Hopefully we’ll eventually return to a more normal state of affairs, once vaccines are widely distributed and the devastating COVID-19 pandemic has subsided. The past year has been extremely difficult.
What was going on back in 2016?
Plenty!
It’s time to look back at photographs that I took five years ago…
Click the following links to see some of the photographs I shared on Cool San Diego Sights in January 2016!
This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Enjoy these photos of an amazing mural in National City!
In 2014, local artist Gloria Muriel, who often signs her work with the moniker Glow, painted three colorful faces on the front of the One-Ten Liquor Store and Puff Bar, located at the corner of National City Boulevard and 1st Street.
She painted additional images on the building’s side and rear, but I didn’t take photos because parked cars blocked the most interesting parts.
These three elemental faces, themselves a little weathered and faded by the passage of time, still stand out beautifully as you drive (or walk) past! (I did add a little contrast to my photographs, however.)
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
It’s hard to believe, but today is New Year’s Eve. 2020 has been a year for the history books, to say the least!
What better time to share interesting photos from San Diego’s history?
A year ago I blogged about downtown electrical boxes along Fifth Avenue that feature old photographs from the Gaslamp Quarter. See them here.
During subsequent walks I’ve observed that more boxes on nearby streets have been decorated with similar photographs.
These examples were discovered on sidewalks throughout the Gaslamp!
Horton Plaza Park features the iconic 1910 Broadway Fountain, designed by Irving Gill. The unique fountain incorporated the first successful use of colored lighting and water.
If you’d like to see photos of Horton Plaza Park’s redevelopment in 2015, including the fountain and the park’s many historical monuments, click here.
Bum was San Diego’s beloved town dog in the 1880’s. He was a great friend to everyone in the city.
If you’d like to see a sculpture of Bum, San Diego’s famous town dog, and learn more about his history, click here!
In 1887, the people of San Diego were thrilled to see circus elephants parading down city streets!
San Diego’s first meter maids began to enforce parking violations in 1953.
The 1894 Mercantile Building was typical of Victorian commercial business of the era. It housed the Ingersoll Ice Cream and Confectionary, and a Japanese art goods emporium.
Ah Quin was the unofficial mayor of Chinatown. He arrived in San Diego in 1881.
To learn more about Chinatown’s history, see my blog post concerning the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum here.
The Downtown Celebrates electrical box in the Gaslamp Quarter includes a photo from the 1941 Soap Box Derby in San Diego. The 1946 winner, local boy Gil Klecan, was featured on the cover of Life Magazine. Another photo is of Joan Embery, world-famous spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo.
To see photos of the 2014 All-American Soap Box Derby, which was held in nearby Sherman Heights, click here!
To see photos of a 2016 Bonita Museum exhibit titled My Animal World concerning Joan Embery, which highlights her many guest appearances with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, click here!
Happy New Year!
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This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Visitors to Balboa Park walking between the Desert Garden and Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden might notice a single olive tree. It grows a short distance from the winding pathway, near some logs at the edge of Florida Canyon where people can sit while listening to ranger talks.
What they probably won’t observe is a plaque describing the tree. The plaque, which is not easily seen from the busy walkway, explains the olive tree was donated to the City of San Diego by the local Greek community in November 1976.
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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!
San Diego Stadium, built in 1967, once home of the baseball Padres and football Chargers, which has been known over the decades as Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium, and most recently SDCCU Stadium, is presently being demolished!
I walked down Rancho Mission Road this afternoon to take a couple of photographs through a construction fence surrounding the old stadium parking lot.
I see the big mural at the back of the scoreboard titled The Fan Game, by artist Mario Uribe, is still standing. If you want to see photographs of this cool sports mural from earlier this year, click here.
Eventually the area occupied by the stadium and its parking lot will be transformed into a huge extension of San Diego State University. I’ve heard the new campus referred to as either SDSU West or SDSU Mission Valley. A new 35,000 person capacity Aztec Stadium will also be built at this site, as well as a beautiful new river park.
This morning at sunrise I was walking along the edge of Florida Canyon in Balboa Park when I noticed an airplane approaching San Diego International Airport.
As the FedEx cargo plane descended I captured this colorful series of photographs…
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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!
I’m not sure how to handle this material without sounding raunchy. But I’m going to say it:
A small work of street art at Wienerschnitzel’s drive-through in Imperial Beach shows a wiener with a woody at the beach.
Seriously!
In the background you can see the Imperial Beach pier, and the wiener, rising between buns, staring with an astonished expression out of one window, is transporting what appears to be a surfboard.
I don’t know when this artwork was created, or by whom. It’s faded and stained. This humorous fast food surf scene looks like a dirty impressionist painting.
Or perhaps my brain is addled. And this improbable vision is nothing but a crazy dream, the result of eating too many yummy chili cheese fries.
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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!
Here’s another batch of fascinating door photographs!
I have a little extra time indoors this wintry morning, so I’m going through some old photos in my computer. These images were collected in the past month or so during walks all around San Diego.
You might notice many of the ornate wooden doors are in a Mexican style that is popular in Southern California.
The unmistakable front doors of the iconic California Building in Balboa Park, home of the Museum of Us.
Huge door to the downtown power substation that was designed by famed architect Richard Requa.
If you want to learn more about the above building, which sort of resembles a castle, click here.
Strange service door on curved side of the Portside Pier restaurants on the Embarcadero.
Unique door to El Chingon in the Gaslamp Quarter.
Unusual door I spotted during a walk somewhere.
The next four doors were all observed on Congress Street in Old Town. I really like these…
Finally, the last two doors can be found among the International Cottages in Balboa Park…
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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!
The other day I spotted this mural on the side of a State Farm office at Palm Avenue and Florence Street in Imperial Beach. It was painted recently by artist Milan Elise Finnie.
Its symbolism makes a statement about diversity in Imperial Beach, and how racism is never acceptable. The mural features the face of Gianna Floyd, daughter of George Floyd.
On the rear of the building, there are hand prints of many colors.
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Cool San Diego Sights! 