Walking along El Cajon Boulevard after my visit to the Rolando Street Fair last weekend, I noticed a very cool mural painted on the side of a tattoo parlor. I had discovered The Chrome Lady!
The silvery female robot indicated I’d arrived at The Chrome Lady Tattoo.
I asked one of the tattoo artists if he knew who painted the robot, but he wasn’t sure. I didn’t see a signature on the mural.
If you’re ever near the intersection of El Cajon Boulevard and 62nd Street, look for it!
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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 Twitter!
Enjoy a dozen photographs I took late this afternoon, about an hour before sunset.
I started at Broadway Pier and walked east into the heart of downtown San Diego.
I always enjoy this time of day. Light is reflected from many windows, creating a magical effect.
Tall ship Exy Johnson, docked at the Broadway Pier, is visiting San Diego.The buildings of the Research And Development District (RADD) are under construction where much of the old Navy Broadway Complex used to be.Looking north along the Embarcadero. Those clouds are left over from our most recent storm.Walking east down Broadway. Sunlight shines from the silvery Pacific Gate high-rise.More late sunshine on the tops of downtown skyscrapers.West Downtown San Diego is under construction in . . . west downtown San Diego!I love reflections like these.The late afternoon light is beautiful on the Balboa Theatre.The watery dome of the Broadway Fountain shines with different colors like the scales of a fish.A corridor of waning light downtown.Another fine downtown walk.
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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 Twitter!
Venture into Carlsbad’s art alley and you’ll find several woodies parked along one wall!
These cool classic vehicles with wood side panels are lined up opposite the Alley Art Wall, which you can learn about here. The woodies are pictured with surfboards at the beach.
You can find the alley near Village Kabob, at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Tyler Street.
The art panels are signed C. Serna, 2016.
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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 Twitter!
Do you love the movies Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick? Here’s an incredible opportunity for fans that will take place this May in San Diego!
Sign up for Top Gun Days San Diego 2023 and you’ll meet a veteran Blue Angel pilot, who flew the F-18 during scenes in Top Gun: Maverick. You’ll meet a TOPGUN graduate and former instructor, who played a vital role in making Top Gun. You’ll rub shoulders with other pilots from the movies, and get the inside scoop on the filming of these two epic blockbusters!
The three day Top Gun Days San Diego event ends at the USS Midway Museum, then Kansas City Barbeque, the nearby restaurant where the “sleazy bar” scene in the original Top Gun was filmed!
How cool is this?
I ran into the group while they toured the USS Midway last year, and it was apparent everyone was having a great time!
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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 Twitter!
Spring must be here, because community festivals have begun to “spring up” around San Diego!
The 25th Annual Rolando Street Fair was held today, and because I’ve never experienced this event, I had to check it out!
What a cool neighborhood street festival!
Lots of families were enjoying a huge kids play zone, plus there were many booths that focused on youth education. There was a stage with live music, tons of food, the expected rows of vendors, and artists were showing their work, too!
A good crowd had already gathered in the Rolando Street Fair’s first hour.It’s Odi from the San Diego Public Library!Crawford High School has many notable graduates. I was told half a dozen major league baseball catchers have come from this local school!If you want music lessons, this is the man to see!The youthful @kidTRIBUTES were covering classic rock hits.There’s a College Area Community Garden near SDSU. I think I’ve seen these guys at another event.Colorful artwork by Bianca Marcellous (@Blancbyrd).The artist smiled for a photo!This cool guy was displaying some wood art. He represented Old Fashioned Lumber, a San Diego custom design and fabrication shop.This is a time traveling character, by @zander6comix. And here’s the artist!Lots to do along Rolando Boulevard during the street fair.Lots to eat, too!A bunch of jumpers ahead await fun-loving kids.Yes, it’s the 25th Annual Rolando Street Fair!
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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 Twitter!
As I walked down El Cajon Boulevard east of College Avenue, I noticed a thrift store had an open door. I walked through, hoping to find some cool DVD’s.
What I found was the awesome Aztec Thrift Store, or ATS, operated by someone who has the biggest smile. That someone is Erick West.
I learned the primary goal of Erick is to make life for San Diego State University students much more affordable. And to provide a safe, friendly, welcoming place for anyone who might step through the door.
Erick is all about community. He has family connections with SDSU and understands the necessity to stretch a dollar. If you’re a student in need of clothing, or other useful goods, the Aztec Thrift Store has unbelievable deals.
I was most impressed by Erick’s positive vision and his ambition to create greater good. His smile grew larger the more we talked.
And there were shelves full of DVD’s!
Aztec Thrift Store is at 6216 El Cajon Boulevard. They accept donations. Here’s their Facebook page with more info.
Go check it 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 Twitter!
A couple of incredible projects are now underway that will improve and beautify the Palisades area of Balboa Park.
One project I wrote about yesterday. Two life-size grizzly bear sculptures and two flagpoles will be added to the roof of the San Diego Automotive Museum. You can read that blog post here.
The second project concerns the historical building directly across Pan American Plaza: today’s Municipal Gymnasium. This building was originally built for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park and was called the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries.
Back in 1935, a large themed mural greeted visitors above the entrance to the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries. It was a bas-relief designed by Arturo Eneim, carved out of layers of wallboard. It’s long gone.
But that mural is coming back! And it will be made of cold cast bronze!
In late 2021 I visited the San Diego studio of Bellagio Precast where the 12′ x 20′ cold cast bronze fiber glass reinforced concrete mural is being created. You can see interesting photos from that visit, plus renderings and more description, by clicking here. And here.
I visited the same studio again a couple days ago and observed how the enormous mural is coming together, piece by piece!
Architectural plans for the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries mural are spread near a small model at Bellagio Precast in San Diego.A small model of the cast bronze mural, which includes industrial imagery, an electrical generator, and three human figures.Here’s the mold used for the small model’s creation. You can see how the images are reversed.The design for the electrical generator element that will be included in the large, finished mural.And here is the generator! Just one element of many that will be pieced together to create a mold for the massive cast bronze mural.More elements to be incorporated into the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries mural include huge gears!
Pysanky are traditional Ukrainian decorated eggs. They are made for the celebration of Easter.
Today pysanky were being crafted in Balboa Park courtesy of the House of Ukraine!
Visitors to the Hall of Nations at the International Cottages could see how beautiful an intricate pysanka egg can be. The colorful designs are created through the use of carefully applied beeswax and the wax-resist process.
Kids could color some designs on paper, too.
There were other traditional Ukrainian crafts on display at several tables, including often armless Motanka dolls. Motanka dolls are like talismans, said to grant wishes, such as guarding the family or a happy, prosperous marriage.
At one table, I learned how an organization called Healing Scalpel is helping to provide medical supplies and services to people devastated by the war in Ukraine.
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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 Twitter!
Hundreds of runners and walkers headed along San Diego’s Embarcadero this morning during the Padres Pedal the Cause fundraiser. They were participating in the 5K Walk/Run!
Lots of thumbs up and smiles spontaneously appeared as a stream of humanity flowed down the boardwalk.
Funds were being raised for Curebound, an organization that helps to further cancer research. Local institutions they help include the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Salk Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Rady Children’s Hospital, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and Scripps Research.
Cool San Diego Sights! 