915 – Invented by S.B. Shiley – An early resident of La Mesa

I toured the museum yesterday and failed to learn more about this unique harp. Perhaps I should have asked around some more.

Presumably, S.B. Shiley is the artist Sylvester Benjamin Shiley, who passed away in San Diego in 1924.

I know some of my readers are very knowledgeable about local history and culture. If you can add any information about this mysterious Anatole Accompanist Harp or its inventor, please leave a comment below!

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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.

Feel free to share!

An exhibition of very unique textile art!

There’s a museum in Liberty Station that visitors might mistakenly pass by. When I walked by today, it occurred to me I hadn’t stepped into Visions Museum of Textile Art for many years. So I had to see what I’ve been missing!

Long before I started Cool San Diego Sights, I remember how the museum was called Quilt Visions. The last time I visited, in 2019, it was called Visions Art Museum. I was told the name has evolved over time as the museum has enlarged its scope to cover many different types of textile art.

Today I was excited to see the Visions Museum of Textile Art is thriving!

I discovered several current exhibits, and chose to blog about one that features some very unique pieces. It’s titled INTIKA: Men In Textiles. As a sign explains, the INTIKA exhibition seeks to showcase the diverse works of male artists from various backgrounds, each employing different textile techniques. These artists push the boundaries…by experimenting with unconventional materials or incorporating elements from other disciplines like sculpture or installation art.

Check out the next photo. This visually complex piece, composed of sliced and woven street posters collected from the walls of New York City, Berlin and Venice, is definitely unconventional!

There’s all sorts of textile art to admire, including unique clothing, hangings and other needlework. More examples…

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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.

Feel free to share!

Historic downtown street clock to be repaired!

The unusual Seiko street clock on B Street in downtown San Diego hasn’t been working for years. I learned today an effort is now underway to repair it!

The 20 feet tall clock is very unique. The “Solar Post Clock” is said to be the first solar powered clock to be installed in San Diego. It was a gift in 1983 from Seiko to Jacobs & Sons Jewelers, a family business that once was located on the corner of B Street and 7th Avenue. You can read more about the historic clock here.

Today I walked past a fun “Dogs of Downtown” event on my way home from another event, so I had to see what that was all about. I was greeted by Joel Hermosillo from the Downtown San Diego Partnership who recognized Cool San Diego Sights, and informed me they are working to repair the Seiko street clock!

How cool would that be!

I’ll try to stay informed on its progress.

Meanwhile, here are several photos of the “Dogs of Downtown” community event. (Thank you for the free Coke!)

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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.

Feel free to share!

Unusual sight: two Dole banana ships in port!

Two enormous Dole container ships are in San Diego today: Dole Caribbean and Dole Chile. I don’t recall ever seeing two of these banana transporting ships in our port at the same time.

The two yellow ships are in my above photograph, plus a bunch of stacked Dole containers at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal.

I suspect the Dole Chile came in on Sunday–that’s the usual ship arrival schedule. The Dole Caribbean has been docked in the same spot for many days now without any discernable activity. I’m not sure why. People I’ve spoken to surmise the ship is in disrepair. I can find nothing on the internet.

There’s an old Port of San Diego sign on the boardwalk between the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the water. It describes the typical Dole operations…

Some interesting but possibly dated facts from the weather-beaten sign:

Dole is the 5th largest importer of containerized cargo into the U.S. after WalMart, Target, Home Depot and K-Mart/Sears. (You can see how old this sign is!)

Bananas and pineapples are packed in farms in Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Guatemala... After arriving in San Diego, the fruit is distributed throughout the western U.S. and Canada.

Each vessel holds 762 refrigerated containers… Each 40′ container holds close to 1000 boxes of bananas… 2.5 billion bananas and 40 million pineapples arrive at the Port of San Diego each year.

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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.

Feel free to share!

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!

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!

San Diego history and the origin of Hawaii’s paniolos!

Did you know Hawaii has it own unique cowboy culture? Hawaiian cowboys are called paniolos. You might be surprised to learn that the origin of paniolos in Hawaii has a direct connection to San Diego’s early history, when our nascent city was part of Mexico and cattle ranches flourished!

An extensive new exhibit at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park has the unusual title Aloha Vaqueros. It recalls how several Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) from San Diego moved to Hawaii to help control an exploding population of cattle!

I’ve read Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast, and I do remember how sailors from the Sandwich Islands (later called Hawaii) participated in the cattle hide trade up and down California’s coast. Several Sandwich Islanders also lived on the beach near the hide houses in Point Loma at La Playa.

I was unaware, however, that in the early 1830s, Joaquín Armas, a soldier and vaquero born at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, was hired by Hawaiian King Kamehameha III as an advisor on how to control thousands of wild cattle that had multiplied on the islands. Armas would then recruit three other Mexican vaqueros from the San Diego region, helping to establish vaquero traditions in Hawaii!

The thousands of environmentally destructive wild cattle had descended from long-horned cattle that were given by British Captain George Vancouver to King Kamehameha I in 1793. The wild cattle, evading hunters and traps, came under control about half a century later as vaquero-inspired ranches popped up on Hawaii’s islands. The cattle were valuable for the tallow and hide trade. Skilled ropers and riders were in demand, so many native Hawaiians would learn cowboy skills!

The paniolo experience would eventually become ingrained in Hawaiian culture. Take music, for example. One important development was Hawaiian open-tuning for the guitar called kihoʻalu, or slack-key.

Why are Hawaiian cowboys called paniolos? One theory is that the word is derived from español–the language spoken by the Mexican vaqueros.

If this very unique history fascinates you, go visit the San Diego History Center!

A few photos to provide a taste…

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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!

Author promotes books with sandwich board!

When you self-publish, it can be difficult selling your book. Friends, coworkers and relatives are potential buyers, but reaching new customers in this great big world can be daunting. Author websites are numerous and precious few rise to the top of general search engine results. Most people scrolling through social media have short attention spans, and few are interested in purchasing a book. Conventional marketing requires money, and the result might be less than satisfying. So what is one to do?

Well, I met indie author Daniel X Ostenso (D X O) this weekend while exploring Balboa Park. He was strolling through the crowd wearing an advertising sandwich board!

What a great (albeit unusual) idea! Signed books for sale, a special offer, an outgoing personality, and the sheer novelty of his sandwich board immediately caught my attention.

His gumption in getting out there while appearing a bit strange is commendable. And you never know how gumption might be unexpectedly rewarded.

Check out the science fiction novels and other works authored by Daniel X Ostenso by clicking here.

He has traveled extensively with a beloved dog. Check out his YouTube video Kaylee’s Life in Five Minutes by clicking here.

Daniel donates money to animal shelters with every sale.

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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.