San Diego Reader

Wondering what is going on this weekend in San Diego? Look to the Reader, our free weekly local paper. Includes news and stories on San Diego life in general, politics, entertainment and the arts with movie, event, theater, and music listings. Also has restaurant and film reviews and classified ads. A good read. What is your favorite section of the Reader?

Succulent plant

From afar it looks like a giant rose, but up close you can see that the leaves are hard like artichokes and it has an amazing color one does not often see. The two branches coming out from the top are more of these beautiful flowers.

Lake Murray ducks

I liked seeing these two photos together so I decided to post two today (hmmm, this could be a new series - two for Tuesdays). I showed this lake before in the spring when things were greener.When I saw the photos of Kris' ducks in Szentes, Hungary earlier this week, I thought that ducks are the same everywhere in the world - always quacking and always willing to eat.

Fountain

This is a half domed shaped fountain set inside a wall at Balboa Park. Click here to see the "big" picture - the fountain is in the small archway above the lion's head. Kind of an upsidedown female counterpart to Luggi's cactus, what do you think?

Bargains galore

Okay, I'll admit that I did do some shopping this weekend. There were two reasons: 1) my son needed new shoes because it is no longer warm enough here to wear sandals every day, and 2) I couldn't pass up a bargain - a 1GB memory card for only $29.99, isn't that tempting? Above is a store called Planet Funk at Horton Plaza that has trendy young clothes and lots of jeans. Jeans here are very inexpensive compared to other places in the world - I've seen Levi's for around $32. Hope you enjoyed your shopping free or shopping filled weekend!

Countdown

Here in the US, the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it is considered to be the busiest shopping day of the year. The malls and stores are full of crazy shoppers because there are only 30 more days until Christmas as of today. I usually don't go shopping around this time because I don't like the crowds, rude people, the traffic, and the fights over a parking place. San Diego shoppers - how excited are you about the new Bloomingdale's at Fashion Valley that opened one week ago?!

Wall of Frida Kahlo

Decor inside of Ranchos Cucina on 30th and University. They serve Mexican and vegetarian cuisine. Lots of menu items had a little star next to it indicating that it could be prepared either vegetarian or vegan. One vegetarian item I saw on the menu that I thought would be interesting was eggplant enchiladas. They also have a natural foods grocery next door.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's not just all about the food, but I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the things we had for our Thanksgiving dinner. I cooked the turkey, stuffing, and a very fattening spinach dish (with cream cheese and butter with breadcrumbs on top). No jello salad or chestnut puree, but maybe next year. To me Thanksgiving is about putting aside differences, appreciating, sharing, and enjoying the moments we have together - and these all require eating! Hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble

I knew I wanted to show you all this turkey, and in my search I saw three in less than one mile. I don't know when this trend started but I see more and more inflated lawn ornaments for the holidays. Deflate the turkey and in a few minutes this house will be ready for Christmas.

Corn

On Thursday, we will celebrate Thanksgiving which began as a celebration dinner between Native Americans and early US settlers at the end of the harvest season. Most people will gather with friends and family to share a big dinner. For the past few weeks, everyone has been thinking and talking about Thanksgiving dinner food. Some traditional foods: roasted turkey, bread or rice or corn stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans with crisp onions on top, sweet potatoes or yams with butter and maybe marshmallows, carrots, corn, creamed spinach, squash, cranberry sauce. Did I say gravy? For dessert there is usually pumpkin, apple or pecan pie. What is your favorite/special Thanksgiving food?

Gateway to fall colors

When I saw this gate I was happy to see a few red leaves because around here we stay green (or shades of brown if there is not much rain) all year round.

Bear

The above photo is a recently installed sculture on the University of California San Diego campus by Tim Hawkinson and is called "Bear". This cute teddy bear is made up of over 180 tons of granite rock and stands 23 feet 6 inches tall! For a softer more cuddly version, visit Olivier in Evry, France who has a teddy bear named Amedee that takes an adventure in New York City on Sundays.

Come visit...

Here is another one of those big signs that indicate the neighborhood. Click here to see the sign for Hillcrest. North Park is a neighborhood that is undergoing development and revitalization. The building behind the sign is the North Park Theatre that was built in 1929 and was recently restored and reopened about one year ago.

Mariachi

Some Mexican restaurants have a mariachi band that roams about visiting individual tables playing music and singing songs for customers. The main instruments are violin, trumpet, guitar and a guitarrón (a bass guitar). We enjoyed versions of "Happy Birthday", "Guantanamera", and "La Bamba".

Spruce Street Suspension Bridge

Built in 1912, this bridge was built to link the Banker's Hill neighborhood to newly built streetcar lines and give residents access to downtown. It is the only suspension footbridge in San Diego. Suspension bridges by design are very light and flexible, so when you walk across you can feel it moving and swaying from your weight. Click here to see a cool old photo of this bridge around 1915.

Courtyard

Back to Balboa Park. This is the interior courtyard of the Casa del Prado building. Click here to see a view of the front of the building. Yes, the sky here can get this blue, and it was today, but I added some shading to this photo and it made the sky even more brillant.

Old Town Trolley

This is a fancy looking ticket stand for a bus tour company. The bus looks just like the ticket stand only bigger and with wheels!
P.S.: I haven't had time lately to visit your blogs or tend to this one much, so thank you all for visiting and leaving comments!

Pink blooms

I know that many of the Daily Photo bloggers see something from their car, stop the car (or not), and jump out to take a photo. This was the case for me seeing this beautiful pink flowering tree.

Viejas Casino

If you like playing poker or gambling, there are several casinos in the area. Viejas is one of the bigger casinos. They offer other things to do besides gambling. They have a nice outlet shopping mall across the street from the casino, outdoor concerts (March-October), and a water fountain where they have a water and lights show and where kids can play during the summer. In the above photo, you can see part of the covering that surrounds the water fountain.

View from First Avenue Bridge

San Diego is not just beaches. In terms of topography, there are many canyons, hills, and mountains that define our neighborhoods. Hillcrest (and as the name implies, this neighborhood is at the crest of a hill) gained a vital crossing into downtown when the First Avenue Bridge was built in 1931. The bridge looks across San Diego Bay to see a little part of Coronado island and beyond to Point Loma.

Cerveza

Many people like a nice strong margarita with Mexican food, but a beer can be a good thirst quencher too. Have you tried Mexican beers? Some that are readily available here: Corona and Pacifico (pictured), Dos Equis, Negra Modelo, Tecate, Carta Blanco, and Bohemia. What is your favorite beer?

First Avenue Bridge

Here is a great little bridge that was put up in 1931 and was known as the "People's Bridge". Propery owners got the city to build it in order to create access over Maple Canyon. Click here for more history and photos.

Ballet dancers - electrical box #6

A dance to celebrate the elections! Click here to see the other electrical boxes I've shown: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Election day

Today is election day and those of us in California will be voting for who we want as our Governor. Our current governor is Arnold Schwarzenegger. I liked him in the movie Twins with Danny Devito. What is your favorite Arnold movie?

Forward energy

Here is another item Californians will vote on tomorrow: Proposition 87 asks voters if they endorse a new tax on oil pumped in California to fund a program that hopes to reduce the use of oil and promote clean energy. How will you vote?

Freeways merge

This coming Tuesday is election day. I still have a lot of homework to do. I had wanted to research the issues and then take a photo of something that I thought related to the issue. Well, I didn't get around to that, but I had this photo and it made me think of Proposition 1A. This Prop asks if we want to change the State's Constitution to make sure that money from gas taxes only go toward supporting transportation, instead of, for example, education or health care. What do you think?

Mini

This mini VW is cute advertising for San Diego Blenders, a juice smoothie place on El Cajon Boulevard. Click here to see the full size version (PS: this is a photo of a different car - the one above really is as small as it looks). Happy Saturday!

Mango salsa

From the photo of a salsa bar that I posted a little bit ago, Annie of Little Rock, Arkansas Daily Photo got a craving for making mango and avocado salsa. Here's a close up of the mango salsa with my black bean and chicken taquito in the background. P.S.: For those of you that don't have jalapeños available where you live I'd be happy to pop one in the mail to you!

Día de los Muertos

We celebrate the Day of the Dead where I work by bringing in photos and momentos to celebrate and honor our ancestors and the deceased. So today I thought I'd write a little something about my grandma Jane Emerson who this blog is in honor of and who died in 2002. She had 12 children, which is remarkable, but at the same time I remember her once saying when she was in her 70's that two things that annoyed her were old people that talked about their medicines and people who thought that the greatest thing that they had accomplished was having children. She believed in feeding the hungry, defending the poor, and providing shelter for the homeless. In her efforts to provide meals to the homeless in San Diego, she once said "America's finest city is not America's most loving city". (Here are a few articles about her work - 1, 2, 3.) She was resolute and stubborn too. She loved to read, drink wine, give parties, and talk politics. She was a feminist. She was a recycler and a pack rat. She was a righteoous babe. She was an excellent Scrabble and Anagrams player, although I think there were times when she may have cheated at these games. She was a great gardener. She was loving and supportive, a great listener and giver of advice. She is my inspiration.

Santee Drive-In Theatre

Today is the Daily Photo theme day for "something that is about to disappear soon". Well, I don't know if the Santee Drive-In Theatre is about to disappear soon, but generally drive-in theatres are not as common as they used to be. From what I read, in the late 1960's California had the most drive-in theatres in the US, with over 200 around the state. Now there are a little more than 100. There are 3 remaining in the San Diego area - this one in Santee, the Harbor Drive-in, and the South Bay Drive-in. Some of you old folks may remember the Aero, Campus, Escondido, Frontier Twin, Midway, Pacific, or Valley. Visit other cities around the world to see "something that is about to disappear soon".
Porto -Seattle WA USA (Kim) -London, UK -Greenville, SC -Albuquerque, NM (USA) -St Paul (Kate) -ShangHai, China -Phoenix, Az -Twin Cities, MN -Sequim, WA -Stayton, OR, USA -Bandung (Indonesia) -Dallas, USA -Stavanger (Norway) -Singapore (Zannnie) -Budapest (Hungary) -Paris (France) -Tuzla (BiH) -Melbourne, (Aust.) -Auckland, New Zealand -Singapore (Raymond) -Dubai UAE (DXBluey) -Vantaa, Finland -Oshawa, Ontario, Canada -St. Paul MN (Carol) -Singapore (Keropok) -Delta Colorado, USA -Rotterdam (Netherlands -Queens, NY (USA) -Tenerife (Spain) -Santiago (Chile) -Nelson, New Zealand -Akita (Japan) -Hyde (UK) -Sydney, Australia (Sally) -Manila, Philippines -Aliso Viejo, CA (USA) -Nottingham UK -Brussels, Belgium -Sharon, CT (USA) -Sydney, Australia (Nathalie) -Edinburgh, Scotland -Evry, France -San Diego, CA (USA) -Santa Clara, CA (USA) -Saarbrücken, Germany -Joplin, MO (USA) -Indianapolis, IN (USA) -Trujillo (Peru) -Barcelona (Spain) -Berlin (Germany) - Vancouver, BC (Canada) - Trier (Germany) - Houston, TX (USA) - Joensuu (Finland) -Jakarta (Indonesia) -Van Buren, AR (USA)