It is always a fun evening when the Hillcrest History Guild sponsors the “toast”. Enjoy wine, spirits and nibbles throughout the neighborhood. Travel by foot or on the large, double-decker bus. Tickets are only $25. Buy now, or on 8/8 at CityFest (Fifth & University booth). A limited number of tickets will be available the evening of the event. This a great way to sample your way around one of America’s Top Ten Great Neighborhoods.
Join us Thursday, August 12th from 5:30-8pm!
You can purchase tickets at http://www.hillcresthistory.org/
San Diego is a busy town this week and weekend. 120,000 fans of comics, sci-fi, video games and movies are swarming all over the San Diego Convention Center this week. Lines started forming down Harbor Drive of fans waiting to claim their Comic-Con passes before the festival began. Thousands of fans crowded the convention center to collect freebies and to view displays from movie studios, comic-book publishers, video game companies and toy manufacturers. Celebrities are expected to promote upcoming movies, tv shows and take part of panel discussion. Celebrities, movie trailers, games, costume contest, and, of course, comic books are all part of the Comic Con entertainment for the SO MANY fans!
http://www.comic-con.org ————————————————————————————————————
As if that isn’t enough to keep San Diegans busy, Del Mar Horse Racing Season started yesterday. Opening day, yesterday, had prizes going to those who wore the most glamorous and outrageous hats, as well as the headgear with the best racing theme and the best fresh flowers. Opening day brought 45,309 people to the track.
The season is from July 21st through September 8th. Concerts are played on Friday and some Saturday nights. There is a shuttle service from the Solana train station to the track on an open top double decker bus (and some school buses)! Races are Wednesday through Sunday. Monday and Tuesday are closes except for Labor Day. Admission is $6 for general admission and $10 if you wants seats. Parking is $8 and $20 for valet. Take public transportation and you can ride on a double decker for free throughout the season!!
http://www.dmtc.com/
Check out an article of San Diego. The writer, Lucy Komisar, writes about Leo Linardy one of our double decker tour guides!
http://www.travellady.com/Issues/June2010/discovering.htm
Sunday, April 18 Balboa Park 10am - 5pm
EarthFair in Balboa Park is the largest free annual environmental fair in the world. EarthFair 2010 will celebrate the 20th anniversary – the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day! EarthFair draws around 70,000 visitors.
EarthFair features more than 400 volunteers, 350 exhibitors, special theme areas, a food pavilion, a special Kids’ activity area, three entertainment venues, the children’s earth parade, the earth gallery art show, and the cleaner car concourse.
It’s impossible to list everything you’ll find at EarthFair: traditional conservation organizations, wildlife preservation groups, products made from natural and organically grown crops, organic gardening information, alternative energy vehicles, ecotourism opportunities, many alternative and traditional health care products and services, pet adoption services, clean air and clean water products, rainforest preservation groups … the list goes on and on.
Arrive early and take public transportation!
March 7, 2010 8:00 am - 11:00 am.
The Union-Tribune Race for Literacy is a fast and very scenic 8K run/walk (that’s just under 5 miles) which starts in Balboa Park, winds its way down scenic Highway 163 (closed, of course) and finishes at Pantoja Park on G. Street in downtown San Diego. After the race, a party complete with treats, entertainment and booths in Pantoja Park awaits, then a bus ride back to your car in Balboa Park. This is one of San Diego’s favorite events!
Have fun and win cash for your school! Cash awards will be presented to the largest teams based on the percentage of students in their school depending on the category (see example below). Team members may include students, teachers, parents, friends and anyone else who registers for either event under your team name. This will affect our Balboa Park Loop. We will have alternate routes during the time of the race. Tours may be delayed due to traffic.
March 7, 2010
Gran Fondos are long distance, mass-participation cycling events – not races – that have become immensely popular in Italy. In France they’re known as “cyclosportives”. Participation is open to recreational and competitive amateur cyclists, and tens of thousands of riders of all abilities participate. In 2010, Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego will offer three route options:
All routes start on the 1700 block of India Street in downtown San Diego – under the Little Italy arch — between W. Date and W. Fir Streets.
All routes finish within the expo, located in south parking lot of the County Administration Building, accessed from W. Ash St. between N. Harbor Dr. and Pacific Highway.
Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego will provide free event day parking for 750 cars in the north parking lot of the County Administration Building. This lot can be accessed from W. Grape St. between N. Harbor Dr. and Pacific Highway. These parking spots are available on a first come, first serve basis. Additional fee-based parking is available in the nearby commercial lots.
(This does mean our Old Town Loops will have alternate routes and maybe delayed due to traffic)
The Irish Congress of Southern California is proud to announce that its 30th Annual San Diego St. Patrick’s Day Parade (the largest Parade west of the Mississippi) will step off on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 promptly at 11:00 a.m. on Fifth Avenue at Laurel Street as thousands of marchers and spectators gather to celebrate the Patron Saint of Ireland.
The Parade travels up Fifth Avenue from Laurel to Upas Street and then returns down Sixth Avenue to Laurel. An event filled Irish Festival will follow in Balboa Park.
There will be over 150 Parade entries including two open top double decker buses! Come and see Bagpipers and High School Marching Bands, Police and Fire Department Units, Floats, Dancing Groups, Marching and Equestrian Units, Clowns, Dignitaries and Honorees, Representatives from Ireland, Antique Cars and more. The Theme of this year’s Parade is “Unity with the Community, with special thanks to our Military and Veterans.”
The Irish Festival in Balboa Park (Sixth Avenue and Maple Street) runs from 10 am to 5 pm and features Entertainment on 2 Stages with Irish Folk singers, Irish Step Dancers, Irish Crafts, Food Booths, Celtic Village, Beer Garden, and a Kid Zone with rides. Over 20,000 people are expected to attend.
It will be a busy day in Balboa Park with the St. Patrick’s Day and Cherry Blossom Festival!!! Attend one or both cultural events!
The Japanese Friendship Garden is having a Cherry Blossom Festival. It will be held on Saturday, March 13th, 2010. Hours are 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Food, entertainment, arts & crafts, tea ceremony and koto (stringed instrument) demonstrations.
Located in beautiful Balboa Park; 2215 Pan American Road E.
The Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego has created a Japanese-style garden dedicated to the well-being of all people which provides educational programs that encourage understanding of the Japanese heritage among people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and cultures.
It provides a variety of seminars, classes and workshops as well as accredited horticultural instruction. Seminars for both the amateur and professional gardener are held with faculty that includes internationally prominent masters from Japan and the United States. The seminars provide an educational program of landscape gardening that enable the participants to learn the principles, skills and techniques for implementing a Japanese garden. Students learn at hands on workshops, lectures, demonstrations and discussions. A broad range of classes and workshops representing a variety of arts and crafts as well as Japanese conversation and cuisine are offered for children and adults. Through the San Diego Unified School District / Balboa Park Program, approximately 5,000 fifth grade students from the district learn about the design of the Garden and Japanese culture. Instruction includes the use of chopsticks, kimono wearing, foods and other aspects of Japanese student life. The purpose of the program is to increase understanding of Japanese culture.
FIFTH PANDA BORN AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO
PRESS RELEASE FIFTH PANDA BORN AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO 200-pound Mother Bear Cares for Four-Ounce Cub
The 24-hour birth watch at the San Diego Zoo came to an end today when giant panda Bai Yun gave birth to her fifth cub. The birth was witnessed at 4:58 a.m. by the giant panda team watching the Zoo’s closed-circuit camera placed in the birthing den.
The sex of the mostly hairless, pink newborn, which is about the size of a stick of butter, will not be known for some time, and it will be approximately one month before the iconic black-and-white coloration of a giant panda becomes visible.
“The birth of our fifth cub is just as exciting as our first,” said Meg Sutherland-Smith, San Diego Zoo veterinarian. “With every pregnancy and birth we’re learning more about the reproductive process of the giant panda. Now that she’s given birth, we’re just watching Bai Yun to make sure that she continues to care for this cub as well as she’s cared for all the others.”
Bai Yun will care for the cub, which is estimated to weigh about four ounces, unless there are complications and the giant panda team will need to intervene. In the past, Bai Yun has been a careful, attentive mother and there has been no need for human involvement. The Zoo’s panda team does not expect to examine the cub until the mother begins to regularly leave the den. This usually happens after three weeks.
Bai Yun gave birth in an off-exhibit den used during her previous pregnancies. Bai Yun and the cub will remain in the den for four to five months. The father, Gao Gao, has no role in raising the cub.
During the denning period, the only way to see the panda cub and mother will be through the San Diego Zoo’s live Panda Cam, available at www.sandiegozoo.org/pandacam
A second fetus was detected during an ultrasound in July, but the giant panda team believes it was resorbed in the uterus, leaving only one cub to be born. A similar situation happened during Bai Yun’s pregnancy in 2005.
A panda’s fertilized egg remains suspended in the uterus until a prompt in the environment causes it to implant. Scientists do not know what prompts the implantation. Implantation of the fetus can be delayed as much as two to three months after fertilization. After implantation, the fertilized egg begins to develop. Impending birth is predicted on the basis of behavioral, hormonal and anatomical changes that are documented by scientists at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.
In 1999, Bai Yun’s first cub, Hua Mei, became the first giant panda conceived by artificial insemination in the Western Hemisphere and the first in the United States to survive to adulthood. Hua Mei is now in a breeding program in the People’s Republic of China along with her brother, Mei Sheng, Bai Yun’s second cub that was born at the Zoo in 2003. Mei Sheng, as well as Bai Yun’s daughters, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen, were conceived through natural breeding. Their father is Gao Gao.
Bai Yun was born at the China Center for Research and Conservation of the Giant Panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve on Sept. 7, 1991. She was the first panda to be born and survive at the breeding center. Bai Yun, whose name means “white cloud” in Chinese, arrived at the San Diego Zoo in September 1996 on a research loan.
Gao Gao is a wild-born giant panda that arrived at the San Diego Zoo in 2003 from the Wolong Nature Reserve. He is the sire of four of the five cubs born to Bai Yun. Gao Gao was found in the wild dehydrated and suffering from a nutritional deficiency when he was about 6 months old. He also suffered a wound to his left ear, possibly from another animal.
The 100-acre San Diego Zoo is dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and their habitats. The organization focuses on conservation and research work around the globe, educates millions of individuals a year about wildlife and maintains accredited horticultural, animal, library and photo collections. The Zoo also manages the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, which includes a 900-acre native species reserve, and the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part by The Foundation of the Zoological Society of San Diego. ###
A visit to San Diego just wouldn’t be complete without a ride on one of our vintage Double Decker Open Top buses. Our buses offer the absolute best views of the “finest city in the world.” Visit from the Harbor and Seaport Village, to the Gaslamp Quarter and Historic Old Town all at your own pace. With 7 hop-on hop-off stops along this loop, feel free to hop-off at anything that perks your interest and then jump back on to keep exploring. All of our double decker tours have live, professional tour guides to tell you the history, facts and fun information about San Diego.
Tour Highlights/Stops: • Seaport Village – Shopping, waterfront dining, promenade along the water, parks and cafes • Horton Plaza – Gaslamp Quarter, Nordstrom’s, Spreckels Theatre, NBC Studio, shopping, restaurants, boutique hotels • Little Italy – Great Italian restaurants, eclectic and boutique shopping, Princess English Pub, Farmer’s Market (Saturdays) • Middletown – Shakespeare’s Pub and Comedy Theatre, restaurants, gelato • Old Town – Old Town San Diego State Park, Heritage Park, The Whaley House, art galleries, historical museums and demonstrations, the best Mexican Food in the city • Harbor Drive – waterfront promenade, cruises, Star of India historical ship, kayaking and biking • USS Midway – USS Midway Museum, take a walk or a tour on the aircraft carrier, beautiful pier
