A group of young skateboarders cruises down C Street.
Here are a few scenes from my walk (and trolley ride) today around downtown San Diego. There is beauty, there is color, there is grit, there is life. My fascination with the dynamic city that I call home is never-ending.
Graffiti on a truck, an old blue house, and a modern high-rise, together in one photo.Colorful art by a downtown San Diego doorway.Someone out for a walk passes a window of the Smart Corner building.A truck waits to haul pianos away at the backstage door of Copley Symphony Hall.Clean and Safe equipment in the foreground, as a Silver Line vintage trolley approaches the Fifth Avenue station.Passengers will take a ride on this restored PCC streetcar of the San Diego Trolley. I joined them!Looking out the vintage trolley window at people walking through the City College station.Heading down Park Boulevard, and people camped on the sidewalk. San Diego, unfortunately, contains many homeless.Looking out the trolley window at the Park and Market station.A crane above construction near Petco Park holds a POW/MIA flag. Banners along Imperial Avenue show Monster Energy Supercross stars. The event is happening this weekend.Supercross Party in the Pits is taking place in a parking lot adjacent to Petco Park.Sign near Downtown Johnny Brown’s at Civic Center Plaza reads Eat Drink See Dinosaurs if you drink enough.Someone looks up at inflatable dinosaur arch outside the entrance to T. Rex Planet at the Community Concourse.
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Let’s be friends. Two cool faces on a utility box in North Park.
I’ve got so many fun pics from a walk around North Park that I need to break them up into separate blog posts. Here’s a collection of cool street art faces! I took these photos as I strolled along University Avenue and 30th Street.
Hey dude, don’t trip! More fun artwork on two other sides of the box.A happy sun shines on a sidewalk in San Diego’s hip North Park neighborhood.Two faces rise from one neck in this unusual utility box street art.Cool people wait in line. This graphic can be found outside Lucha Libre, a popular gourmet taco shop.More colorful urban art featuring several unique characters.Abstract faces look at each other.It’s hot! A warm welcome on a sign at North Park’s Cardamom Cafe and Bakery.Lurking in a North Park alley–it’s a graffiti SpongeBob SquarePants! He seems to be blowing a jellyfish bubble!
Car deep in the water. The flooded lower level of a Fashion Valley mall parking garage in San Diego’s Mission Valley.
Occasionally I post not-so-cool photos on my blog. Here are some that are noteworthy. I took these this morning while walking through a section of Mission Valley on my way to work. Because it lies right next to the San Diego River, the area is notorious for catastrophic flooding.
Yesterday we had a storm that brought intense rain to our region. It was the second winter storm of this El Nino year. Today we’re having our third storm, and it looks to be fairly rainy for many days to come.
Of course, after California’s long drought, we need the water. Unfortunately, the rain that falls in Mission Valley and many other parts of San Diego isn’t captured–it simply runs off into the ocean. I hope there isn’t too much damage caused this winter by El Nino. To my blog’s followers who are affected, take care!
The morning after an early winter storm during an El Nino year. The sun is out as people cross the San Diego River near the Fashion Valley Transit Center.Areas along the San Diego River are notorious for flooding. Yesterday a long deluge raised the water to an unusually high level.A couple dozen cars were spotted flooded at the Fashion Valley shopping mall. This one was stranded not far from Macy’s, which also suffered some flooding inside the store.More cars abandoned in the flood. Many storms are in line to strike San Diego in the coming days during this El Nino year.The bike and pedestrian pathway beneath Highway 163 flooded and was impassable. The nearby river was swollen with the recent rain.A beautiful morning photo of the San Diego River taken from Mission Center Road. This spot floods during severe storms and traffic must be diverted.A barrier stands ready for the next storm. It looks to be a long, watery winter!
Early Wednesday morning in downtown San Diego, and men are hard at work collecting the city’s trash.
It’s very early Wednesday morning. That means a small fleet of garbage trucks will soon be rumbling throughout downtown San Diego. Dumpsters will be hauled, pushed, lifted and emptied. Clank! Crash! Bang! It’s trash collection day!
I took some photos last Wednesday of all the activity. I delayed posting these pictures, however, because stinky, messy trash collection didn’t seem to convey the proper Christmas spirit. (Some would probably say that it does!) Now that New Year’s Day is approaching, these photographs seem more fitting. What’s old vanishes, making way for the new!
A building’s dumpsters are ready to be hauled out and emptied.Plastic garbage cans overflow near the House of Blues. Life in the big city.Few people are about this early in the morning. One gentleman was slowly walking down Broadway.Rows of garbage receptacles in the Gaslamp. The remnants of good times.While garbage is collected, early morning deliveries are also being made, including kegs of beer on pallets.Several garbage trucks converged at once on this block and I paused to watch for a moment.Collecting garbage in downtown San Diego while many still sleep.Blue recycle bins are lifted, banging and clattering, and contents are dumped.A truck heads up to Cortez Hill. Perhaps my own trash will soon be transported away.
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Do you like to read original, thought-provoking fiction? Visit my Short Stories by Richard writing blog!
LOVE carved into the beam of a wooden shelter on Presidio Hill.
My walk today took me along a lonely dirt trail on Presidio Hill.
The trail, among quiet trees, climbs above the location of the old Spanish presidio, the nearly 250 year old birthplace of European civilization in California. After a short distance, the trail descends toward a primitive wooden shelter overlooking a canyon.
The shelter was empty. A wreath of beautiful fresh flowers lay upset on the ground. A small floral display of some kind was broken in a corner. Torn flowers lay scattered about.
It’s a very strange mystery. But so is love.
Walking along a lonely trail covered with pine needles. Few people visit this part of Presidio Hill.A simple wooden structure among the trees comes into view. It is empty.Flowers are scattered on the ground.An upset wreath of fresh flowers. A broken display, left behind. Why?A beautiful mystery. Perhaps it contains sorrow.
Tourists are given a magic show by a busker near the reflecting pond in Balboa Park.
I took a Sunday stroll through Balboa Park. Here are some fun pics!
Duck enjoys the pool of water at the San Diego Museum of Art’s outdoor May S. Marcy Sculpture Court.Kid with painted face examines Man in White. This cool busker appears to be made of marble. He was entertaining surprised visitors on El Prado.Kid walks through a hula hoop on a stretch of grass.Guy shows some people his stuff in the Plaza de Panama.Folks wait on a bench for the free Balboa Park tram, which I call the green caterpillar.The San Diego Automotive Museum is having a food drive inside their front entrance. Stop on by!Happy dogs, walkers and a cool guitar-playing musician on a sunny Sunday in San Diego.Who doesn’t love colorful twisted balloons and soaring bubbles?
Two gulls take a nap in the San Diego sunshine the day after Thanksgiving. Many people were enjoying a pleasant, easy stroll along the waterfront.
It’s the day after Thanksgiving. I just took a walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero. If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are 12,000 words that hint at why I’m thankful every day to live in this beautiful city. I could write volumes and volumes.
A sleepy sea lion doesn’t care what sort of crazy, wild-eyed antics his buddy is engaged in.The Maritime Museum of San Diego’s historic Pilot boat crosses the bay as white clouds glow gloriously in a blue sky.This seagull was watching me taking a walk around Tuna Harbor. I wonder what she thought I was up to?A couple snuggled on the rocks by Seaport Village watch a gull take flight from the nearby wall.A busker magician comedian mime guy gets tied up in inescapable rope during his funny routine at Seaport Village.Mrs. Claus greets a child and mother at the Seaport Village’s East Plaza Gazebo.A guy carrying a skateboard ambles past outdoor diners at Sally’s Seafood on the Water.A helpful tot picks up a photographer’s tripod after a photo shoot at Embarcadero Marina Park North.A snowy egret checks out a small stone in the Marriott Marina on San Diego’s waterfront.Magnificent clouds the day after Thanksgiving on San Diego’s Embarcadero. Visible is a Dole cargo ship at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal.Taking flight in the sunshine.
Sign near the entrance to Visitor Center of Tijuana Estuary, home of a National Wildlife Refuge and National Estuarine Research Reserve.
What place in North America officially contains the most plant and animal species? You don’t know? San Diego and the Northern Baja California region!
Yesterday I took a nature walk around and through the northern section of the Tijuana River Estuary. The large estuary, which is located at the extreme southwest corner of the continental United States, where the Tijuana River empties into the Pacific Ocean, contains abundant life which reflects San Diego’s amazing biodiversity and range of habitats.
The Tijuana Estuary is not only a place of tranquil beauty, but it’s a scientific laboratory, protective refuge, and outdoor classroom where the public can learn about our natural environment. It’s managed by several agencies, including the NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, and the National Wildlife Refuge System under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
I absorbed so much information while walking about, reading signs, and listening to a volunteer guide during a short nature walk near the Visitor Center, that I couldn’t possibly convey it all on my blog. So I’ve selected some photos and have captioned them so you’ll get the gist of what I saw and learned. And hopefully you’ll want to visit, too!
Relatively few people partake of the scheduled weekend nature walks at the Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center. Joan, the plant expert, said that some days nobody shows up. What a shame. Because there’s so much beauty, so much to see.
I strongly encourage anyone who lives in the San Diego area to head down to Imperial Beach and take a long, leisurely walk where life thrives!
Ecoroute Bikeway and sidewalk along Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach offers views of the north section of 2,500 acre Tijuana River Estuary.A white egret and other small birds enjoy the fertile, nutrient-rich environment created by this important coastal wetland.A shorebird equipped with a long bill, used to poke into sand and mudflats for food. Over 370 species of birds have been sighted in the wildlife reserve.Once a dump, and destined to be a boat marina, local citizens fought to have the Tijuana Estuary protected as a National Wildlife Refuge and National Estuarine Research Reserve.Steps lead down from Imperial Beach Boulevard to one of many trails in the fascinating, life-filled estuary.There are many habitats in the estuary including dune, salt panne, salt marsh, mudflat, brackish pond, riparian, coastal sage scrub, and vernal pool.Sign welcomes visitors to Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Five endangered and two threatened species of birds are protected here in their natural habitat.I was told these old wooden pilings used to support a storm drain which ran out to the ocean.A Snowy Egret perches atop a post, perhaps watching the water for prey. Small fish, frogs, reptiles and insects are part of the food chain in a shallow river estuary.The path to the Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center passes through a garden of native plants often found along the coast of Southern California.This colorful abstract map at the Visitor Center entrance represents the 1,735 square mile watershed of the Tijuana River, reaching deep into Mexico.The edge of the map, inside the Visitor Center’s door, shows a part of San Diego and Tijuana. As it nears the Pacific Ocean, the Tijuana River crosses into the United States.One of many educational exhibits inside the cool Visitor Center. Wildlife abounds . . . at Tijuana Estuary!Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive.Habitats in a changing landscape. All eight habitats in the estuary endure constant change. Water levels rise and fall with the tides. Salinity of the water fluctuates.Visitors can jot notable sighting of birds on a board inside the Visitor Center. Buds and blooms are also listed.A few people out on a nature walk on a pleasant Saturday in November. The estuary is full of blooms, birds, and animal activity, even as winter approaches.Joan, a super nice park volunteer who is a plant expert (and author of a fun native plant book), shows us the yellow bloom of California bush sunflower.Even though the blue blooms of this pleasantly aromatic Cleveland Sage have dried, the seeds pods have a bluish tint.A tiny hummingbird is perched on the branch of a shrub.The Galvezia, or bush snapdragon, is common in Baja California. It has green stems, bright red tube flowers, and attracts hummingbirds.Hiking south down the North McCoy Trail in the Tijuana Estuary. Rising on the left horizon is Mexico. On the right horizon are the Coronado Islands in the Pacific Ocean.Ranger Debbie Good is super friendly. She answered a bunch of questions with a big smile. Here’s she’s putting away a table used to welcome volunteer workers.These volunteer students from SDSU are helping to plant native vegetation. Efforts to return the estuary to a natural state are ongoing. This area several decades ago was a dump.Looking across cordgrass and a beautiful wetland at the extreme southwest corner of the continental United States.A quiet bench on the North McCoy Trail invites walkers to relax and take in the sunshine and surrounding tranquility.Plaque on another bench at the south end of the trail. In memory of Glendon I. Layton. Rest a moment and watch the birds.The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve and Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge is a place where amazing biodiversity and nature’s beauty thrive.
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Here’s another very short story I wrote this morning. It might be somewhat true. I simply had to get these words out of my system. Names have been changed to protect the guilty.
A MIRACLE ON SIXTH AVENUE
by Richard
John walked slowly toward his parked car. Sixth Avenue was just another street in the city.
Without thinking, he searched the sidewalk with downcast eyes. Cigarette butts, rotting food, a discarded bottle, a dead cockroach, bits of toilet paper. Disgusting stains, crushed things.
A plume of smoke up ahead caught his attention.
As he neared, John noticed a crowd of people had gathered close to the rising black smoke. Excited faces were staring down at the freeway from an overpass.
A van was on fire below. Traffic on the freeway had been stopped by a police car with flashing lights, and two firemen with a hose were getting ready to put out the flames. The empty van, alone on the concrete, simply burned, nothing more.
At least forty people on the overpass leaned forward to stare down at the freeway. More were arriving, drawn by the smoke, as ants are drawn to sugar. Every person in the crowd held up a phone, carefully framing a photograph. A photograph of an empty van on fire.
The people checked their phone, appeared unsatisfied, changed the angle, held it higher. Needing to capture destruction, meaningless and distant. They watched with perfect fascination and took a second and third picture. A hundred identical photographs.
John kept walking. He’d never before felt such a wave of disgust.
That night he couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t purge from his mind that crush of people. Gawking, predictable, animal humanity, eagerly recording flames and black smoke, because flames and black smoke seemed exciting. Why? For what reason?
People were shallow and disgusting.
But what in the world is new?
And so John walked from his parked car up Sixth Avenue the next morning, a remnant of that dark shadow in his mind.
The sun was up. At the overpass there was no smoke. Cars passed in a blur on the concrete below. The incident was erased. Time swallows everything. Just different trash on the sidewalk.
“Good morning,” said an approaching person. The stranger’s eyes were wide, directly meeting John’s own eyes. A sincere, friendly smile was on the stranger’s lips.
Super cool street art on side of building on University Avenue in Hillcrest.
A month or so ago I enjoyed a pleasant walk down University Avenue in Hillcrest, a neighborhood just north of downtown San Diego. I spotted a whole bunch of colorful artwork, which I’d like to now share. In no particular order:
I don’t know if this qualifies as street art, but I like this cool Jack in the Box sign.Exist1981 street art on a corner of University Avenue in Hillcrest, San Diego.Fun chalk art sign in front of Fiji Yogurt.Long blue hair becomes ocean surf. Artwork painted on California Coast Credit Union.A colorful image of wine and grapes seen during a walk through Hillcrest.Filter…Where good things happen!More cool street art in Hillcrest has a mythical, possibly Egyptian appearance.I was told by a worker at this thrift store that the rainbow-like mural is a work in progress.This large bold spray paint mural on University Avenue is signed by artists Fizix, Revolver, Eyemax 2015.This is the best photo I could get of a really long colorful mural along a rooftop. I see James Dean and Muttley!Live a great story. Sticker on a utility box.A school of fish on an electrical transformer box.A windtorn mountaintop meditation, face in hands.
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