Botanical Building Pergola begins reconstruction!

Back in 1915, during San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition, Balboa Park featured twelve pergolas. Three remain today: the columned ones curving on either side of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, and one inside the Alcazar Garden. You can read all about this history in a recent publication of the Committee of 100. Check out page 4 of their Spring 2025 newsletter here.

A fourth historical pergola will soon be returning! As you can see in these photos taken today, its reconstruction has begun by the Botanical Building!

The Botanical Building Pergola will stand to the west of the Botanical Building, directly west of a nearby fountain. For months workers have been digging and preparing the ground for the pergola–for the structure’s foundation, irrigation for nearby gardens, moving a large tree, etc.

Now steel is appearing! The pergola’s construction has begun in earnest!

Take a look at the map in my next photo. My first two photographs (above) were taken from near the “You are here” spot.

The existing fountain appears as the darkened circle. The dashed lines are the recently rearranged construction fences.

My final photograph was taken over the fence from a point just beyond the fountain.

I’ll post updates as the project moves along!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Murals in Oceanside at Civic Center and Horne.

My long walk in Oceanside last weekend resulted in many cool photographs. First, enjoy two murals at the corner of Civic Center Drive and Horne Street.

The first mural was painted on the west side of the Northern Pine Brewing Company building. It’s by artists Gloria Muriel and Matthew Perdoni.

On the north side of the building is a long, very colorful mural. Cars parked on the street close to the artwork caused me to take photographs in sections.

The artist is Isabel “Chavela” Figueroa. The mural’s title is The Sacred Offering (La Sagrada Ofrenda).

…

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.

Feel free to share!

San Diego graced with the Gift of Dance!

Young dancers with the Gift of Dance, a local ballet folklórico school, performed today in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter during the annual Fall Back Festival.

These colorful photographs provide a hint of the dancers’ energy, fluid grace and poise. The dances transmitted pure joy. If you were there, you felt it.

Traditional Mexican dances included La Negra, La Raspa, La Madrugada, Tehuantepec, El Jarabe Tapatio, Los Machettes, and Las Chiapanecas.

Audience members were often clapping along with the music!

I hope you enjoy my photos…

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Lion dancers bring Gaslamp Quarter good luck!

Good fortune arrived today in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

The San Diego Lucky Lion Dancers brought their good luck to the annual Fall Back Festival!

Shortly before noon, the dancers departed their headquarters at the San Diego Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, crossed Third and Fourth Avenue, and entered the festival with traditional costumes and musical instruments.

Those watching at the Fall Back Festival would be entertained by the performers’ exciting entrance and the following lion dance.

The Lucky Lion Dancers perform at many San Diego events, and I never tire of watching them. The energy, joyfulness and magical good vibes…anyone who watches is indeed lucky!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Tasty sights at the Escondido Tamale Festival!

Do you love tasty, award-winning tamales? If you went to the Escondido Tamale Festival today, you were in heaven!

The annual event, held in Grape Day Park, brings out families for good times, great food (many types), and lively entertainment.

Some of the tamale vendors had impressive displays of trophies they’ve won! These are the best of the best!

They came well equipped, too, serving tamales of every variety fresh on the spot. (Even pineapple and strawberry tamales!) A substantial quantity would be consumed by the large, hungry crowd!

Some fun photos from my afternoon visit…

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Preparing for Día de Muertos in Escondido.

I walked through the California Center for the Arts, Escondido a couple hours before the start of this evening’s 30th Annual Día de los Muertos Festival. Workers, artists, performers and vendors were busy getting ready!

Papel picado was being hung, elegantly dressed skeletons were standing about, and squares were outlined on the ground, ready with candles and crosses for visitors to memorialize loved ones.

Inside the Concert Hall’s lobby I found a beautiful ofrenda and other traditional Día de Muertos decorations.

Back outside, I noticed a vendor had many marigolds.

This beautiful Día de Muertos is produced every year by the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. You can help support the event and learn about others by visiting their website here.

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Fun pics in Balboa Park on Halloween!

Any day in Balboa Park is a great day.

Halloween in Balboa Park makes for a really great day!

Look at all the fun pics I captured while randomly wandering around!

Buzz Lightyear emerged on Halloween from the Balboa Park Administration Building. To infinity and beyond!
There’s a gremlin inside the Museum of Us! And I thought their Egyptian mummies were disturbing!
Looks like the Balboa Park Carousel has been bewitched again.
A spooky photo op backdrop in Spanish Village Art Center.
Lots of Halloween stuff inside the Senior Lounge.
Eek! Who’s this strange character haunting the Senior Lounge?
The San Diego Automotive Museum is home to a friendly ghost.
A fun Halloween costume exhibit inside the Comic-Con Museum.
A spooky jack-o’-scarecrow grins at me in the Comic-Con Museum. I hope a superhero is nearby.
Yes, one can find Cheetos inside the Balboa Park Visitors Center.

Not to be overlooked, I also found some fun Día de los Muertos stuff…

Getting ready for a Día de los Muertos event this weekend at the Old Globe.
A balloon sugar skull outside the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Fishing family unloads albacore in San Diego!

A big haul of albacore tuna was being unloaded today in San Diego’s Tuna Harbor. Huge boxes were being filled with albacore from the fishing vessel Piky, to be promptly shipped to Oregon for canning.

I learned the Piky is operated by a fishing family. They own Craft Fish Company. They fish responsibly, the old-fashioned way, by hand with pole and line. They are a certified member of the American Albacore Fishing Association (AAFA).

As their website states: This is small-batch seafood in its purest form. Every fish is sustainably caught by pole and line, one at a time, by people who know the sea and respect its rhythms. No factory fleets. No shortcuts. Just honest fish, responsibly harvested by our own hands.

Also: Our albacore is wild-caught exclusively in U.S. waters by a U.S.-flagged vessel using pole-and-line fishing, a highly selective and sustainable method that eliminates bycatch.

Very cool!

Considering all those huge boxes, that was a whole lot of fishing!

I see you can purchase the canned, high-quality albacore tuna on their website. Click here!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Guillotines placed in a San Diego park!

Two terrifying guillotines have been placed in a downtown San Diego park! I spotted them this morning at Lane Field Park as I walked along the Embarcadero!

Are heads about to roll?

Turns out these props, and others, are part of a scary event that will take place tomorrow, Halloween day. It’s called the Graveyard Festival!

There will be six stages with lots of music, DJs, dancers and costumes galore. I’m not sure how they’ll fit all that in a relatively small park. Should be interesting. I suppose I’ll have to walk by to check it out!

Here’s the Graveyard Festival website.

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Balboa Park readies for the Holiday Season!

It’s late October. Early mornings and late evenings in San Diego have become chilly.

Walking through Balboa Park this afternoon, I noticed certain preparations are already underway for the Holiday Season!

The Old Globe’s annual “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Tree is going up in their outdoor Copley Plaza. I’m told the tree’s assembly began yesterday. In addition, nearby banners are being replaced and holiday lights are being strung.

The 20th annual Globe Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will take place on Sunday, November 9 at 6:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, in the center of the Botanical Building, a very beautiful harvest display full of Autumn color and pumpkins has been erected by the City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department.

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!

…

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.

Feel free to share!