Members of the South Bay community gathered today in Chula Vista’s Bayfront Park for a great annual event. Today was South Bay Earth Day!
Organizations who are working toward a healthy natural environment provided information and opportunities to people who share their values. I walked about and learned a lot.
Yes–there was music and food trucks and fun activities, too. It was another wonderful day on beautiful San Diego Bay.
The City of Chula Vista had a big presence at South Bay Earth Day, including their Office of Sustainability.Learning about recycling and its benefits.A smile at The Water Conservation Garden table. I was just there yesterday! The garden is truly amazing! (My first blog post concerning that visit is here.)The Master Gardener Association of San Diego County had this plant display. Native plants in your landscaping conserves water.The Earth Discovery Institute had a display about Monarch butterflies. They were handing out seed packets for growing milkweed. Milkweed is the only food source for monarch caterpillars.Youth 4 a Sustainable Future includes 15 local schools. They are part of South Bay Sustainable Communities Network. They educate about sustainability, do community cleanups, distribute rescued food, host nature hikes…The Living Coast Discovery Center was showing this rosy boa snake.One of the creative activities at the event was making tie-dye shirts.Event visitors could also put together a small potted plant. Most appeared to be succulents.Handy members of San Diego Fixit Clinic were repairing assorted broken things–instead of sending them to the landfill.Republic Services was showcasing their electric garbage truck.A happy greeting from the San Diego Bird Alliance (used to be Audubon Society). These good people are busy protecting birds.Birds make us better!These smiles were at the Cabrillo National Monument table. (I recently walked down to their tidepools via the new Oceanside Trail. See those photos here.)If you’d like to volunteer at Cabrillo National Monument, there’s their email address!Here’s another smile! It’s at the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation table. They are a philanthropic partner of the National Park Service and help provide funds for the needs of Cabrillo National Monument. Their efforts include educational programs, conservation and community engagement.Stewie the green sea turtle was representing U.S. Navy Environmental. Check out his webpage here!
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Hey families in the South Bay, check this out! The City of Chula Vista has a Junior Park Ranger program for kids ages 5 to 15!
I learned about the program today during South Bay Earth Day. A friendly City of Chula Vista park ranger was educating those passing by about this cool opportunity.
Take the kids down to Rice Canyon Park (on North Rancho Del Rey Parkway) every fourth weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and meet park rangers between 9 am and 12 pm.
Kids who are with a guardian get to see native animal specimens from the Natural History Museum and learn how to protect local wildlife. They can also learn about native plants, then take a self-led hike through Rice Canyon Preserve and have fun identifying them!
Kids who fill out an activity book will become a Junior Park Ranger. How cool is that!
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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 new Sweetwater Park in Chula Vista opened early this month. Many people have already explored its nature trails. I did so, too, a few days ago.
One trail runs the length of the park on its west side, nearest San Diego Bay. It offers benches and blinds from which one can view bird activity in a wide expanse of native coastal vegetation.
I took photographs as I veered off the bikeway at the south end of Sweetwater Park and started up this main trail. It’s an easy level walk. This is what you might see should you walk as far as the gate restricting access to Gunpowder Point Drive.
(If you choose, you can continue up the trail, which curves around the Sun Outdoors RV resort. Then, using your wits, taking a dirt road and path, you’ll end up at E Street at Bay Boulevard, near Interstate 5.)
Continuing north. I’ll take the short branching path on the left that passes a bench, then return to the main trail…
Gazing to the south, one can see Marine Group Boat Works and their immense boat-lifting Travelift. It was a bit foggy this day…
I believe these are bush sunflower…
Another side trail and bench…
A short trail leads west to this rusty blind with a bench…
Looking north, you can see the Living Coast Discovery Center and the adjacent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services building. Way in the distance I see Point Loma, the Coronado Bridge and downtown San Diego…
Heading back up the main trail…
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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 new 39-acre Sweetwater Park opened earlier this month in Chula Vista. It’s located on the edge of San Diego Bay, adjacent to Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. It you’ve had a chance to visit the public park and walk its nature trails, you’ve no doubt seen a towering 25-foot tall sculpture that looks exactly like a wishbone!
The steel sculpture, created by artist Roberto Salas, is titled Rigors of Flight.
Why the wishbone shape? The wishbone is a forked bone found in most birds. It strengthens the bird’s skeleton, helping it to withstand the rigors of flight. Birds are plentiful in the park!
I walked through Sweetwater Park yesterday and approached the sculpture. I took these photographs.
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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.
Sweetwater Park will be opening later this year beside San Diego Bay in Chula Vista. Everyone will be able to enjoy recreation, nature trails, a big playground and more in the 21-acre public park.
Sweetwater Park will stretch from Bayside Park (to be redeveloped into Harbor Park) and the new Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, north to Sweetwater Marsh and the Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay RV resort.
Back in October, I walked up the footpath that was already open along the east side of the park (which I now see is called Sweetwater Bicycle Path & Promenade). The park itself was fenced off at the time, and it still is today. But changes have occurred!
You can see how Sweetwater Park appeared late last year by checking out my old blog post here. Since then a number of new structures have been built, including landmark signs at either end, a tall, quite strange wishbone-shaped sculpture near the center of the park, and the big, awesome-looking playground!
Here I am walking south to north yesterday…
I took the following photographs over the construction fence…
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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.
Now on display in Chula Vista’s Civic Center Branch Library are six paintings created last summer during the Chula Vista ArtFest. The theme for the artists was “Written in the Stars.”
I stopped by the library today during a long walk in South Bay.
Readers of Cool San Diego Sights might recognize two of the artist names: Signe Ditona (of Ground Floor Murals) and Shirish Villaseñor. Many of their colorful murals have appeared on my blog in the past!
Artist Shirish VillaseñorArtist Kyle GarrityArtist Leslye VillaseñorArtist Signe DitonaArtist Iris WiseArtist Iz Inocencio
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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.
Gorgeous glass mosaics depicting sea life were recently installed at the E Street trolley station in Chula Vista. The artwork was created by Rainforest Art Project (@rainforestartproject). The mosaics are meant to inspire people traveling through San Diego’s South Bay. Eyes are encouraged to look out at the world with a sense of wonder.
The mosaics are part of the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Color the Corridor project. You might recall that a long mural has been painted on a wall just north of the same trolley station. See my blog post concerning that by clicking here.
A short video concerning these new sea life mosaics can be viewed here.
Many of the glass mosaics aren’t readily visible to passengers waiting for a trolley on the E Street station platform. As you can see from my next photograph, most of the fish, whales, birds and turtles overlook Interstate 5 below.
Hopefully drivers whizzing down the busy freeway or heading up the nearby off-ramp observe this incredible public art!
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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.
A big, very fun mural is now being painted on a long wall in Chula Vista! The artwork, which appears to be almost competed, can be seen by San Diego trolley Blue Line passengers along the tracks north of the E Street station.
The mural is part of the ongoing MTS Color the Corridor project. The design is by prolific Southern California artist Michelle Ruby (aka Mr B Baby). With a colorful Mexican flavor, the mural contains doll-like characters that one often finds in her artwork. You’ve likely seen her murals all over San Diego.
The painted wall is in the trolley right-of-way and cannot be approached on foot. I took these photos through the slightly dirty window of a moving trolley this morning. They show small but notable parts of the long mural. I had to enhance the images to make them less blurry…
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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.
Sweetwater Park is a large recreational park now being developed in Chula Vista, next to San Diego Bay. It extends between G Street and E Street. When completed, the 21-acre park will feature trails, picnic areas, nature and adventure play areas, and scenic overlooks to the bay.
Yesterday I discovered that one wide dirt trail is already open. It parallels the paved Bayshore Bikeway, with which it sometimes coincides. The trail begins at the north end of Chula Vista’s Bayside Park next to Marine Group Boat Works, and extends up to Sweetwater Park’s future entrance and parking lot, which is located across E Street from the Sun Outdoors RV Resort.
Walking north up the trail, I peered over construction fences to view Sweetwater Park’s progress. In upcoming photos you’ll see connecting trails that aren’t yet completed.
As I got started, I turned south for a moment. That huge structure in the next photo is the parking garage for the big Gaylord Pacific Resort and Conference Center now under construction.
Okay, now I’m heading north. I saw this sign concerning native coastal and salt marsh plants here near San Diego Bay.
Come along on my sunny Sunday walk…
A sign on the fence includes images of how the finished Sweetwater Park will appear.
Looking at the overall site plan, my walk north proceeded from right to left. I’m now at the park entrance and parking lot.
Embedded in the trail at its north end is a circular plaque:
Funding for this path provided by the Urban Greening Grant awarded in 2017 by the California Natural Resources Agency. Port of San Diego Waterfront of Opportunity.
Learn more about future Sweetwater Park by visiting the Port of San Diego website here. You’ll also see a plan for Chula Vista’s Bayside Park to nearly double in size and become Harbor Park!
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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 X.
Look how gigantic the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista has become! I walked around it on Sunday and the main hotel building is positively immense! Because I took photographs from a good distance, it might be hard to visualize exactly how large it is.
The resort and convention center, when completed next Spring, will feature 1,600 guest rooms and suites, plus a 4.25-acre water park on the property’s bay side. You can see two big blue water slides in the following photos.
To visualize the progress of this project’s construction, check out photos from almost two years ago, when there was practically nothing on the huge lot but dirt. See those here. Then I took photos about a year ago, which you can see here.
After walking around the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, I headed from nearby Bayside Park around Marine Group Boat Works, and discovered a beautiful new path along the edge of Chula Vista’s upcoming Sweetwater Park–a huge park that is now in development!
I’ll post photos of that walk coming up!
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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 X.
Cool San Diego Sights! 