Old Point Loma/Ocean Beach

Today is the 2nd anniversary of San Diego Daily Photo and in honor of this special day I decided to post some photos that remind me of Jane Emerson (my grandmother) to whom this blog is dedicated. These photos belonged to my grandma and my cousin Honie helped me dig them up. My grandparents moved to San Diego in the 1940's and lived in Azure Vista, a war-time housing project located near Sunset Cliffs in Point Loma. The above photo is of Sunset Cliffs with Azure Vista behind. The note on the back of the photo says, "Firemen rescuing a couple of boot soldiers from the incoming tides. 1945-1946? Taken by Ernie Holmes".
After they scraped some money together they bought this house on Del Monte Avenue about 4 blocks from the beach. Below is a view from the porch from 1955.Thank you to Alexandra and Expat for their excellent contributions and to all you visitors that make it fun and worthwhile to keep up this blog! We are looking forward to year 3!

Ssssssss!

If some of you have closed your eyes at this point, sorry! This is the smiling albino python at the San Diego Zoo. The longest and heaviest python can get up to 33 feet and 250 lbs! If you don't get creeped out by the sight of snakes, then the Reptile House is a cool place to see vipers, rattlesnakes, anacondas, lizards, turtles, and other creepy crawlies.

The Flower Fields

If color can brighten up your day, then go to the Carlsbad Flower Fields and it will make you really happy. With over 50 acres, The Flower Fields mainly grow giant ranunculus (the Tecolote Giant Ranunculus aka Persian Buttercup or Ranunculus Asiatic) but only 1-2% of the flowers are cut and sold. The flowers are grown primarily to harvest the bulbs (really rhizomes for you gardener types), which they harvest between 6-12 million a year.
If you decide to go, click here to get a buy one get one free admission coupon. Thanks to Tanya for bringing up this idea. It was spectacular!

Dave & Busters

Dave & Busters is a place that many people have driven by and maybe thought, how in the heck would I get there? They are located under the freeway where the 15 and 8 meet. (I was stopped in traffic when I took this photo.) This is a place where "big kids" can play video games (action, sports, classic ones like Pac-Man, simulators, new stuff like Dance Dance Revolution), drink beers or cocktails, and have a bite to eat.

Yellow Blankets

The flowers around town are amazing right now. In many areas it looks like the hills are covered in yellow blankets from all the asters - their heads pointing at the sun. Its really lovely.

These are over in the Lake Murray area.

Doomed!!!

Expat found this sad house signifying the changes in this neighborhood: This historic house in the shadow of Mercy Hospital was barricaded at least 2 years ago, and it's obviously doomed, as so many Hillcrest properties are. The two huge hospitals are ravenous for parking space, medical office space, consulting room space, research space, and on and on. The puzzle with this one is, why don't they GET ON WITH IT? We're guessing that they're planning to uproot it and move it somewhere else, as was done to a much less attractive house on Third Avenue whose plot the medical types lusted after. Anybody know any more?

Stones

Here is a cute Craftsman style house in Hillcrest. Sadly, and as I'll show you tomorrow, this neighborhood has less and less residential homes and more and more apartments, condos, and businesses.

Seaport Village

I hadn't been to the shops in Seaport Village in a long time. The layout is great for wandering around, but even with their map it is hard to find a store. Inside this little mall are fountains, streams, and little bridges and when you get totally sick of the touristy merchandise it is very refreshing to walk along the harbor and see San Diego Bay. The two tall buildings are the towering Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel.

Easter candy

This is for Susu. :) I cut these chicks off a lollipop candy wrapper called Zipperz. The stem of the lollipop is split in half and zippers up as you remove it from its over-packaged egg. Always something new and enticing in the candy world. Easter wishes to you all!

View of coast

I took a mini vacation earlier this week and coming home I had a great view of the coast line. Starting at the bottom of the photo you can see Pacific Beach, then Mission Beach and Mission Bay, the Point Loma peninsula, and in the last bit of land to the left is the beach in Coronado. If I could have reached outside the windows on this plane I would have written "wash me"!

Phoooooooo nice

Expat shares this excellent meal with us... Phô Pasteur in Linda Vista was the first Vietnamese restaurant we ever went to in San Diego, way back in 1982-ish. Five of us recently went back to this venerable palace of gastronomy, and ordered the roast fish. Theoretically you can order large, medium, or small, but in practice they serve what they have. This one is a catfish, and the crispy skin was a delight, rubbed with whatever the crafty Vietnamese rub fish with. There's a 30-minute wait for the roasting, during which time you might try chicken hotpot (at the top, in a basket) or some wraps (take one of the rice-paper wraps from the pile on the right, dip it in the hot water bowl, then make a vietnamese taco with whatever goodies come to hand, dipped into those yummy sauces you see scattered around). Or dig into the famous Phô itself. I had a bowl of it with rare beef and brisket, and I'd gobbled it down by the time the fish arrived. If any readers don't know what Phô is -- ask me. Or google it. Or wiki it....

Feeding Lorikeets

One of the really fun things to do at the Wild Animal Park is to feed the lorikeets. They sip nectar out of a little cup in your hand. These incredibly colorful birds will happily perch all over you to get a sip. The kids really love this one, so make sure to go by when your visiting the park!

Highway to the danger zone

Whenever, I see the New Point Loma Lighthouse in the above photo I start thinking of the song "Highway to the danger zone - Gonna take you - Right into the danger zone..." by Kenny Loggins or "Take my breath away" by Berlin. Several scenes from the movie "Top Gun" were filmed near the lighthouse and around San Diego. Sorry if these songs are stuck in your head now! :)

Lookout point

A short path near the Cave Store in La Jolla leads down to this lookout point where you can see barking seals (directly below) or look north to La Jolla Shores and Torrey Pines. Another path behind the store leads to a hike across the cliff called "Coast Walk" which is about one mile one-way and lets out onto busy Torrey Pines Road.

Have you kissed the Blarney Stone?

Get all your Irish favorites - beer, music, and sports at the Blarney Stone Pub downtown.

Arcade Building

Here's a little shortcut between Girard Avenue and Prospect Street in La Jolla. Cute upscale shops make it difficult to breeze through here quickly though.
The building was designed by Herbert Palmer between 1926-1930.

Preening pelicans

The pelicans have taken over the edge of this cliff in La Jolla for their beauty salon...and their bathroom as well.

Brockton Villa

You have to go outside, kinda in the "backyard" (no, it is not an outhouse), to use the bathroom at Brockton Villa Restaurant. While I was waiting my turn I snapped this photo. The little photo to the left is the very fresh tasting ahi tuna salad special that I had. I've been here a few times and the food is good, the "Coast Toast" is very memorable, and the view is awesome.

Hawk on a Golf Course

The other day I passed this beauty (driving past Sun Valley Golf Course in La Mesa) - I stopped the car in the middle of the road and snapped this shot before someone came up behind me. Unfortunately, he turned his head to look behind him just as the shutter opened. He was so close, just a few feet away. It was a great opportunity to admire just how big hawks are - an impressive sight!

Later that day I heard about this news story. It's a pretty good guess that this bird won't meet the same fate what with the publicity of the story. Keep your tempers in check, golfers! ;-)

Dolphins at UTC

Nope, it's not Sea World, it is one of our local malls. There are several small "pools" where dolphin statues "swim" at the University Towne Centre mall. A big makeover is proposed for the mall which opened in 1977. The makeover includes several "green" ideas including rooftop solar panels. I wonder if these dolphins will be relocated?

The Statengrape mural

Photos taken by Gayle and the story behind it by Expat: This funky mural doesn't have a title and it isn't even signed, but we decided to call it the Statengrape mural because it's at State and Grape, near Little Italy. You get a glimpse of it as you hurtle onto 5 South from Grape East, but only if you look dangerously backwards. So to save you from a horrible death by rear-ending, here's the whole thing plus a few details to peruse in safety.

The invisible canyon

In the "heart of the city" you might encounter the natural setting of a canyon uninhabited by people but populated by raccoons, coyotes, opossums, and other wild creatures. I've been thinking about what an interesting canyon photo might look like, but haven't yet found the perfect photo spot. This is a photo taken right near the Zoo. Behind this tree, the landscape drops down to a canyon where a road has been forged and there are hiking trails. It's about 1/2 mile in width and from this perspective you can hardly tell that it is there.

Festival girls

To highlight their current exhibit on Indian art, the Museum of Art had a family festival last weekend to celebrate the cultures of India. There was music and dance performances, storytelling, and art projects. These young ladies seemed to be having lots of fun demonstrating various dances.

Make a wish

The inside of many of the buildings in Balboa Park are architecturally just as interesting as the the outside. Marble staircases, ornate ceilings, ancient fixtures, and this one, the Museum of Art, with a fountain in the middle of its entry hall. Click here to see the front of the museum.

Chilango's is baaaaaaaack

Story and photos from Expat: I reported on 4/6/07 that Chilango's had gone to Tokyo -- the famous Mexican restaurant on University had started selling sushi but with the same Mexican staff (maybe a homage to Sushi Itto, a couple of blocks away, which is Mexican-owned). Well, it evidently wasn't the magic touch, because the cuisine has now gone back West. The place has new owners and a completely different menu. Sadly, the delicious soups and the huaraches are things of the past. Nothing to complain about in the new menu, however, and twofer coupons are all over the place so for the time being it's a cheap date. The carved figures of mariachi musicians and some of the wall hangings have obviously been inherited.

Curiouser & Curiouser

On a recent trip to Sea World, I witnessed these flamingos strolling down the walk. I didn't ask the "handlers" why, I was too surprised! I nearly missed the photo op all together - I was transfixed by the flamingos spindly legs walking by. I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland - although without the croquet.

Beach walk

I took this photo of La Jolla Shores when I was over by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography a few weeks ago. The little black dots in the water are surfers.

Tiki garage

To go with their tiki topped roof, they should really set up some plastic chairs and serve Mai Tais outside of Mission Bay Automotive Repair on Morena Blvd. That way, when you get your repair bill you might feel a little better.

The Loma

Many San Diegans probably remember this great old theatre turned bookstore. Designed by architect S. Charles Lee, the Loma Theatre opened in 1945 and closed in 1988. I have fond memories of seeing E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial at this theatre when it came out in 1982. Do you remember The Loma?

Centro Cultural de la Raza

It was hard for me to choose yesterday's photos because the World Beat Center and the Centro Cultural de la Raza Center are next door to one another in Balboa Park. The Centro's mission is to "create, preserve, promote and educate about Chicano, Mexicano, Latino and Indigenous art and culture". The Centro has an art exhibition space, dance classes to LIVE music for adults and kids, and a regular ballet folklorico program.

Theme day - street art/mural

The World Beat Center is a building in the round, so here are just a few views of the many beautiful murals adorning the outside and inside of this building. The Center's mission is to "promote, present, and preserve the African and Indigenous Cultures of the world through music, art, education, culture and technology". Here is a sample of some of their offerings - reggae concerts, West African and Taiko drumming, Qi Gong, Capoeira, and an ethnobotany school garden project. The director of the Center also hosts Reggae Makossa, a reggae music show on our local radio station 91X. Thanks to Anne (in yellow pictured below) for showing me around and letting me take photos.
Click on a city below to see more murals or street art around the world.
Adelaide, Australia by Gordon, Albuquerque (NM), USA by Helen, Aliso Viejo (CA), USA by Rodney, American Fork (UT), USA by Annie, Anderson (SC), USA by Lessie, Arradon, France by Alice, Ashton under Lyne, UK by Pennine, Athens, Greece by Debbie, Auckland, New Zealand by Lachezar, Austin (TX), USA by LB, Bandung, Indonesia by Guntur Purwanto, Baziège, France by PaB, Belgrade, Serbia by BgdPic, Bellefonte (PA), USA by Barb-n-PA, Bicheno, Australia by Greg, Boston (MA), USA by Cluelessinboston, Boston (MA), USA by Fenix, Boston (MA), USA by Sarah, Whit, & Leyre, Brighton, UK by Harvey, Bucaramanga, Colombia by Fernando, Budapest, Hungary by Isadora, Budapest, Hungary by Zannnie and Zsolt, Buenos Aires, Argentina by Karine, Canterbury, UK by Rose, Cape Town, South Africa by Kerry-Anne, Chandler (AZ), USA by Melindaduff, Chateaubriant, France by Bergson, Cheltenham, UK by Marley, Chicago (IL), USA by b.c., Chicago (IL), USA by U R us, Christchurch, New Zealand by Michelle, Clearwater (FL), USA by Smaridge01, Clearwater Beach (FL), USA by Smaridge01, Cleveland (OH), USA by iBlowfish, Cologne, Germany by April11, Coral Gables (FL), USA by Jnstropic, Detroit (MI), USA by Taittems, Dunedin (FL), USA by Smaridge01, Durban, South Africa by CrazyCow, Evry, France by Olivier, Forks (WA), USA by Corinne, Glasgow, Scotland by Jackie, Greenville (SC), USA by Denton, Grenoble, France by Bleeding Orange, Guelph, Canada by Pat, Helsinki, Finland by Kaa, Hobart, Australia by Greg, Hyde, UK by Gerald, Inverness (IL), USA by Neva, Jackson (MS), USA by Halcyon, Jefferson City (MO), USA by Chinamom2005, Joplin (MO), USA by Victoria, Juneau (AK), USA by Gwyn, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Edwin, Kyoto, Japan by Tadamine, Larchmont (NY), USA by Marie-Noyale, Le Guilvinec, France by ds2944, Lisbon, Portugal by Sailor Girl, Lisbon, Portugal by Jsaltao, Lodz, Poland by ritalounge, London, UK by Ham, London, UK by Mo, Mainz, Germany by JB, Maple Ridge, Canada by Susan, Mazatlan, Mexico by Kate, Melbourne, Australia by Mblamo, Melbourne, Australia by John, Memphis (TN), USA by SouthernHeart, Menton, France by Jilly, Mexico, Mexico by Poly, Mexico City, Mexico by Carraol, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Mitch, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Greg, Monte Carlo, Monaco by Jilly, Montréal, Canada by Douber, Moscow, Russia by Irina, Mumbai, India by Kunalbhatia, Mumbai, India by MumbaiIteanu, Naples (FL), USA by Isabella, Nashville (TN), USA by Chris, Nelson, New Zealand by Meg and Ben, New Orleans (LA), USA by steve buser, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK by Cassie & Chris, Niamey, Niger by Dinabee, Norwich, UK by Goddess888, Nottingham, UK by Gail's Man, Ocean Township (NJ), USA by Josy, Paris, France by Eric, Pasadena (CA), USA by Can8ianben, Pasadena (CA), USA by Petrea, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia by Murphy_jay, Pilisvörösvár, Hungary by Elise, Port Angeles (WA), USA by Jelvistar, Port Elizabeth, South Africa by Sam, Port Vila, Vanuatu by Mblamo, Prague, Czech Republic by Honza03, Quincy (MA), USA by Cluelessinboston, Radonvilliers, France by Deslilas, Riga, Latvia by Prokur, Rome, Italy by Giovanni, Rotterdam, Netherlands by Ineke, Saarbrücken, Germany by LadyDemeter, Saint Louis (MO), USA by Strangetastes, Saint Paul (MN), USA by Kate, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation by Lark, San Antonio (TX), USA by Kramer, San Diego (CA), USA by Felicia, San Diego (CA), USA by Zentmrs, Santa Fe (NM), USA by Randem, Seattle (WA), USA by Kim, Seattle (WA), USA by Chuck, Seguin (TX), USA by Thien, Selma (AL), USA by RamblingRound, Sesimbra, Portugal by Aldeia, Setúbal, Portugal by Maria Elisa, Sharon (CT), USA by Jenny, Silver Spring (MD), USA by John, Singapore, Singapore by Keropok, Sofia, Bulgaria by Antonia, St Francis, South Africa by Sam, Stavanger, Norway by Tanty, Stayton (OR), USA by Celine, Stockholm, Sweden by Stromsjo, Subang Jaya, Malaysia by JC, Sydney, Australia by Sally, Székesfehérvár, Hungary by Teomo, Terre Haute (IN), USA by Zann, Terrell (TX), USA by Bstexas, Terrell (TX), USA by Jim K, The Hague, Netherlands by Lezard, Tokyo, Japan by Tadamine, Torun, Poland by Torun Observer, Toulouse, France by Julia, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina by Jazzy, Twin Cities (MN), USA by Slinger, Vienna, Austria by G_mirage2, Wailea (HI), USA by Kuanyin, Wassenaar, Netherlands by Rich, Wellington, New Zealand by Jeremyb, West Paris (ME), USA by crittoria, West Sacramento (CA), USA by Barbara, Weston (FL), USA by WestonDailyPhoto, Wrocław, Poland by Loompi, Yardley (PA), USA by Mrlynn