This morning the Alcazar Garden in Balboa Park was filled with activity. The City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department and volunteers belonging to the Balboa Park Garden Stewards were planting hundreds of flowers!
The new flowers will fill the garden’s large beds in time for summer and Memorial Day weekend!
Thank you to everyone with sore backs and dirty knees for making San Diego’s crown jewel even more beautiful!
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There’s a museum in Liberty Station that visitors might mistakenly pass by. When I walked by today, it occurred to me I hadn’t stepped into Visions Museum of Textile Art for many years. So I had to see what I’ve been missing!
Long before I started Cool San Diego Sights, I remember how the museum was called Quilt Visions. The last time I visited, in 2019, it was called Visions Art Museum. I was told the name has evolved over time as the museum has enlarged its scope to cover many different types of textile art.
Today I was excited to see the Visions Museum of Textile Art is thriving!
I discovered several current exhibits, and chose to blog about one that features some very unique pieces. It’s titled INTIKA: Men In Textiles. As a sign explains, the INTIKA exhibition seeks to showcase the diverse works of male artists from various backgrounds, each employing different textile techniques. These artists push the boundaries…by experimenting with unconventional materials or incorporating elements from other disciplines like sculpture or installation art.
Check out the next photo. This visually complex piece, composed of sliced and woven street posters collected from the walls of New York City, Berlin and Venice, is definitely unconventional!
There’s all sorts of textile art to admire, including unique clothing, hangings and other needlework. More examples…
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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.
An impressive yacht has been docked on San Diego’s Embarcadero for weeks now. Perhaps you’ve seen it, just north of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
As I walked past the yacht this morning, I was surprised to see its side open and gentlemen working on a super cool, bubble-like submersible. For a moment I thought I had wandered into a documentary about ocean exploration–or a science fiction movie!
In fact, I was looking inside the Hodor, a 66-meter catamaran that this article describes as the world’s largest floating toy box! Among the toys it holds is the three-person Seamagine Aurora-3 submersible, which I spotted in its open “submarine garage” while walking down the boardwalk. Other toys include a helicopter, motorcycles, and ATVs!
Hodor is support vessel of larger privately owned superyacht Lonian, which is also docked in San Diego.
You never know what cool thing you might discover during a morning walk!
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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.
An exhibition in the Judith Harris Art Gallery on the 9th floor of San Diego’s Central Library deserves citywide attention.
The Drawing Show, which includes work by notable local artists, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The recurring exhibition has included the work of 82 artists over the years!
For 2025, the artists are Celeste Byers, Hugo Crosthwaite, Steve Gibson, Amanda Kazemi, Neil Kendricks, Joshua Moreno, Annalise Neil, David Peña, Melanie Taylor and Eden de la Vara. Followers of Cool San Diego Sights might recognize the names of certain artists who’ve painted murals around town.
The dozens of works on display in the library’s art gallery are very fine. Many of the drawings are meticulously detailed. One can see how they flow from each artist’s personal experiences in life. Emotions stirred by the art can be strong, and every piece made me look closely.
If you’ve never been to an art exhibition at San Diego’s Central Library, this would be a great one to check out. You won’t be disappointed.
The Drawing Show has been extended, and will now close on June 15, 2025, so you still have a few weeks.
Feared throughout a galaxy far, far away, relentless bounty hunter Boba Fett has mysteriously arrived on planet Earth and has been spotted surfing in Leucadia!
Perhaps Boba came in search of another boba, because there Boba is, now bonded with his boba and board in a BOBA BY THE BEACH mural!
This cool Star Wars mural is painted at Sip-N-Sea: Coffee + Açaí. The artist signature is @JM47ART.
Thought you’d enjoy 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 X.
This very beautiful mural was painted in Leucadia by local artist Skye Walker in 2023. It’s called Remember California.
The artwork, gracing the 101 Wine Company building at 1496 North Coast Highway 101, is the result of the Paint Encinitas Mural Arts Program.
The mural is absolutely gorgeous. Notice that even the posts near the wall were painted so they fit the image.
A plaque to one side provides description.
Skye Walker’s “Remember California” mural is a visual ode to the state and its natural surroundings, amongst them being the Pacific Ocean, endless sunsets, and golden poppies. The woman figure represents Mother Nature in all her beauty, reminding us that we are responsible for protecting and nurturing her delicate, life-giving abundance. Walker hopes people are inspired by the mural not just to appreciate the natural, but also to witness the need for humans to be in balance with nature, each other, and ourselves.
…The building, originally called Ruby’s Bar, was once part of Leucadia’s early, colorful business district. Owner Ruby Nelson was known for staging dancing girls without a license, selling hamburgers to Marines, and smoking cigars soaked in Cook’s Rum. The property where the mural is located las been owned by the Georges family since 1987…
You can see an earlier version of this mural on the same building by checking out a blog post from 2019 here. That older mural is very similar, but noticeably different.
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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.
Should you visit the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, make sure to step into the Krichman Family Gallery. That’s where you can experience eye-opening effects of light, caused by apertures cut in glass windows overlooking the coast.
This site-conditional installation is the work of Robert Irwin, who passed away in 2023. According to a nearby sign, his art is foundational to a certain West Coast minimalism, referred to as Light and Space. He was a longtime resident of San Diego.
Window areas with no glass bring new light into the viewer’s eyes. Standing in the gallery makes one wonder: to what extent do we fully experience reality and its acute beauty? Is there “glass” in our eyes that can be cut away?
Those open spaces in the windows also allow our senses to feel and smell the fresh ocean breeze. Now, if only human hands could reach out and feel the ocean’s vastness.
Robert Irwin is also responsible for the Edwards Sculpture Garden’s radiant Spanish Fan, which you can see in the lower left of the above photograph.
Inside the museum’s adjacent galleries are more of Irwin’s beautiful works. Perhaps I’ll cover those at some future time.
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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.
This amazing bronze sculpture can be found in front of the National City Fire Department Headquarters Station 34, at the corner of D Avenue and 16th Street. It was commissioned in 2007 and created by local artist Richard Becker. It’s called Ring of Fire.
Fire stations around San Diego County often feature great public art. This might be one of my favorites!
I love the dog to one side!
Here’s a Facebook page that shows photographs of the sculpture being created.
I see, from this online history of the National City Fire Department, that in 2003 an old fire station located here was demolished and rebuilt, creating a station that was larger and more modern, and that in 2007 (same year as the sculpture) they launched their Paramedic Program.
Richard Becker has created amazing sculptures throughout our region. Enjoy photographs of four examples by clicking here and here and here and here.
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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.
The Comic-Con Museum will be opening an exhibit celebrating Mexican lucha libre wrestling on May 22, 2025. The exhibition is titled Sangre, Sudor y Mito and will feature masks and costumes worn by legendary luchadores, collectibles, original art, video and much more.
To kick things off, Lucha Fest is being held in San Diego at the Soap Factory this afternoon.
The free, family-friendly event features food, music, art, lowriders and live lucha libre wrestling! Lucha Fest is supported by the Comic-Con Museum, Museo de Lucha Libre Tijuana Mexicana, and the Office of the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego.
I arrived as it opened, which turned out to be much too early. The wrestling, I learned wouldn’t begin for a couple hours, so I walked around checking things out for a short while.
A highlight of Lucha Fest is the official unveiling of a huge mural across the street, which features legendary luchadores, including Chula Vista’s own Rey Mysterio. It was created by prolific local artist Dentlok. I had photographed the mural in early April, not knowing anything about it. See those photographs here.
The Soap Factory is a mostly outdoor venue east of downtown San Diego. It has many cool murals. I’ve focused my few photos today on the fun event as it barely got started. (Yes, I neglected to photograph the ring–there was nothing going on at the time.)
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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.
The bright yellow building at 510 North Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas is hard to miss. It was the original train station in Encinitas, as its appearance suggests. Today it’s home of Pannikin Coffee & Tea, a popular community gathering place.
I found few other indications of the building’s interesting railroad history: a marker near the front door (seen above) and an old Encinitas station sign.
I walked inside Pannikin Coffee & Tea and was disappointed there was so little on display specifically concerning the railroad station’s history. I asked two employees about it, who told me about the salvaged Encinitas station sign up near the ceiling.
According to this article, the original Encinitas train station was built in 1887. The building moved from trackside to its present location in the early 1970s and in 1980 became a coffeehouse.
It’s a uniquely attractive building, with its bright color and old Victorian charm.
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 