Can you believe it? Opening Day for the San Diego Padres is only two days away!
It seems 2023 is the most anticipated season in the history of Padres baseball. The team roster is loaded with superstars, and many fans expect a trip to the World Series!
Every game at Petco Park is likely to be well attended, and workers have been busy getting the ballpark ready for action.
I walked around Petco Park this morning to see what I might see.
First, I noticed the newly improved miniature baseball diamond in Gallagher Square was being readied. Kids are going to have a blast!
I then noticed new street banners featuring star players, new graphics behind the right field scoreboard, and newly planted beds of flowers along Petco Park’s east side.
Then I saw the big banner: BRING THE GOLD!
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Drivers heading down Maine Avenue in Lakeside, California might recognize the old Mobil symbol of the winged red horse, Pegasus, flying above a smog check station. What they might not realize is the building they are passing is one of the oldest gas stations remaining in San Diego County.
During my recent visit to Lakeside, I noticed a plaque near the front door of Lakeside Auto Service, so I had to check it out. I then met Ramon, the friendly owner, who told me a little about the history of his building. The original gas station was built in 1930. It also housed Lakeside’s first volunteer fire company.
I learned that Ramon has been working hard to maintain and improve the historic building. He takes pride in helping to preserve this important part of the community.
I was told that, among other plans, Ramon would like to add some old-fashioned gas pumps in front of the building. Like those you see in my photo of the Historical Landmark banner. That would be really cool!
MOBIL GAS STATION
BUILT 1930 ON THE JULIAN HIGHWAY (LRN 198 – LATER HIGHWAY 67)
HOME OF LAKESIDE’S FIRST FIRE TRUCK AND VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT, ESTABLISHED 1954 FIRE CHIEF AND STATION OWNER/OPERATOR ED HARRISON
ONE OF THE OLDEST GAS STATIONS REMAINING IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY RESTORED BY RAMON IBARRA 2018
“OUR MISSION IS TO GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY AND GIVE PEOPLE A PLACE THEY CAN BE PROUD OF”
MAINE AVENUE REVITALIZATION ASSOCIATION (EST. 1993)
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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!
Hollywood, Tarzan, Live Wire and Vaudeville… What do these four have in common?
They’re all aspects of a short walk in University Heights!
A few days ago I walked east along the south sidewalk of El Cajon Boulevard, from Park Boulevard to Louisiana Street. My camera was out, aiming at anything that caught my fancy.
I saw street art and the iconic The Boulevard sign. I passed a strange bicycle and a fun window.
When I came to the historic Lafayette Hotel, I noticed huge banners proclaiming its rebirth in June of 2023.
The Lafayette Hotel has undergone many changes since it began as the Imig Manor in 1946. It’s very first guest was Bob Hope. It soon became a favorite playground for Hollywood stars, like Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Betty Grable, Lana Turner and singer Bing Crosby. It’s rumored Marilyn Monroe and JFK had a secret rendezvous here.
The hotel’s swimming pool was designed by Olympic gold medal winning swimmer and Tarzan movie actor Johnny Weissmuller. It was used by San Diego native Florence Chadwick to train for her record breaking swim across the English Channel. The hotel’s Mississippi Ballroom was used in the filming of Top Gun’s classic You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ scene.
You can learn more about the amazing, elegant features of the Lafayette Hotel here.
Okay! Here are photos from my short 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!
I headed back to North County today. During my walk through Encinitas, along Coast Highway 101, I noticed many signs of the Holiday Season!
Not only did I spy workers hanging holiday lights on the Golden Lotus Tower of the Self-Realization Fellowship ashram, I saw the marquee of La Paloma Theatre features Elf and Die Hard XMAS.
Along the sidewalks and in shop windows I noticed poinsettias, wreaths, Christmas trees, and even ugly sweaters!
Enjoy a few fun photos!
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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!
It’s easy to explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag. There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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!
Major League Baseball’s big 2022 National League Championship Series begins in a matter of hours. And the San Diego Padres have home field advantage!
Downtown San Diego has been busy getting ready for the upcoming games at Petco Park. Huge, super excited crowds will be filling the streets this evening!
I wandered around the Gaslamp Quarter and East Village this morning and saw flags and banners going up, sidewalks getting spruced up, news reporters hanging out near the ballpark, and fans in Padres hats and jerseys walking around.
Lots of video production trucks are now parked on two sides of Petco Park.NLCS graphics were up on one of Petco Park’s big videoboards.City workers were repainting stripes on the street near Petco Park.Those barricade “planter boxes” near the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge have recently been painted with orange, brown and yellow. Together they spell P A D R E S.Nearby shops, bars and restaurants are welcoming baseball fans.The Gaslamp Quarter has these Capture the Moment banners.Transit buses everywhere root for our Padres!The Donut Bar has these yummy Padres doughnuts!I hope this place has the game on!A television news cameraman stands by near Petco Park.And this cool guy gave me a thumbs up!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
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 20-story tall building wrap is now going up for 2022 Comic-Con!
This afternoon I spotted workers applying the enormous wrap on the Park 12 high-rise apartment building, which is near the parking lot where the Petco Park Interactive Zone will be located.
The building wrap appears to promote Teen Wolf the Movie, an upcoming feature film that will be streaming on Paramount+. At least, that’s my guess right now!
This will no doubt be the first of many gigantic building wraps to appear all around the San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con. That gives you an idea of how big this epic international event is!
I’ve also noted three large Disney banners hung a week or so ago on the parking garage of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. They promote a very different sort of entertainment: the Disney Cruise Line. The Disney Wonder cruise ship is homeported in San Diego!
(Fun fact! The ship HMS Surprise, of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, was used in the filming of the Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!)
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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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!
Comic-Con is a month away, and banners have already been hung in the Gaslamp Quarter for the big international pop culture event!
The street lamp banners promote upcoming television series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which will appear on Disney+. It will be the eighth television show based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The green superhero She-Hulk will be portrayed by actress Jennifer Walters. Other actors from the MCU will appear in the show, including Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Benedict Wong as Wong from Doctor Strange, and Tim Roth as the gamma irradiated villain Abomination.
Very cool!
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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!
John Franklin Ritchey. First Black player for the San Diego Padres.
A series of street lamp banners celebrating Black History in San Diego can be observed on Market Street, between Sixth Avenue and Tenth Avenue. Depicted are eight notable pioneers of downtown!
If you’d like to learn about many of our city’s Black pioneers, entrepreneurs, sports heroes and others who’ve contributed to our city’s rich history, here’s a good page to visit!
To see a timeline of Black history in San Diego, check this page out!
Sylura Barron. Civic leader and women’s rights activist.Jasper Davis. Second Black police officer in San Diego.Blossom Lorraine Van Lowe. First Black teacher in San Diego.Dr. Robert Matthews. Educator and civil rights activist.Rebecca Craft. Founder of Black Women’s Civic League.George A. Ramsey. Entrepreneur and business owner.Dr. Jack Kimbrough. President of NAACP, San Diego, 1947.
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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!
Preparations are now underway in downtown San Diego for this Thanksgiving weekend’s big Comic-Con Special Edition!
I walked around the Gaslamp Quarter this morning and spotted a building wrap on the Marriott Marquis. In the evening, after dark, I saw workers setting up a couple of Comic-Con offsites!
One offsite, by the Tin Fish, promotes NBC’s television show La Brea. The premise, I learned, is a sinkhole opens up in Los Angeles, swallowing modern people and depositing them in a mysterious subterranean world–where their smartphones don’t work! What will they do when they encounter dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures? The La Brea offsite will be giving away premium swag to all visitors!
The other offsite I spotted is on some grass by Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, where Deadquarters has been located the last couple Comic-Cons. Workers were setting up an obstacle course. One person I spoke to thinks this offsite promotes a show on Tubi. Possibly The Freak Brothers. I’ll be providing updates with more photos and info. Stay tuned!
Comic-Con Special Edition banner at one end of the San Diego Convention Center.These workers confided they’re getting stuff ready for the big pop culture event!More banners on the convention center along Harbor Drive.Comic-Con International banners on posts by the convention center. Celebrating the popular arts.A Peacemaker building wrap on the Marriott Marquis. The television series concerning a DC Comics character will be on streaming service HBO Max.Setting up an offsite in the dark. The workers didn’t know what it was–except it’s for Comic-Con.Part of the same offsite, which includes an obstacle course. Someone surmised it promotes a show on Tubi.The NBC La Brea offsite by the Tin Fish.Looks like mammoth tusks! Visitors will walk through here to an ambulance where cool swag will be obtained!Looks like Syfy will also be represented outside Comic-Con Special Edition!La Brea ads are all over the place.Stay tuned for more pics later this week!
UPDATE!
I walked all around the Gaslamp and convention center early Wednesday morning. This is what I saw…
First, some large banners have been on the Hilton San Diego Bayfront’s parking structure for a few weeks now. They promote local rapidly growing tech company ClickUp, which is headquartered in the Gaslamp!
Next, I took a pic of exhibitors lined up behind the convention center, waiting to unload trucks.
I took some pics of construction of what I think might be The Freak Brothers offsite near the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. (UPDATE! Now I’m thinking this might be the Peacemaker Proving Ground–we’ll see on Friday!)
And finally some daylight pics of the La Brea activation.
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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!
The Italy national football team, winner of this summer’s UEFA Euro 2020 tournament, is being celebrated on the streets of Little Italy. Banners have been hung from lamp posts in the downtown San Diego neighborhood, depicting players on the victorious soccer team.
I walked through Little Italy this morning and took photographs of several banners along India Street.
In this world whose history includes much grief and violence, perhaps a friendly sporting competition that brings people from many different nations together is a good thing.
Bravi Azzurri. Well done, Italy!
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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!
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