San Diego Slightly Off the Beaten Path
“I like to travel any chance I get, even if it’s just a local vacation to San Diego. I just like to get out and do stuff and see the world.” - Christa A Allen.
San Diego has a lot more to offer than palm trees, beautiful beaches, navy sailors and sea world. A recent visit to family who live just outside the city took me wandering for something different and unexpected.
The unconditional surrender statue is located right next to the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that is now permanently located in San Diego. It commemorates a photo of J-Day that appeared in Life Magazine of a young US sailor dipping and kissing a nurse in Times Square on the day WWII ended.
There are similar statues located in Sarasota Florida, Hawaii, etc. Couples come out here to replicate the pose. I asked one such couple of they would take a photograph of me. The cheeky man said he would be happy to but in deference to his wife he would pass on replicating the pose. No worries there. I wasn’t interested in exchanging spit with a stranger either.
Besides visiting the floating museum, you should definitely go say Hi to Bob Hope once you’ve posed with the kissing sailor. Starting in 1943 Bob Hope spent fifty plus years entertaining soldiers, sailors and military at various battlefronts all over the world particularly at Christmas time. These visits are fondly remembered by the service men he entertained. This National Salute to Bob Hope memorializes his history.
Cast in bronze featuring sixteen larger than life size figures facing Bob in a 48-diameter circular plaza this memorial represents a typical road show with Bob entertaining troops near the front.
I stayed in the Gas Lamp quarter with its myriad of eclectic restaurants but since I had been visiting family in Escondido did not eat here. Driven by a story in my neighborhood I have been obsessed with tracking down some of the beautiful art on the utility boxes in my local area. Of course, I couldn’t resist taking a quick picture of this utility box in the gas lamp quarter to add to my collection of utility boxes.
From my car, the convention center with the painted walls evocative of San Diego.
Okay I know this is not off the beaten path but who could resist this sailboat moving fast across the bay as I stood there seeing fishermen getting set up.
The Del Coronado bridge from the Seaport Village. I had every intention of making my way to Coronado Island and visiting the Del Coronado hotel but had to pass on that as time was fleeting and I had a bunch of interesting must do places. We’ll save that for the next visit to San Diego.
Instead, I made my way to the Barrio Logan. Based on its richly vibrant and authentic concentrations of art, culture and creativity, Barrio Logan has been designated as one of 14 California Cultural Districts, which showcase some of the unique artistic identities that drive California’s culture similar to Balboa Park and Oceanside.
Located right below the San Diego Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan is an approximately 8-acre park which is the home of to the country’s largest collection of outdoor murals as well as sculptures and earthworks. Because of the magnitude and historical significance this park was designated as an official historic site by the San Diego Historical Site Board in 1980.
This area is predominantly Chicano or Mexican American and Mexican-migrant and many of the murals speak to the cultural identity of these people.
Abandoning my plan to head over the bridge into Coronado, I made my way back into downtown San Diego to University Avenue and Verbatim Books. My love for books is well known and I have long mourned the loss of brick and mortar even as I now read exclusively on my kindle.
But a bookstore like this is catnip. From the interestingly different signage and entrance it’s like entering another world. One catered for readers with comfortable inviting nooks and bookshelves scattered across. Definitely my idea of heaven on earth.
The one other thing that I haven’t seen for a while a children’s reading area with little step stools for little feet and little hands to reach up. You’re right, I couldn’t resist and walked out with some books for my grandchildren.
While visiting my cousin in Escondido, I stopped at the Queen Califia’s Magical Circle. This is the only American sculpture garden and last major international project created by Franco-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. Inspired by California’s mythic, historic and cultural roots which go way beyond the Spanish occupation of California, the garden bears the brilliant, unique mosaic ornamentation that is an unmistakable part of Saint Phalle's later work. The artist was inspired by reading of this legend in Assembling California, a book by Pulitzer Prize winner John McPhee.
The imposing mosaic sculpture of Queen Califia standing on the back of a five-legged eagle commands the center of the garden. Eight large totemic sculptures surround Queen Califia. They are covered with symbols and forms freely drawn from Native American, Pre-Columbian, and Mexican art as well as the artist's own fantastic imagery.
In the middle of the plaza is a golden egg-shaped fountain, which represents both Califia's magical reign over the sea and the birth-death-transformation cycle that serves as a recurring theme in Saint Phalle's works. I met my cousin, her son and grandchildren at the park. We gave our imagination free rein as we walked in the heat of a California summer afternoon.