Here comes the famous Old Globe Theatre into view! It’s the round Tudor-style building there on the left. More about it in my next blog post…
Turning for a moment to the left, we see the east side of the Museum of Man’s colorful dome and the picturesque California Tower.
A pleasant nook below with benches. That’s the Craig Noel Garden, named after the Old Globe Theatre’s founding director. This is a great place to take a rest, or read a book!
Join me as we walk east through Balboa Park. Having passed the Museum of Man, we now turn north to peer through an archway that leads to three of San Diego’s most prominent theatres. They are the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, and the world-famous, much celebrated Old Globe Theatre. The latter is modeled after the original Globe Theatre in London, where William Shakespeare saw many of his own plays performed. Just a sliver is visible in this photo, on the left.
In the next blog post we will proceed through the archway…
This enormous steel sculpture, created by renowned artist Melvin Edwards, is called Breaking the Chains. It stands near the middle of the Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade, right next to the Convention Center trolley station.
The MLK Promenade is a pedestrian and bike path that stretches along Harbor Drive, from a point near Seaport Village down to the Gaslamp. It’s an excellent place to enjoy the sunshine and take in various sights, including the fun Children’s Museum, fountains, public art, and showy waterfront hotels. Along the walk are tributes to the famous civil rights leader and his cause of human equality. Many of his most inspirational quotes are engraved within and beside the walkway.
Every year, during Martin Luther King Day weekend, the promenade comes alive with the annual Multicultural Festival!
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Another interesting photograph taken during a walk. The sign on the north side of this old building is extremely faded. It informs the observer of an earlier time. Years ago this location was San Diego’s In Spot!
The nine story building stands right next to San Diego’s City Hall and is sadly abandoned. It has been that way since 1990. In 1927 this was the center of an historic grand opening. The California Theater, which was a movie palace, was so elegant and elaborate that it came to be called the “cathedral” of the motion picture.
The now dilapidated old building also has a large weathered advertisement for Tijuana’s Agua Caliente race track painted in the 1960s on its west side. I took photos of that here.
UPDATE!
I took a closer, better photo on a much later date…
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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!
Horton Plaza, San Diego’s colorful downtown shopping mall, was inspired by a concept put forth by famous science fiction and fantasy writer Ray Bradbury. The crazy, jumbled design was based on Ray Bradbury’s essay “The Aesthetics of Lostness” which took joy in the notion of becoming safely lost on the side streets of Paris, London or New York.
While walking about Horton Plaza, you’ll see ramps, escalators, bridges and stairs that go every which way–up, down, across–leading you to new unexpected vistas. One mysterious escalator will take you up one level, but there’s no immediate way to return from where you came. You must let your eyes rove to discover another route. It’s really a fun idea!
I believe I took these pics on a Sunday morning, and few people had yet arrived.
Should you ever walk through Civic Center Plaza, you’ll probably see this unusual group of signs. These are a few of San Diego’s sister cities. Pointing in almost every direction, the signs indicate distances in miles and kilometers.
Another similar group of fun signs can be found directly across the plaza.
San Diego’s 16 sister cities are:
Alcala de Henares, Spain
Campinas, Brazil
Cavite, Philippines
Edinburgh, Scotland
Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Jeonju, South Korea
Leon, Mexico
Perth, Australia
Quanzhou, China
Taichung City, Taiwan
Tema, Ghana
Tijuana, Mexico
Vladivostok, Russia
Warsaw, Poland
Yantai, China
Yokohama, Japan
UPDATE! I walked through Civic Center Plaza about half a year later and I noticed brand new signs!
Just steps from the Seaport Village carousel and Ben and Jerry’s you’ll find a henna tattoo artist. They must’ve been out to lunch when I walked by. But it was interesting to check out the display of possible designs and the table full of colorful materials.
Another pic taken on a day the artist was at work:
And then, one day, I took another stroll through Seaport Village…
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Yesterday morning, as I walked through the Gaslamp, I spied some spooky new banners hanging from the lamp posts. Looks like Halloween is coming!
UPDATE!
Here are similar Gaslamp banners spotted the following year!
“Imagine Tent City” is a cool bit of public art I discovered while walking along Coronado’s Glorietta Bay. The artwork is composed of photographic images arranged like a mosaic, embedded in ceramic tiles. It depicts the historic Tent City, which was a popular tourist destination for many years just south of the Hotel Del Coronado.
Established in 1900 by entrepreneur John D. Spreckels, the beach tents could be reached by Coronado Belt Line trains operated by the Coronado Railroad Company, running from San Diego around the bay and up the narrow Silver Strand. (Coronado is technically a peninsula, not an island.) The tracks have since been replaced by a very popular bike and pedestrian pathway.
Here’s a pic taken from the south side, walking toward the Hotel Del Coronado’s old Boathouse. The building you see is part of the Coronado Shores condo complex.
And here’s a bunch more cool pics I took at the beginning of 2015…
(This is a photo of the Boathouse as it appears today, a bit to the north up a sunny walkway.)
I was walking downtown through East Village yesterday when I happened to stumble upon San Diego Entrepreneur Day.
According to their website, the annual event is a celebration meant to assist creative people, including students. Entrepreneur Day helps those who’d like to take their unique business concepts to reality. The event presents many potential collaboration and partnership opportunities.
Large and small businesses had set up displays along the street, and people were checking them out. Lots of cool swag was being given away. Several food trucks were part of the action, but I already had lunch waiting at home.
The second pic shows some energetic dancers having a great time performing on a stage. I’m inspired!
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