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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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.
The cities of San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and Coronado were all made more beautiful this morning! Volunteers with Operation Clean Sweep fanned out to pick up litter on each city’s waterfront!
I happened to stumble upon the above group this morning as I walked along downtown San Diego’s Embarcadero. They posed for a photo!
I learned there are numerous sponsors for the big annual clean up event, which is organized by the San Diego Working Waterfront. You can see all of the sponsors by checking out the Operation Clean Sweep website here. Some of the smiling volunteers I encountered are with Old Town Trolley Tours.
As a resident of downtown San Diego, lover of the city and avid walker, I want to thank everyone involved!
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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.
Some trolley riders smiled. Others slept. Some unabashedly sang along. Others stared at the unexpected spectacle with suspicion or disbelief. We all were riding a San Diego trolley to Destination JOY!
A special event was held today in San Diego. Trolley passengers could experience bright smiles and joy at certain stations and, perhaps unexpectedly, while riding the Blue or Orange lines! Destination JOY was the name of this first time event, and I experienced a bit of it myself!
Sustainable transportation, climate change mitigation, health and well-being, and civic engagement were the central themes of the event, which was presented by Way Outside the Lines in partnership with many community organizations and the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The mood of the event was happy and optimistic–full of good vibes!
At the Iris Avenue Transit Center, both registered participants and ordinary transit users could listen to poetry readings about human love in a sometimes difficult world, see colorful artwork, listen to live music, and even learn how to beat the summer heat. The theme at this station was the Sound of Joy…
Anyone could walk up and try their hand at painting. This is local artist David Gomez, who also had a small gallery of his artwork on display.
Institute for Public Strategies was at the Iris Avenue Transit Center educating people about how to beat the summer heat.
These musicians weren’t playing when I happened by, but they gave me the thumbs up!
A group that signed up for the full 4 hour Destination JOY experience prepare to board a random Blue Line trolley. They and surprised passengers would be entertained by a musical trolley show!
At the E Street Transit Center in Chula Vista, the roving group would enjoy more outdoor activations. The theme here was Art of Motion. Anyone who happened to come by the trolley station could participate in yoga and other healthy activities.
Smiles from the Yoga Lab!
I then headed off on my own to check out the activations at the 24th Avenue Transit Center in National City. Expression of Color was the theme at this station, and much of what I saw, including more colorful artwork, concerned protecting our natural environment.
I learned that a new project called Mundo Gardens is planned for National City. The Interstate 805 ramps for 43rd Street will be coming down creating an open space for the community.
From the 24th Street Transit Center I rode a Blue Line trolley back into downtown San Diego, missing the final Orange Line activations at the Euclid Avenue Station & Jacobs Center.
I did find friendly folks from the Urban Collaborative Project inside UC San Diego Park & Market near the trolley station of the same name. They aim to make Southeast San Diego a more vibrant, informed, connected, and empowered community!
The following stone was painted by Elie Kennedy, who had a table nearby. Visit my blog post concerning her work spreading love in San Diego by clicking here!
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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.
It’s obvious that many in Chula Vista are looking forward to the debut season of San Diego FC next year. Huge crowds have come out today for the San Diego FC Chrome Ball Tour stop in downtown Chula Vista!
As the free street festival opened, soccer games were already underway up and down Third Avenue. Kids, adults, even the Chula Vista Fire Department and Police Department would participate in hard fought competition!
I walked about shortly after noon, as people were arriving from every direction for the event. I took some photographs while checking out games, lowriders, vendors and enthusiastic San Diego FC supporters. Entertainment including live music and a fashion show on the big stage hadn’t begun yet, nor the Lucha Libre wrestling exhibition, which would start in the evening.
Thumbs up! La Masia SD is a very successful local soccer team. Many of its past players have gone on to play professionally at different levels!
Paul Jimenez of Ground Floor Murals prepares a big canvas for some live spray paint art. I didn’t hang around the event long enough to see its progress.
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 