San Diego Downtown ODDities

i have a friend who likes to wear wigs...she doesn't like the Tina Turner style i gave her -- i wonder if she'll like this one?

Being invisible is part of a photographer's role...but sometimes i like being in the picture, too. (What did the Psalmist say? "Vanity of vanities...all is vanity!" (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

This is definitely NOT the usual red San Diego Trolley! i've never watched The Simpsons. The only cartoons i think cool are Pink Panther... and Mighty Mouse -- who always saved the day.
(Now that i'm a grown-up, i know Who really saves the day!)

This wig store is just a couple blocks from San Diego City College. Again, i couldn't resist adding myself in the composition.

Funny how all of humanity want to leave their mark in this world -- immortalized somehow -- hoping that maybe after they die, they'll be remembered by this or that legacy left behind. But we're all vapor...never knowing if this breath is the last. Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. (Psalm 39:5)

When i was waiting for the bus to Balboa Park (for my Botanical Garden GODventurez), i saw this artsy-fartsy looking car parked in the San Diego High School parking lot, next to the bus stop. i joined a couple tourists in taking a photo of it -- what a colorful, attention-getting distraction!

When i was a child, i spoke as a child, i understood as a child, i thought as a child; but when i became a man, i put away childish things. (I Corinthians 13:11)

Balboa Park's Botanical GARDEN -- JOYful GODventurez!

San Diego's Balboa Park -- Reflecting Pool and Botanical Garden... a must-see for those who visit the Park, for there's always something new to see within its birdcage-like walls. These are the things that brought me joy that afternoon -- simple, beautiful things of GOD's creation.

C. S. Lewis said of joy -- "Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is."

W. A. "Billy" Sunday said of joy -- "If you have no joy, there's a leak in your CHRISTianity somewhere."

Thomas Aquinas said of joy -- "Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys, it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures."

Amy Carmichael said of joy -- Joys are always on the way to us. They are always traveling to us through the darkness of the night. There is never a night when they are not coming."

Samuel Dickey Gordon said of joy -- "Joy is distinctly a CHRISTian word and a CHRISTian thing. It is the reverse of happiness. Happiness is the result of what happens of an agreeable sort. Joy has its springs deep down inside. And that spring never runs dry, no matter what happens. Only JESUS gives that joy. He had joy, singing its music within, even under the shadow of the cross. It is an unknown word and thing except as He has sway within."

Thomas `a Kempis said of joy -- "If there is joy in the world, surely the man of pure heart possesses it."

R. A. Torrey said of joy -- "There is more joy in JESUS in 24 hours than there is in the world in 365 days. I have tried them both."

Charles Stanley said of joy -- "Joy is a gift from GOD that enables believers to find hope and peace -- even when life seemingly falls apart." (The above list of authors' words on joy is from In Touch Magazine, January 2010 issue.)

The Psalmist said of joy -- "I will be filled with joy because of You. I will sing praises to Your name, O Most High." (Psalm 9:2)

Isaiah says of joy -- "With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!" (Isaiah 12:3)

Jeremiah says of joy -- "Your words are what sustain me. They bring me great joy and are my heart's delight, for i bear Your name, O LORD GOD Almighty." (Jeremiah 15:16)

Simeon, the prophet of old, says of joy -- "This Child will be rejected by many in Israel, and it will be their undoing. But He will be the greatest joy to many others." (Luke 2:34)

JESUS said of joy -- "There is joy in the presence of GOD's angels when even one sinner repents." (Luke 15:10)

J ESUS...O thers...y ourself.

P.S. i am again raising funds for the Naselesele Village school children in Taveuni, Fiji. Your charitable donation of any amount is deeply and heartfully appreciated! GOD bless your loving heart!

Balboa Park GODventurez -- with CoolPix

Join me in a gad-about around Balboa Park -- San Diego's world-famous and popular every-day-of-the-week hangout for the young and the old and all the in-betweens; for the "native" San Diegan, as well as the "Zonies" from Arizona; and for all the other friendly and curious tourists from all corners of the globe.

Pepper Grove...picnic area and playground for young tots and not-so-young tots.

Be a kid-at-heart again...(the Natural History Museum in the background)

Take off your shoes and dive in...feet first, that is! (Fountain in front of the Reuben H. Fleet Museum)

El Prado...not so populated, for a change. But summer time's another story, as an army of tourists and locals congregate and stroll leisurely along this avenue to enjoy the sights and entertainment.

Kudos to all the gardeners who take such meticulous care of the grounds!

Mexican tamales, as well as Hawaiian shaved ice...where else but in this San Diego melting pot?

Many talented folks display and share their talents...and your donations are very welcome indeed! Beware of the Tarot and palm readers...but, hey, it's your money...even they have to eat.

Entrance to the Botanical Garden...(next blog will showcase its beauties)

Just floating...going with the flow. How many of us can do what these two kois do so effortlessly?

Inside the Botanical Garden...many of the visitors are so focused on all the brightly colored bromeliads and exotic orchid blooms, the many varieties of species of plants from all over the world, the special display of bug-eating pitcher plants -- they forget to look up, and they miss out on the giant ferns and the shadowed patterns from the see-through enclosure above.

Early Spring blooms, which fall down like snow flakes when the wind plucks them from their heights.

The romantic Rose Garden...in hiatus, waiting for Spring. Ecclesiastes 3:1 describes this scene perfectly -- To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. And GOD has promised resurrection for this barren garden...for He has made everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Just next to the Rose Garden is the Cactus Garden...what a contrast! The roses are delicate and fragile, while the cactus blooms are other-worldly and "robust" in make-up.

When i wander around Balboa Park and discover something i've overlooked in past visits, or see a new bloom from an "old friend" -- i am filled with gratefulness that the awesome GOD who created the universe and all the countless galaxies and gazillion stars gave such meticulous care in populating our earth with such beautiful and varied GOD-stuff...flowers and plants and animals that only His infinite mind could devise and manifest.

Then GOD said, "Let the land burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant. And let there be trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. The seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And so it was.

The land was filled with seed-bearing plants and trees, and their seeds produced plants and trees of like kind. And GOD saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12, NLT)