A street musician smiles on a beautiful Labor Day in Balboa Park.
Labor Day in Balboa Park is no different than any other day. Most museums and attractions are open, and everyone is smiling.
I wanted to take it easy–just enjoy the day–so I headed into the park for an aimless, leisurely stroll…
San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez rehearses Stairway to Heaven with a rock band for tonight’s final International Summer Organ Festival concert.People enjoy the beauty near the Japanese Friendship Garden’s Koi Pond.Progress is being made on the Japanese Friendship Garden’s new river, where a Great Buddha statue will soon be unveiled.
You can see additional photos of the Japanese Friendship Garden’s new stream under construction by clicking here.
Labor Day was quiet at the International Cottages, which were all closed for the Monday holiday.As I walked behind the Balboa Park Club building, I gazed northwest toward the Cabrillo Bridge and took this photo.On Labor Day, like most days, the 1935 (Old) Cactus Garden in Balboa Park is a quiet place for solitude.Families enjoy Labor Day in front of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.People relax on a bench by the old Mack Water Truck just outside the entrance of the San Diego Automotive Museum.Walking through Pan American Plaza between the San Diego Automotive Museum and nearby Recital Hall.Balboa Park was the ideal place for a picnic this Labor Day.Young and old enjoy the famous beauty of Balboa Park’s lily pond.All sorts of people were out on the grass enjoying the May S. Marcy Sculpture Garden at the San Diego Museum of Art.Visitors were touring the iconic California Tower and gazing across Balboa Park, one of the most wonderful places in the world.This group wanted to see fine art so they headed into the San Diego Museum of Art.Some smiling street musicians were setting up on El Prado to entertain passersby.The silly Lärabar Street Team danced for my blog, then I got some yummy samples to eat!Mentalist, hypnotist and super nice guy Ralph Hamrick greets me with his usual smile! I still haven’t recovered from that weird mental trick he performed on me.Street magician Kenny Shelton delights some young people with one of his amazing tricks.Lots of people were enjoying hula hoops on the grass!The San Diego Blood Bank was saving lives in front of the Museum of Man.A quiet moment on Balboa Park’s broad, green West Mesa.This squirrel didn’t know today was a holiday. It was just another day in the park.Even street performers have to eat lunch!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
A funky face has been spray painted on a utility box on El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights.
I recently walked through several blocks of City Heights, along a short stretch of El Cajon Boulevard from 35th Street to Interstate 15. I remained on the south side of San Diego’s historic boulevard, where I saw many examples of colorful street art.
Enjoy these photos!
Another side of the cool box.And another!This utility box is decorated with unusual fast food street art. A lady with crossed out eyes speaks pizza.Drinking through a straw on a seemingly littered sidewalk.Bunches of odd, globular faces make for some unique street art.All sorts of humanish expressions.Now I’m walking east along El Cajon Boulevard approaching the Soda Bar.Fun emoji-like faces on the wall of the Soda Bar in City Heights.Cool art in a window of Allegory Tattoo.Bees in a hive on this eye-catching electrical box.Trashcans on the sidewalk feature iconic the Boulevard graphics.Beautiful flowers painted on a transformer box.A child reaches out to touch a bright green essence.Surprising street art on El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
This coming Friday, Cool San Diego Sights will celebrate its five year anniversary!
Huh? Seriously?How is that possible?
Apparently I’m having fun, because time is flying!
I keep telling myself that I’m going to slow down this blogging thing, but it doesn’t seem to happen. I keep on walking like crazy, and I keep seeing more “cool” stuff. And so the trusty old camera keeps rising up to snap photographs.
I suppose as long as my legs continue to move, Cool San Diego Sights will expand!
Thanks to all who visit this blog. Some of you I know personally, thousands of you I will never meet. Thank you for coming along on my semi-random walks around San Diego.
During the past five years, too many amazing things have happened to mention. Starting this blog has allowed me to see things I would never have seen, meet people I would never have met. It has completely changed my life.
When I hit the publish button for my first modest post, Ribbon of life mural by the San Diego River, I had no idea how this thing would grow. Cool San Diego Sights now features 1784 blog posts and nearly twenty thousand photographs. It’s approaching half a million page views.
Cool San Diego Sights has also been the successful launching pad for Short Stories by Richard. Writing fiction is my true passion. I still can’t believe that my short story One Thousand Likes has been read by a bunch of tenth grade students. That’s utterly amazing. What an honor.
So, here we are, moving through time, and I have no idea where my next walk will be. Probably from Cortez Hill to a downtown trolley station as I head off to my job this morning. And then I’ll just keep pushing forward.
As of this moment, the only material waiting in my computer are photos of cool street art along El Cajon Boulevard, which I’ll post in the next few days. Beyond that, who knows? Anything is possible!
Yesterday I walked to the end of Oceanside Pier. It’s another one of my favorite places.
I experienced sunshine, the sparkle of the Pacific Ocean, a fresh sea breeze, the smell of wood, the cry of seagulls . . . and happy people all around: strolling, fishing, listening to music, talking, eating ice cream, leaning over the rail gazing down at the colorful beach and surfers in the blue water awaiting the perfect wave…
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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!
Children gaze at the beautiful fountain and sculpture Woman of Tehuantepec by Donal Hord, in the courtyard of Balboa Park’s House of Hospitality.
It’s difficult to find words that adequately describe Balboa Park. Endless scenes of beauty open up everywhere. Every walk is a different voyage through wonder.
Many of these photos were taken recently. A few have been residing in my computer waiting for the perfect moment.
There Are Places I’ll Remember All My Life. A colorful banner near door to the Balboa Park Visitors Center.Gigantic bubbles form like magic in the Plaza de Balboa.The House of Charm’s tower rises above the Alcazar Garden.A twisted, wonderful Australian tea tree on Balboa Park’s West Mesa.Walking through the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages.Wedding photos are taken at one end of the beautiful Lily Pond, or reflecting pool.Sunlight reveals natural beauty at the House of Hospitality.People head up toward the Casa del Prado’s outdoor courtyard to enjoy another special event in Balboa Park.I took this striking photo yesterday at the San Diego Fern Society Show inside the Casa del Prado.People relax and picnic on the lawn near the Botanical Building.A scene of great natural beauty in the Japanese Friendship Garden.Visitors to Balboa Park head toward the Plaza de Panama.Walking along. More things to see.Gazing toward Balboa Park’s Pepper Grove from a pathway inside the Japanese Friendship Garden.Abundant beauty at the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden.Resting at tables in the Plaza de Panama near the front of the San Diego Museum of Art.San Diego sunshine highlights arches inside the Casa del Prado.Sitting along the colonnade at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion during an outdoor concert.Walking past the magnificent facade of the Casa del Prado Theater.Flowers brighten a window at the International Cottages.A leisurely stroll through Spanish Village.The amazing tile dome of the California Building, home of the Museum of Man.The Bea Evenson Fountain lit at night.Balboa Park contains endless scenes of amazing beauty.
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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!
Early morning in Balboa Park is a time of quiet and new light. Golden beams from the rising sun crown each beautiful tower and building. The park appears freshly created, bright, magical.
These photographs are from a walk through Balboa Park that I took today around sunrise.
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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!
The Centre City Building, which rises just north of Civic Center Plaza in San Diego, was built in 1927. The fourteen story office building was designed by noted architect Frank W. Stevenson, and once was the tallest building in all of downtown. Today the historical landmark can seem lost among dozens of more recent high-rises.
Whenever I walk pass this building to the east or north, I like to look up at the elegant decorative brick and granite facade. The much more plain and faded west and south sides of the building provide a fascinating visual contrast.
Light at different times of the day can either make the building seem golden and regal, or like a gradually vanishing page from San Diego’s history.
Here are a variety of photos that I’ve taken during several walks.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Cool San Diego Sights! 