2025 San Diego Padres appear on Embarcadero!

The 2025 Major League Baseball season is about to begin. And look who has appeared on San Diego’s Embarcadero along Harbor Drive. Players representing the San Diego Padres!

Before the start of every season, new Padres player banners appear on downtown lamp posts. You can find the banners around Petco Park and elsewhere. Some of the banners inevitably feature new faces.

I took these photographs today.

Last year the Padres were arguably the second best team in baseball. They were a game away from beating mighty Los Angeles and going to the National League Championship Series. How will the team do in 2025?

Jackson Merrill 3
Nick Pivetta 27
Xander Bogaerts 2
Manny Machado 13
Yu Darvish 11
Fernando Tatis Jr. 23

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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 X.

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New banners and cool events in Balboa Park!

Two new banners have recently appeared in San Diego’s Balboa Park, announcing two super cool events.

The above Da Vinci’s First Flight banner was just hung above the front entrance of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

I spoke to the Air and Space Museum’s social media photographer today as she captured images of the new banner. She told me the Da Vinci exhibit is awesome. One of her favorite things about it is the mind-blowing 36-foot replica of Da Vinci’s hang glider! Okay, that does sound really incredible!

You can learn all about the special exhibition by clicking here.

I was excited to see the above Cherry Blossom Festival banner today near the entrance of the Japanese Friendship Garden.

The very popular annual festival takes place March 13 – 16, 2025. Read details at the Japanese Friendship Garden event webpage here.

To get an idea of how amazing the Cherry Blossom Festival is, check out photographs I took of it in 2017 and 2018.

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 this!

Comic-Con building wraps, banners appear in San Diego!

Here we go! Comic-Con 2024 is a little over a week away, and gigantic building wraps and banners have begun to appear in downtown San Diego!

Late this afternoon I walked near the San Diego Convention Center and through the Gaslamp Quarter, and observed how many workers must have been very busy today!

First, I noticed the tall Park 12 high-rise near Petco Park has a humungous double building wrap promoting Nickelodeon’s Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which will be streaming on Paramount+ on August 9.

On the Harbor Drive side of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel parking garage there’s now a big banner advertising the video game Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree.

On the San Diego Convention Center side of the same parking garage there’s an even bigger banner anticipating DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO. The video game is coming on October 11, 2024.

On the corner of the parking garage is this…

While walking near Gaslamp Square, I looked up at that new big video board and discovered a long advertisement for Those About to Die, a Roman gladiator series on Peacock that begins on July 18! NBCUniversal usually has their offsite here.

Look what’s going up on the Hard Rock Hotel! A wrap that celebrates SpongeBob’s 25th anniversary! SpongeBob Squarepants premiered on July 17, 1999.

Finally, I noticed a big mural at Happy Does on Fifth Avenue. It indicates that Paramount+ offsite The Lodge will be here!

Woohoo! Comic-Con 2024 is getting very close, so I’m taking Cool San Diego Sights into “Comic-Con mode” for the next couple weeks!

Don’t fret if you don’t care for this stuff, however. I’ve got San Diego photos that I’ll share after Comic-Con ends that many of you might like. Stay tuned!

UPDATE!

The following day (July 16) I took this photograph of the Hard Rock Hotel. I learned from a hotel employee that the interior will have a SpongeBob theme this year.

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Fantastic Four banners appear before Comic-Con!

Reed Richards and Johnny Storm on a Comic-Con street lamp banner in San Diego.

Banners promoting Marvel’s popular superhero team Fantastic Four and their upcoming movie (due to open in 2025), have appeared in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024!

The news that Marvel will have a panel in Hall H this year probably means they’ll be promoting Deadpool & Wolverine, which opens during Comic-Con, plus the highly anticipated The Fantastic Four.

I personally look forward to the movie. The Fantastic Four is one of my favorite teams. Cosmic enemies and super science and a warm family dynamic usually result in stirring, highly imaginative stories.

Hopefully the Reed Richards in the upcoming film is a wee bit smarter than the one who got himself turned into spaghetti by the Scarlet Witch!

Sue Storm and Ben Grimm.

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

New banners for Cortez celebrate the outdoors.

New street lamp banners have recently popped up throughout San Diego’s downtown Cortez neighborhood. They celebrate the outdoors!

Cortez Hill might be considered the sunny “summit” of downtown San Diego, where the historic El Cortez rises and jacaranda trees flourish. As the banners suggest, Cortez is a fine place for outdoor activities, too, like bicycling, walking or running!

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 X.

Baseball bat playground coming to Petco Park!

A gigantic baseball bat tower has been installed inside Gallagher Square at Petco Park!

Check it out! That huge bat is actually part of a new, super cool playground, which, as I understand it, will feature a slide and bridge that connect to those other elevated structures!

Whoaa! To be a kid again! Families living in downtown San Diego and those attending Padres games are in for a treat!

While walking through East Village around Petco Park late this afternoon, I also noticed some Padres players street lamp banners are up for the new 2024 season!

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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Padres baseball windglyphs return to San Diego!

Three colorful banners that celebrate the early history of the San Diego Padres returned in late October to Lane Field Park! I’ve noticed them flying near the corner of Harbor Drive and Broadway during recent Embarcadero walks.

Thanks to the nearby InterContinental Hotel, these windglyphs, depicting Pacific Coast League (PCL) San Diego Padres baseball players Ted Williams and Eddie Erautt, have replaced the originals that eventually became weather-beaten after debuting in 2017. The windglyphs are titled Spirits of the West Wind. They were designed by local artist Lisa Schirmer.

If you’d like to learn more about the inspiration behind these beautiful windglyphs, and see photographs taken the day the originals were first raised, click here.

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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Banners celebrate Wave players in World Cup!

Banners have appeared in downtown San Diego that celebrate the five San Diego Wave FC soccer players who are participating in this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup!

Street lamp banners have been hung for Alex Morgan and Naomi Girma playing for the United States; Kailen Sheridan for Canada; Sofia Jakobsson for Sweden; and Emily Van Egmond for Australia! One banner shows all five soccer stars together.

This evening I happened to spy these banners on B Street.

Congrats to the San Diego Wave FC for their incredible popularity, and the inspiration they provide for thousands of young people!

Yes, I need to watch a game at Snapdragon Stadium one day…

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!

An explosion of color outside Comic-Con 2023!

Everywhere one turns in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter there’s an explosion of color. Building wraps and banners are now rapidly appearing for Comic-Con 2023!

This is some of what I saw late Thursday afternoon, with less than a week to go before the start of Comic-Con.

And there will almost certainly be much more to come!

After the big Esri User Conference concludes today at the San Diego Convention Center, huge building wraps will likely appear on the sides of Petco Park, and on the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the Marriott Marquis hotels!

I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!

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!

One Piece and The Creator banners appear for Comic-Con!

Promotional banners are popping up near the San Diego Convention Center as Comic-Con 2023 rapidly approaches!

I spotted a huge ONE PIECE banner attached to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront parking garage. ONE PIECE is an American-Japanese streaming television series developed by Matt Owens and Steven Maeda for Netflix. It’s scheduled to premiere on August 31, 2023.

I also spotted many street lamp banners that have been hung across Harbor Drive from the convention center. They include the Comic-Con logo and promote The Creator, an upcoming 2023 science fiction action movie about humankind’s fight against artificial intelligence. Sounds a bit like the Terminator films. The Director, Gareth Edwards, is known for directing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Creator is scheduled to be released in the United States on September 29, 2023.

UPDATE!

Dozens of new The Creator banners were seen along Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter during a Fourth of July walk!

UPDATE!

Here’s a pic of the ONE PIECE banner more brightly illuminated…

I’ll be covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!

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!