Good old San Diego Trolley car number 1001 is running in downtown today. It operates along the Silver Line loop during holidays–and today is Presidents’ Day!
The red light rail vehicle was the first modern trolley car to operate, back in 1981. Today families and excited kids were riding the iconic car. Me too!
I discovered this mural yesterday while heading down University Avenue in North Park. It honors past San Diego Wave FC player Kyra Carusa. The artwork is painted on the side of The Original 40 Brewing Company building.
The mural was created by Ground Floor Murals (@groundfloormurals). Their work is always awesome!
Honoring KYRA CARUSA for her community leadership and contributions to women’s soccer – 2025
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Char Car (@charcar04) supports literacy by providing books to children in hospitals and schools, including Rady Children’s Hospital. The San Diego Gulls ice hockey team is a big supporter of literacy, too, with programs like Reading is the Goal.
My own short stories, including One Thousand Likes, are read by students around the world, so naturally I’m in favor of these efforts.
I’ve learned that Char Car is holding a Gulls Hockey Fundraiser that keeps kids reading. Game tickets purchased through the fundraiser will benefit summer reading programs. For $20, you get to watch a great game on Saturday, April 18, 2026, and you benefit local families! Sounds like a great deal to me!
For more information, see the above graphic!
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A big Lunar New Year celebration is taking place this weekend in City Heights. The Year of the Horse–Fire Horse to be exact–is charging into San Diego!
The Fire Horse in the Chinese zodiac represents energy, excitement. Walking through the event as it got underway today, I could feel the energy. It would be a very fun day for many families!
Lion dancers were already performing to the delight of kids. Many booths, displays and food vendors were set up and ready.
The event is being held at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park. For more info concerning the free festival, a celebration of San Diego’s Little Saigon, read the banner in my next photo…
The historical pergola that’s being recreated in Balboa Park is making great progress! Just a quick post to show what I observed yesterday.
Trees have been planted behind the structure. Steps are being installed in front of it. Columns are appearing. Looks like other features are on the way, too!
This pergola recreates one built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition–but since long gone. The structure is rising near the west end of the Botanical Building, at the perimeter of the new Central Gardens, which are also now being developed.
When all is finished, it’s sure to be beautiful!
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A surprising new exhibit opened yesterday at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. Farm to Craft: Grains in Global Folk Art is now on display in the museum’s first floor Entry Level, where admission is free to all visitors.
The beautiful handmade crafts from around the world are a treat for the eyes. These artistic works come from farms–from grown material like straw, rice, wheat or corn.
Crafts include dolls and toys. Some of the creations are made to be worn. Others were designed to be useful farming tools or containers. Excessive plant material that might otherwise be discarded is made useful!
I took a few photographs.
These exquisite crafts from the museum’s collection will be on view through January 10, 2027.
Perhaps, after viewing the exhibit, you’ll be inspired to fold your own corn husk creation–such as those roses made by street performers. Here’s a short video on how to craft a simple, easy corn husk flower!
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If you love San Diego Comic-Con, you’ll love Black Comix Day!
All this Valentine’s Day weekend, artists, writers and publishers of African descent will be showcasing their work at the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park. The annual event is free, and it will blow your mind!
The last two years at Black Comix Day I met dozens of friendly creators. This year I saw quite a few new participants.
Together they have produced fantastic comics, graphic novels, books, animation, films, figurines, posters and more. Much of the work is informed by their unique experiences as artists of African descent.
Many of the participants come from outside San Diego. Most are self-publishing entrepreneurs with big dreams. Some of the artists have worked professionally or won prestigious awards.
Everywhere you turn, both outside and inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center, there’s something new and very cool. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, Afro-futurism, superheroes, just about anything the human mind can imagine. It’s pop culture heaven!
Read the photo captions and click links to learn about some stuff I saw…
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Thank you to all the volunteers in Balboa Park!
What would Balboa Park be without its dedicated volunteers?
What is the park with its volunteers? Much more beautiful and amazing!
Today I noticed a crew of people beautifying the Alcazar Garden. I learned that in several weeks new spring plantings will be made. But the garden is always lovely.
Let’s all give thanks to the raking, weed-pulling, hard-working Garden Stewards you see in these photographs and the many other volunteers!
I encountered more volunteers busy roaming about Balboa Park picking up litter!
Check out the bags of garbage in the next couple photos. Those bags represent only one hour of work!
It is the generous work of many volunteer hands.
Would you like to volunteer, too?
There’s lots of different stuff you can do! No experience required!
Interested? Click here!
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Today was the very first free resident day at the Gaslamp Museum!
On the second Thursday of each month, San Diego residents, active military and seniors now receive free admission to the museum. The Gaslamp Museum is located at 410 Island Avenue in the historic Davis-Horton House.
I last visited the house nine years ago and took some interior photos with an inferior camera. To see those dark photographs, click here. You can also read more about the museum and the house’s rich history.
Today I took a few more inside photos. Visitors can see various rooms as they might have appeared in the 19th century.
If you love history–in particular the history of early San Diego–you should visit yourself!
Perhaps take a peek inside on free residents day!
Beloved Wife and Mother
Beloved Husband and Father
In Loving Memory
Gone, But Not Forgotten
In Memory, From Daughters & Sons
Our Little Angel
Her Love Lingers
These are a few of the loving inscriptions on stone that linger in Oceanside’s old Oceanview Cemetery.
During a recent walk down South Coast Highway, I redirected my feet and wandered through the 3-acre resting place, originally called the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, established in 1895.
As a blogger who’s always searching for interesting sights, I was wondering if some “famous” person might be buried here.
Shame on me for thinking that way. I had missed the central message of a cemetery. It’s that we all might be mortal, but loves lives on.
Are you curious about the history of this old cemetery? A State of California resource document includes:
From its inception in 1895 until about 1950, when Eternal Hills Memorial Park opened in Oceanside, Oceanview was the primary non-denominational cemetery in Oceanside. During its heyday in the 1920s, 30s and 40s there were well over 1000 burials at Oceanview… over 1100 obituaries have been compiled, by the Oceanside Historical Society, of people interred at Oceanview… Oceanview contains the remains of veterans involved in every war or conflict from the Civil War to World War II, inclusive. Those interred at Oceanview range in age from just a few hours old to Agapita Soliz whose family claimed she was 110 years old at the time of her death in 1941. Many of Oceanside’s pioneers and merchants, dating back to the 1880s, are interred at Oceanview.
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Cool San Diego Sights! 