Cool photo memories from September 2019.

Cool San Diego Sights now features tens of thousands of photographs from walks all over San Diego. We’ve started a new month, so it’s time to revisit a few blog posts from five years ago. What was going on in September 2019?

Looking back, I see there were several great experiences in North County, including a hike along a beautiful trail at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve’s lesser-known Northeastern Extension. Makes me want to go on another hike this Labor Day weekend!

To learn about some interesting places and past events, and to see all sorts of colorful photos, check out the following collection of links…

Click the following links for a dozen fun adventures!

Folk dance and smiles at House of Ukraine!

Balboa Park’s fantastic Toy Train Gallery!

Historic Highway 80 mural on El Cajon Boulevard.

Black life and civil rights in Southern California.

Colorful photos of Founders Day in Old Town.

Torrey Pines Extension hike to the DAR plaque.

Late summer beauty in my favorite garden.

The Art of Shag at the Comic-Con Museum!

Amazing walk from Swami’s to the Cardiff Kook.

A walk down Solana Beach’s Coastal Rail Trail.

Art inside the Balboa Park Activity Center.

Cool murals at Priority Public House!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Young Ukrainian filmmaker visits San Diego.

Thirteen-year-old Ukrainian filmmaker Marusya Shuvalova spoke today at the 20th San Diego International Children’s Film Festival. The event was held in the Neil Morgan Auditorium at San Diego’s downtown Central Library.

Shuvalova’s two films, Me. My Eleven Years. War. and What’s Going On With Us? were among the outstanding selections featured in 2024. Both films document her young life in Kyiv, Ukraine during the Russian invasion.

Please watch the short Me. My Eleven Years. War. on YouTube by clicking here. There are English subtitles.

You will see how Marusya’s life as an ordinary eleven-year-old girl was disrupted by the war–how she had to forgo loved activities, learn remotely, listen constantly to loud sirens, take shelter, and live with fear of an unknown future, and a constant fear for her family’s safety. Her ambitions to be a young actress and film director had to be largely put on hold.

But now she has visited Los Angeles and San Diego for their respective International Children’s Film Festivals and hopefully her future is becoming brighter. Even with her limited knowledge of English, and emotions that you and I might hardly understand, she spoke before the audience in San Diego with perfect professionalism and poise. She is truly inspirational.

Learn more about Marusya Shuvalova by clicking here.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Honoring emergency responder heroes in San Diego.

There are heroes in this world who will risk their own life to save the lives of strangers. Heroic firefighters and other emergency responders were honored today during the annual San Diego Memorial 9/11 Stair Climb.

The event attracts firefighters and emergency responders from all over San Diego and the surrounding region. The heroes and their families enjoy a day full of fun, sunshine and comradery on the grass in front of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. And participants honor heroes who’ve come before, particularly those who fell during the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City.

The stair climb recreates the incredible effort of the responders who lost their lives trying to save those up in the World Trade Center towers. It’s jolting to remember, but 403 responders made the ultimate sacrifice that day. The stair climb also raises money to help keep the memory of these heroes alive.

At the event, the 9/11 Remembrance Project displayed photographs and artifacts from that terrible day. It brought everything home again. One poster recalled the efforts of the San Diego Urban Search and Rescue Task Force in the aftermath of the New York attack.

Never forget. NYC 09.11.01.

You can donate to the cause by visiting the event website by clicking here.

Visit the Wall of Heroes and read inspiring life stories by clicking here.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Crackers, candy and San Diego history!

Many ordinary appearing buildings in downtown San Diego have surprising histories. That is certainly the case for the Olde Cracker Factory Building at 448 West Market Street.

The 1913 brick building might now contain retail, office and residential spaces, but would you believe it was once a cracker and candy factory?

According to its website, the building was home to the Bishop and Company Cracker and Candy Factory from 1913-1931, and then Nabisco Biscuit Company until 1941. In 1930, the Bishop Cracker and Candy Factory employed 100 men and women who produced cookies, crackers and peanut butter. Over ten tons of products were produced here annually…

Check out the above website for more detailed history and intriguing old photographs. You’ll see antique delivery trucks parked in front of the Bishop & Company building, and busy factory workers and machinery inside.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Greetings from Oceanside surfer girl mural.

A beach scene mural that shows the Oceanside Pier, a woodie and three girls with a surfboard on the sand has appeared in downtown Oceanside. You can view it on the parking lot side of Finney’s Crafthouse restaurant. Postcard-like words read: Greetings From OCEANSIDE.

The artist is Jerry Ragg. The mural was painted in 2024 in memory of JT Ragg.

I spotted the cool artwork during my weekend walk in Oceanside and took these photographs into the sun. Consequently, I had to increase the contrast of each image quite a bit.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

The golden age of surf culture in Oceanside!

Are you old enough to remember the golden age of surf culture? You know–those years when the radio was filled with pop music by The Ventures, Jan and Dean, and The Beach Boys. Back when surfing movies were on the marquee of your local theater, and Gidget was a popular show on television.

If you love nostalgia, the California Surf Museum has a really great exhibit that might tickle your fancy. It might also bring back memories. Star, Cars and Guitars – The Birth of the Modern Surf Era: 1958 to 1965 features photographs, posters, rare artifacts and memorabilia from those days when the surfing subculture sprang forth and quickly took center stage in the popular culture.

I visited the California Surf Museum last Saturday and enjoyed looking at the extensive display.

This era came right before I was born, but in my youth echoes of it still lingered on the radio and on television. I remember I had the incredible Endless Summer album by The Beach Boys which I loved to hear on my scratchy record player. Yes, that was a long time ago!

(How many San Diego area locations are mentioned in The Beach Boys hit song Surfin’ U.S.A.? Well, let’s see: Del Mar, Trestles, Swami’s, San Onofre, and La Jolla!)

The museum exhibit covers those golden days when surfing’s popularity exploded across California, the U.S.A. and the world, including the era’s trailblazers and athletes, surfboards, fashion, cars, popular surf spots and early surfing competitions.

Honestly, all of the exhibits in this one-of-a-kind museum are cool. If you live in Southern California and you’re at all into surfing or the lifestyle, and you haven’t visited the California Surf Museum, you’re really missing out!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Smile like a sunflower in San Diego!

Sunflowers are smiling on the windows of the Hamilton Building at 640 C Street in downtown San Diego. The painted windows encourage passersby to Smile like a Sunflower!

I don’t know why these happy flowers recently appeared. The building has been vacant for years now. Back in 2019 images of musicians were mysteriously painted on these same windows!

When I first moved to downtown San Diego over 20 years ago, the Hamilton Building was home to the San Diego Computer Museum. All sorts of cool old computers were displayed in a gallery. The museum continues to have an online presence here.

The one time I visited the San Diego Computer Museum I was excited to find a few of the machines I had programmed in my youth, such as the ZX-80, ZX-81, TS-1000 and Commodore 64. A pair of interactive text adventure games that I created in the very early 1980s were published by the now defunct software company Softsync.

You can still play one of my old Commodore 64 games, which is titled Super Clue! Simply click here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Author promotes books with sandwich board!

When you self-publish, it can be difficult selling your book. Friends, coworkers and relatives are potential buyers, but reaching new customers in this great big world can be daunting. Author websites are numerous and precious few rise to the top of general search engine results. Most people scrolling through social media have short attention spans, and few are interested in purchasing a book. Conventional marketing requires money, and the result might be less than satisfying. So what is one to do?

Well, I met indie author Daniel X Ostenso (D X O) this weekend while exploring Balboa Park. He was strolling through the crowd wearing an advertising sandwich board!

What a great (albeit unusual) idea! Signed books for sale, a special offer, an outgoing personality, and the sheer novelty of his sandwich board immediately caught my attention.

His gumption in getting out there while appearing a bit strange is commendable. And you never know how gumption might be unexpectedly rewarded.

Check out the science fiction novels and other works authored by Daniel X Ostenso by clicking here.

He has traveled extensively with a beloved dog. Check out his YouTube video Kaylee’s Life in Five Minutes by clicking here.

Daniel donates money to animal shelters with every sale.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Hungarian dance and culture in Balboa Park!

The House of Hungary presented a wonderful lawn program today in Balboa Park.

Those who came by the International Cottages could feast on Hungarian food, including Potato Paprikash and Crepes, and enjoy an introduction to Hungary’s history and culture. At the House of Hungary cottage, used books in Hungarian were for sale. Out on the lawn, dancers and musicians took the stage.

I arrived just before 2 o’clock and watched a performance by two professional ballet dancers: Hungarian born Reka Gyulai (principal dancer, California Ballet) and Lester Gonzalez. Their dance, as you might expect, was extraordinary.

Then came a performance by the Hungarian Children’s School. The symbolic dance was about creating New Bread. It was full of fun, family happiness and joy for life.

Later performances, which I missed, included jazz and folk music by The Hunglish Project, the Karpatok Hungarian Dance Ensemble, and a Rubik’s Cube demonstration and quiz show!

Another great time on another Sunday in sunny San Diego!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Official tall ship of California begins Sunday sail!

Californian, official tall ship of the State of California, set out today from the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Passengers aboard the schooner, a replica of a Gold Rush era revenue cutter, began another four hour Sunday sailing adventure!

I stood on the museum’s barge out on San Diego Bay as Californian’s volunteer crew prepared the tall ship to get underway. Once well out on the water, the sails would be employed, so necessary actions were performed beforehand.

At noon, when all was ready, lines were cast off and the ship moved away from the dock by using its motor.

I don’t pretend to understand the details of sailing a traditionally rigged tall ship, but I do enjoy watching the action!

If you’d like to go on one of these Tall Ship Adventures, visit the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s website here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.