Yes, I am STILL making my way through images from my visit to San Diego last year.
This post is about Ocean Beach. It’s a bit grungy, but still worth seeing and experiencing, especially since it’s one of the places in SD where you can see tide pools.
Ocean Beach (OB) Mural
Palm trees line the main drag.
The Ocean Beach fishing pier is older than me!
The pier extends 1,971 feet out into the ocean. See those giant rocks? That’s where you’ll find the tide pools at low tide. If you’d like more info on the OB pier and tide pools, here’s a link.
Under the OB pier.
Tide pool crabs.
Waves crashing against the rocks south of the OB pier.
Tide Pool
Tide Pool
Tide Pool
Tide Pool
Bird near a clump of kelp.
Municipal art.
Some of my first street tacos. These were the worst.
Lifeguard station.
Crowded Beach
I love kitschy souvenir shops.
Utility box art near the library.
There’s definitely a hippie vibe in OB.
Far-out store window.
Interesting mural for all seasons.
USA Hostel
USA Hostel close-up.
Hippies hate rules.
There’s definitely a lot of art.
Breakfast Republic’s OB location.
Random mural.
Another random mural.
Yet another random mural.
Art on a business.
Sadly, I never actually went into a Belching Beaver.
I’ve been working on sharing the many images I captured during my visit to San Diego in 2017.
Previous posts have covered the coolest art sculpture ever at Imperial Beach and Chicano Park and Barrio Logan. This post includes images captured at many different places in San Diego just because it’s easier than doing multiple posts for each area, not to mention trying to remember where each pic was taken. It was almost a year ago, after all.
Here are some of my favorites…
Done by the folks at GreetingsTour.com. They’re on a mission to paint a mural in every state.
Monstrous Art in North Park
Skeletal mermaid depicting the death of our oceans.
Doodle art!
Super-cool, old school South Park barber shop.
Crazy cats in North Park
Art by Autumn in Pacific Beach (click image to see her website).
Breakout dog in La Jolla
Shark! in Imperial Beach.
Homage to Prince near Normal Heights on Adams Avenue (separate neighborhood).
Near Normal Heights on Adams Avenue (separate neighborhood).
More Space Clones (maybe in Pacific Beach)
Funky house either in Ocean Beach or Normal Heights.
Utility box art near the Waypoint Public bar/restaurant in North Park.
Business Art near Normal Heights.
North Park
A close-up of that North Park piece.
Coolest parking garage in North Park.
North Park is my favorite city neighborhood (excluding the beaches) in San Diego. I think my second-favorite is South Park, but more exploration is needed. University Heights, Hillcrest, and Mission Hills seemed pretty interesting, too, but I only passed through each of those.
I am a visual person. I hate to say I am an “art lover” because that sort of implies that I love visiting museums and looking at a bunch of classic paintings and stuff. Museums are fun in small doses, but I much prefer moving through the world looking at stuff that catches my fancy than spending hours in a dark building looking at pieces other people think I really should love and want to see.
I have really come to enjoy street art/murals. But what exactly is “street art”? A fancy name for graffiti? If you really want to know, click here. As an article about ten of the best places to find street art in SD on the SanDiego.org website says, “Muralists and street artists are the tricksters of public art. They play with scale, making familiar objects giant. They slip in visual puns and sly references, simultaneously secret and bold as a howl. They create monuments to people and moments they deem heroic.”
In my opinion, street art is fun. It’s colorful. It can really liven-up run-down areas and add visual interest to an otherwise hum-drum scene. It’s a creative way to grab attention as an alternative to an ordinary sign, e.g., for businesses.
On previous visits to the area, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of street art in San Diego (SD). Hubby doesn’t share my appreciation for the medium, so I figured my extended solo visit would be a great time to explore the art of SD in addition to the local beer and street taco establishments. And that’s exactly what I did.
I visited many different areas in and around the city. I captured hundreds of images during that time, many of which I shared on Facebook and Instagram. The focus on street art was a departure from the type of travel pics I usually share. Later, one of my friends said she hadn’t enjoyed my SD posts as much as she’d likes pics I’d shared from visits to other places because she doesn’t like “graffiti” and stuff as much as I do. That comment tickled me. I wasn’t offended because I know that art, like beauty, really is in the eye of the beholder. Travel photos are art, too, right?
San Diego is a big place. Rather than just wander around aimlessly, hoping to get lucky, I figured I’d do a bit of research to find concentrations of art in the city. One of the areas I chose to visit was Chicano Park in Barrio Logan. According to the SanDiego.org website, “The park is home to the largest concentration of Chicano murals in the world with more than 80 paintings on seven acres dotted with sculpture, gardens, picnic tables and playgrounds.” That website can give you a very succinct and explanation of the history and cultural significance of Chicano Park.
If you’d like to know more about this very unique spot, I encourage you to visit this website, which “…supports MAS 350B: Mexican American Studies – Chicano History at San Diego State University. This class involves the study of the history of Chicanos since 1848, using Chicano Park as a point of departure for research and study. The main emphasis of the class will be to survey the major themes of Chicano history that are suggested by the murals of Chicano Park in Barrio Logan San Diego, and to do research on the park in order to contribute to its preservation by revealing the rich artistic and cultural legacy its embodies.”
I’m glad I visited Chicano Park and Barrio Logan without any human companions. It really gave me the opportunity to meander aimlessly around the park and surrounding neighborhood, lingering as long as I liked. That’s important as there was so very much to see.
I have so many images from that day, I decided to create a slideshow for sharing. One blog post is just not the right place to share 100+ images. I’ve posted my top-10 favorites within this post. The rest can be seen in the slideshow embedded at the end.
A Google map is embedded below so you can see all of the ramps leading to/from the bridge. The map will help you better appreciate the number of different support pylons photographed.
My slideshow and collection of photos is not all-inclusive. It really is an impressive site. If you ever visit SD and like street art, I encourage you to visit, allowing a few hours to take in the sights.
This guy gave me an extra hand with Jasper.
We probably spent several hours just moseying around.
Colossus
A painting of paint.
Super-cool skater.
Skate Park
Neighborhood sign.
Cute house with a yard full of fun kitsch.
I love the way this image looks with the foreground of stony ground.
I share this next image more for the story behind the recent controversy surrounding the mural than for the mural itself. Although I DO love this shot for its multiple murals and interesting angles. You can read the full story of the controversy if you like.
Ironic controversy.
In a nutshell, many people who don’t know the history of the area misinterpret the meaning of “yonkes” and are offended. It’s a prime example of Americans whining about ridiculous stuff AND displaying their language ignorance at the same time.
Yonkes is a Spanish slang term. It does not mean “yankees” (referring to white people) or “honkies” (again, referring to white people). Just because it kind of resembles yankees and honkies, those are English words. Yonkes is local-ish Spanish slang that means junkyards.
People really can be so narrow-minded and stupid. I must admit, I love it when their narrow-mindedness makes them look even more ignorant than they already are.
Finally, one of the things I also loved about the art in and around the park is that it isn’t all expertly rendered. Some pieces are artistically superior to others by far. There are quite a few that are downright bad. Some were clearly done by children. But they’re still there, because this is a place that’s for the people of the neighborhood. All of the people. Even folks that are less artistically talented than others have a right to express themselves and be heard.
I really do like that the works encompass the full spectrum of skill levels, however, some of the pieces made me chuckle. Like the family of three in this next image. That family, which is painted on a wood cut-out positioned on the ground behind those plants, looks like a family of zombies to me. The kids more so that the man. In my opinion.
While digging up the pics I used in my previous post about ART, I found a bunch of pics from my favorite San Diego beach that I wanted to share.
Lifeguard stations are serious business in California.
This East Coast native found the lifeguard stations quite impressive in San Diego. There are actual large structures, with vehicles and everything, at various locations along the beach. Sort of like a municipal firehouse, but on the beach, and without firetrucks. They do have little trucks, Jeeps, and other rescue vehicles. There are the little lifeguard shacks, too. But even those are different than what we have on the Atlantic beaches, which really are nothing more than tall, wooden chairs.
Delicious Street Tacos
Imperial Beach was my favorite for several reasons. Street tacos are one of those reasons.
My first lunch at IB Tacos.
I encountered too many incomplete or inaccurate descriptions of street tacos to give y’all a definitive explanation of street taco vs. Americanized (think Taco Bell) tacos. Basically, street tacos are small, simple, inexpensive, and eaten in multiples. They typically have very fresh ingredients, a few complementary toppings, and are served open-faced, sometimes atop two soft corn tortillas. One thing I learned today is that the second tortilla is so you can redistribute half of the fillings to make two neater “packets” of deliciousness. I ate a lot of tacos in SD, but IB Street tacos was the best of what I tried, in my opinion. Click on their logo above to go to their website and read their menu.
Not all beaches welcome dogs. Not wanting to leave Jasper home, especially since he was the reason I had extended my stay in SD, I had to find a dog-friendly one. The thought of long, leisurely strolls along a beach without being nagged by guilt for abandoning my little friend were just too appealing.
At first, while Shannon and Chris were still at home, Jasper didn’t want a whole lot to do with me.
“Don’t even think about getting between me and Mom,” Jasper appears to be thinking here.
As they prepared to leave on their honeymoon, Jasper and I became more-acquainted with one another.
“Wait, what? YOU are supposed to take me for a walk?” he seemed to be thinking.
Once they left, he was all like, “Cool. What fun thing are we going to do now?”
“Okay, Babysitter Lady, where are we going this time?” he seems to be thinking.
I sort of made a game of it. If you’re on Instagram, look for #adventureswithjasperkirkman.
For the Birds!
There are lots of birding opportunities in and around IB. Click here to learn more. I like birds, but am not a serious birder by any stretch of the imagination. Jasper likes birds, too, but for different reasons. I like to look at them and he likes to chase them.
Beach Birds
Looking inland from the beach across the estuary/slough.
More beach birds.
You can sort of see mountains in the distance through the haze.
I forgot to mention that it was unseasonably hot most of the time while I was in SD. Inland temps were in the mid-90s, which was another good reason to head for the beach!
Interesting Patterns in the Sand
I never did figure out why there’s so much black sand mixed-in with the regular sand at IB, but I do know that it made for some very visually interesting patterns.
Patterns in the Sand
Patterns in the Sand
Patterns in the Sand
Patterns in the Sand (almost looks like a quilt!)
We spent many long, lazy hours at IB.
Rocks, Shells, and Stuff
There were not always a lot of rocks, shells, and such to see, I guess it depended on what was happening offshore, erosion, etc. But it was fun to see how objects on the beach impacted the patterns.
Shell amidst interesting visual pattern.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that makes for a nice photo.
My first sand dollar!
Rocks, shells, and such leaving their mark.
This rock came home with me.
One day, there were a bezillion coquina clams on the beach.
That’s a LOT of coquina clams!
Coquina clams and such.
Now THAT is a turtle head-looking rock.
Houses and Other Land Stuff
Seacoast Drive (I think), which parallels the beach.
Beach Houses
I really liked the looks of this house.
Southernmost house at IB.
I really like the way the clouds looked in that image.
IB pier with downtown San Diego in the background.
Walking to Mexico
We never did make it to Mexico, but we were close. Less than a mile away, in fact.
“Come on, Babysitter Lady. I hear the bitches in Tijuana are really hot!”
Tijuana is on that rise of land in the distance.
The Tijuana River got in our way.
Jasper liked watching stuff float past, moved by the river’s surprisingly swift current.
Funny story… I carefully calculated how much time we would need to get from the car to Mexico and back. Shannon and Chris were due home that day, and my plan was to get home with Jasper shortly after their arrival. During my stay, every time we’d get home from one of our adventures, big or small, he’d excitedly run around the house looking for his people. I figured he’d be super-excited to actually find them.
I’d looked at their scheduled arrival time and planned around it. We were about 100 yards from that river when I got a call from Shannon saying they’d landed early. Doh! “Okay, but we’re almost in Mexico!” I told her. 🙂
The timing actually worked just fine as they were detained at the airport. They got to that house maybe ten minutes before we did.
As it turns out, Jasper was a little freaked-out. They both hid in their bedroom with the door slightly ajar. He could tell someone or some thing was in there, so his hackles went up and he started barking! But once he realized who it was, he was thrilled.
Maybe I’ll get to walk to Mexico next time.
Either ordinary fog or a marine layer.
It’s good that we left the beach that day when we did. Fog was rolling in. I’m not sure, but it looks to me like a marine layer. Either way, I prefer blue skies AND we were both ready to get home to see our people.
I’ve always been a glass-half-full type of person. The older I get, the more I appreciate things for what they are, realizing it could always be worse. I’m currently jobless, but hopeful. Hubby and I are the financially responsible types, so we have that in-case-of-emergency cushion, which means I can take my time and look for the right job, not just any one that comes along.
I’ve actually been enjoying the job hunt. I’ve been , reconnecting with former colleagues as well as people I’d never met. I’ve had some really good conversations and have come across a couple of very interesting folks. Plus, having to sell myself again forces me to look closely at how much I have learned and accomplished over the years. And I’ve had time for blogging. 🙂
Life really is all about how you look at things. Something that’s changed for me as the years have passed is the amount of patience I have for people who bitch and complain about stuff, but do little or nothing to improve or at least change the way they look at their situation. I am an empathetic soul by nature. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, ponder how things must look from their perspective, and try not to judge. But some sort of conclusion, positive or negative, is inevitable. One cannot help people who can’t or won’t help themselves.
Anyhoo… I did not intend for this post to become a philosophical discussion about life. I meant for this post to be about ART, specifically a rather cool artwork I stumbled across at Imperial Beach in San Diego.
Understanding and appreciating art, visual and written, really does depend on how one looks at things. Some art can only be appreciated if you look at it from a specific angle. Look at it from the wrong angle and all you see might be a jumbled mess. It may still be pleasing to your eye, but you might not be seeing what the artist intended for you to see. It’s a complex idea, I know, which is why I am not going to try and explain it. Here’s a Wikipedia post that does a pretty good job, if you’re into reading that sort of thing.
One of the things I enjoyed while dog-sitting in SD last year was visiting some of the MANY beaches the county has to offer. I have no idea exactly how many beaches there are in SD–you can read about the top-15 here–but I visited quite a few. It was a very relaxing way to get Jasper (the dog) out of the house. Not all of the beaches are dog-friendly. Of those that are, I liked Imperial Beach (IB) the best.
IB is the southernmost beach in SD. It’s adjacent to a wetland nature space and is just a couple of miles from the US/Mexico border, which means you could literally walk to Mexico if you wanted to.
Like many places in SD, it’s pretty artsy, too. I hadn’t done much research on the place before going, so I was surprised and delighted to see just how artsy.
Wannabe Surfer Dude?
There were municipal works like the IB sign in the first image and the crushed glass/concrete surfboard as well as other shapes embedded in various spots along the sidewalk. There were also colorful storefronts, murals/street art, interesting houses, funky souvenir shops, you name it. And there was this weird-looking red thing.
I’m pretty sure I said “that’s weird” aloud to Jasper when I saw the tall, red, metal squiggles. He was unphased. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it.
Art at Imperial Beach
I’m not sure why it repeatedly drew my attention as we strolled along the beach, but it did.
Art at Imperial Beach
Art at Imperial Beach
It even created interesting shadows!
Art at Imperial Beach
Art at Imperial Beach
Cool, right? It gets better.
It wasn’t until later, after we’d made our first failed attempt to walk to Mexico, that I realized just how cool the thing is.
Art at Imperial Beach
It looks different, depending on how you look at it. More specifically, WHERE you are standing when you look at it. That point dawned on me when I saw this…
Art at Imperial Beach
At first, I thought someone was being a smart-ass. Until I stood on that spot and looked up.
Art at Imperial Beach
How cool is that? It’s probably cooler in person, especially if you don’t know about the piece as I hadn’t.
I realize there have been an odd variety of posts here lately. That’s because I am still playing catch-up, and I am not necessarily doing so in any particular order. When I come across something or things I meant to share, I share them. Hopefully that’s not frustrating or annoying.
Bird Interestingness
Did you know that Chimney Swifts like our town of Warrenton, Virginia? That’s because there are lots of old buildings with masonry chimneys in which they can roost. In Fall, when the birds gather in large flocks in preparation for migration, sometimes hundreds will roost in one chimney.
I happened to catch this flock settling down at day’s end while walking my dogs on October 11, 2017. I’d only seen it one other time.
Early in the video, you’ll see one or two birds dipping into the chimney if you watch closely. Then, about two-thirds of the way through, you’ll clearly see more entering the chimney.
Early in 2017, Hubby bought himself a nice new bicycle to use for exercise. He rides pretty much every day, often before daylight. There’s a trail very close to our house, so he doesn’t spend much time on the street.
Late last year, he tuned-up my bicycle so I could join him on some rides. Not for exercise, but for fun.
Aren’t we cute?
One November day, we drove north to Leesburg to ride a portion of the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad trail. It’s a paved, 45-mile route along the former roadbed of the W&OD Railroad, which runs through the urban heartland and into the Virginia countryside. There’s even an adjacent 32-mile gravel horse trail. Nifty, eh?
It was a fabulous Fall day, as you’ll see in the pics below.
Mike riding through a tunnel of color.
Cows reflected in a pond. How could I resist?
It really is a nice, level path.
My favorite artsy capture from that day is below.
Muddy, confused turtle.
I did move the turtle off the path after I finished exploiting her or him for my own selfish amusement.
We hope to do some more bicycle riding soon. That probably won’t be until later in the year when temperatures cool back down.
