Dad and son check out old steam locomotive on display at La Mesa Depot Museum.
I’ve driven past the La Mesa Depot Museum many times over the years, but have never stopped to check it out. Today I remedied that very unfortunate situation!
Here’s a ton of cool pics. The small display train and historic railroad depot are found along Spring Street near the center of La Mesa, in San Diego’s sunny East County. I walked from south to north with my camera.
A friendly volunteer told me a little bit about the locomotive, reefer (refrigerator) car and caboose on exhibit, plus facts about the old La Mesa depot and San Diego and Cuyamaca Eastern Railway line. The depot is La Mesa’s oldest building and the only surviving San Diego and Cuyamaca Railway Station. Over the years it has experienced a colorful history, serving as an antique store and a worm farm! Please refer to the interesting signs, and my captions. Hopefully you get an idea of how awesome this place is!
The La Mesa Depot Museum is operated by the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, which displays many old trains in Campo, an hour’s drive east of San Diego near Mexico. I went there with my family when I was very young and took a fun train ride. I plan on going again one day!
Locomotive was donated after 43 years of service to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association.Looking up into door of steam locomotive Mojave Northern Railroad #3.Old No. 3 originally hauled lime from a quarry near Victorville, California.Part of the complex machinery and controls in the steam locomotive’s cab.Pacific Fruit Express reefer car on display at old train depot in La Mesa, California.Southern Pacific Railroad caboose can be boarded free by visitors on Saturdays, 1-4 pm.I saw a bunch of people during my short visit. There were many excited kids!Entering the caboose, to check out what life was like working on the railroad.The conductor had high windows to see around the train during operation.A freight train’s conductor or crew could sit up here to see in every direction.That’s quite a climb, even for a tall guy like me!The small La Mesa depot sits near tracks now used by the San Diego Trolley Orange Line.The depot opened in 1894, and this 44-star flag would’ve flown above it.Information sign outlines the early history of La Mesa’s train depot.Historical photograph of a train stopping at La Mesa.In the early 20th century the depot was sold and moved on various occasions.McKeen Car at the La Mesa Depot.This very small building contains lots of cool stuff!City of La Mesa Historic Landmark No. 6 on side of 1894 train depot.Ticket office in depot contains various old telephones and a telegraph.The telegraph key still works!Telegraphic messages were received here!Looking out through ticket window at the tiny train depot waiting room.In one corner of the office is an old-fashioned manual typewriter.This old wood stove still works and provides a lot of heat!Signs bring to life the old train time table and Western Union office.An old railway hand cart for hauling freight or luggage.Sign tells complex story of the San Diego, Cuyamaca and Eastern Railroad.Here comes the San Diego Trolley, approaching the nearby La Mesa Boulevard station.The La Mesa Depot Museum is a fun place to visit on a Saturday afternoon!
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Scooter with fringed canopy zooms past as I swing my camera to capture a sudden morning photo.
Here are a few interesting photos from another meandering walk downtown. I took these yesterday morning as I headed down from Cortez Hill to catch the trolley at the Santa Fe Depot. I know, there are closer trolley stations, but I was itching to venture outside into the world and got an early start…
Wednesday is trash pick up day in front of the House of Blues in downtown San Diego.Cool mural on a downtown building’s upper patio which, according to a security guard, is inaccessible to the general public.
From a distance that mural looks really awesome. The security guard said perhaps he’d let me onto the patio if I were swing by in the middle of a work day. According to some research on the internet, it was painted fairly recently by Maxx Moses, the same artist who created that super fantastic Ancestors street mural in Barrio Logan.
Mysterious elevated box on the sidewalk is colorfully painted with leaves.Vertically moving words on Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego don’t seem to make sense.Seward Johnson’s ‘That A Way’ sculpture at entrance of The Sofia Hotel.
Yep, that’s the same Seward Johnson who created the huge Unconditional Surrender sculpture by the USS Midway Museum. He’s best known for making life-size pieces like this one, which stands by a doorway on Broadway.
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People gaze at Monster Jam’s Party in the Pits in the Petco stadium parking lot.
I was heading back home today after walking for a couple hours along San Diego Bay. Crossing the bridge over Harbor Drive, I suddenly heard some sort of loud event over by Petco Park. I turned my head, and a big crowd of people came into view…
Crossing over Harbor Drive bridge, I heard and spied something big going on!Look at all the monster truck enthusiasts checking out cool stuff.Guys on bikes and motorcycles perform huge jumps for crowd.
After descending from the bridge, I walked around the monster truck event and took a few pics over the fence!
I don’t know the name of this monster truck, but it was definitely large!Mechanic guy near a couple of gigantic spare tires.I guess this is a driver. He was signing autographs for lots of fans.A display I could barely glimpse over the surrounding fence.A couple of vendors head from Petco Park to the Monster Jam Party in the Pits.
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Kid checks engine of vintage car at Balboa Park show commemorating 1915 race.
One hundred years ago a famous road race took place in San Diego. Many of the world’s greatest race drivers took part. The 1915 San Diego Exposition Road Race was a thrilling, dangerous 300 mile race around the streets of Point Loma. Those streets still exist today.
This morning, dozens of vintage cars took part in a rally along the old race route. The event was part of Balboa Park’s Centennial celebration, which is being held all year long to remember the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.
Before the rally, the participating cars gathered in Balboa Park in front of the San Diego Automotive Museum for a special car show. I walked up to the park this morning to check things out.
Wow! Double wow!
Please enjoy these photos. While I love looking at classic cars, I’m very far from being an expert. If you detect an error in the captions, or have something interesting to add, please leave a comment!
Guy drives his classic automobile through Balboa Park, heading to a special car show.Old race car is pushed into position. San Diego Automotive Museum is in the background.Vintage cars from era of Point Loma road race that began 1915 Panama-California Exposition.Someone checks out Fiat racing car at special Balboa Park Centennial event.Wooden dashboard full of knobs looks almost prehistoric compared to modern cars!Engine of 1914 Tahis Special that competed in many races!Collectibles from 1915 road race in Point Loma that kicked off Panama-California Exposition!People can still ride in style in this elegant Pierce-Arrow.Pierce-Arrow luxury automobiles in early 1900s were owned by many movie stars and tycoons.So many amazing cars were lined up in the parking lot it was hard to take it all in!1910 REO Model D Touring car has a very classic look.Check out this awesome vintage Cadillac!1909 Pope Hartford on display at Balboa Park Centennial special car show.This isn’t your father’s Buick. But it might have been driven by your grandparents!Walking around, I felt like I’d stepped back in time one hundred years!Here’s the grill of a cool Ford. License plate is for a Horseless Carriage.Colorful Ford is painted orange and green. Awesome!Red and green signal light near spare tire on back.1910 Velie Model D Touring cars were popular. Velie race cars were also successful.Many of these beautiful old cars contain lots of wood, brass and leather.Dozens of classic cars were out on public display!Inspecting another Velie, made early last century in Moline, Illinois.Very cool 1911 Ono, a vintage chain-driven race car.Someone nearby joked: It’s a motorcycle chain!And here’s a guy checking out the engine of an Italian Isotta Fraschini.Makes my own extremely modest car look downright futuristic!Chests full of tools that car mechanics would use back in the old days.Kid checks out a 1912 Packard race car in Balboa Park.Many refurbished motors were open for people to investigate.A large crowd enjoys many super cool cars in front of San Diego Automotive Museum.News cameraman gets a shot of young girl in pink pretending to race a vintage car.Racing goggles lie ready on leather seat. The road rally will begin in a few minutes!I’ve never seen so many cameras taking so many photographs in one place!Fun historical costumes were everywhere you turned.This fellow is ready to go! It’s a perfect Saturday morning for a road trip!It might have a dent or two, but it still runs!One guy checks out the steering wheel, another the unusual wheels on the asphalt!Getting the engine started with the old hand crank!Gentlemen, take your seats! We’re about to get started!Don’t touch this fancy car unless you are nude! (And showered, presumably.)I love this shiny oval grill on a Pope-Hartford.Not sure how this old horseless carriage would fare in a race.That’s as primitive a motorcar as you’re likely to ever see.Folks are shooting the breeze and having a whole lot of fun!This guy is getting ready to climb aboard a gorgeous classic Hudson.Car show disbands and crowds have scattered to make way.Here they come! That’s the San Diego Air and Space Museum in the background.Many drivers and onlookers wore fashion styles from early 20th century.A long line of beautifully restored hundred-year-old autos rumbles past.Heading out of Balboa Park for Point Loma, where historic 1915 race will be commemorated.
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Balloons of every color rise and bob above costumed handlers.
I headed down to the Embarcadero a good hour before the start of today’s 2014 Big Bay Balloon Parade. I hoped to capture some fun balloon pics. I succeeded!
The staging area, where the amazing, colorful balloons were being inflated, appeared like a vision in a wonderful dream, with gigantic faces and forms swaying high in the sky. It seemed as if they’d become magically alive!
These photos were taken in a large parking lot north of the County Administration Building. The Big Bay Balloon Parade, held every year in San Diego shortly before the Holiday Bowl, proceeded south on Harbor Drive and ended at Seaport Village.
Tourists pass staging area for San Diego’s 2014 Big Bay Balloon Parade.This is the nation’s largest balloon parade. The event is held just before the Holiday Bowl.Costumed balloon handlers enter a fantastic world of huge smileys and ice cream cones.A giant traditional Christmas nutcracker tips a bit in the San Diego sea breeze.This big inflatable American flag will be part of the upcoming parade.Cool! A favorite toy when I was a kid! I see Mr. Potato Head!Balloons fill the blue sky, and so does a penguin in a tuxedo.Are those gigantic pinatas? They must contain lots of candy!Preparation for the parade includes unrolling something wrinkly near an octopus.This colorful mess is destined to transform into a delightful big balloon!Happy bumble bee billows as it’s filled with helium in parade staging area.USS Midway Museum had a lighter-than-air jet fighter.Happiness is super-sized like a wonderful waking dream.Fun, happy childhood stuff flying all over the place. Marvelous mayhem!
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Mind-blowing street art uses a whole spectrum of finely painted colors.
Wow! Check out this mind-blowing street mural, which caught my eye just across Dewey Street from Chicano Park. Titled Ancestors, it was spray-painted on a Barrio Logan building in 2013 by artists Maxx Moses and Isaias Crow.
A little online research reveals that Ancestors replaced another damaged mural on the same wall, which was titled Synergy. Maxx Moses likes to use spontaneity in his creative productions, and calls his unique art movement Concrete Alchemy. Isaias Crow’s artwork, which I believe is on the right side of the mural, is similarly awesome!
This dazzling urban art is directly across the street from world-famous Chicano Park.Such amazing detail. You could just stand and lose yourself in this cool artwork.Closer look at one portion of the Ancestors mural in Barrio Logan.Ancestors street mural celebrates the lives of those who built community.Small tree on the wall is enfolded by softly curved rich colors.The intricate image is alive with astounding vibrancy.This astonishing face is composed of many slivers of beaming light.
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Super cool artwork depicts local community, history and sea life themes.
I don’t know much about this mural, apart from the fact that it’s huge, colorful and super cool. For years, it seems, scaffolding has stood against the long portion along Harbor Drive. Just recently the scaffolding vanished, and the brilliant, dynamic street art is fully visible in all its glory!
You can find this urban art at the intersection of Cesar Chavez Parkway and Harbor Drive, just south of downtown in Barrio Logan. It decorates the high wall that encloses the parking lot at Restaurant Depot.
I took these photos as I walked south to north along Harbor Drive, then turned west at the intersection for a little more fun artwork.
Enjoy!
Long wall along Harbor Drive is the canvas for this very large street mural.Proximity to San Diego Bay inspires painted marine animals.This big fish seems to be watching for pedestrians on the Barrio Logan sidewalk.A scuba diver seems unaware a large hungry shark looms just behind!Mother with young child gazes out at the blue Pacific Ocean.People from all walks of life populate this very human work of art.San Diego Trolley travels through a scene similar to those found in nearby Chicano Park.Painted passengers on a trolley seem visible through a window.Aztec warrior in elaborate costume blows on a ceremonial conch.Nearby Chicano Park’s pavilion is shown with lots of folks dancing.Young man and lady dance on the festive outdoor mural.Musicians play instruments adding flavor to the celebration.History of Our Community includes the once vital tuna fishing industry.The lives of past and present residents provide generations of stories.Fish caught in local waters just off San Diego.The end of Harbor Drive section, and now we’ll turn west for a bit more…Walking around the mural on the high wall at Restaurant Depot.This north-facing wall contains lots of bright aquatic life!Beautifully painted fish, a seahorse, jellyfish and starfish.An orange Garibaldi just above the sparkling ocean bottom.Kelp frames the end of this long, amazing mural in Barrio Logan.This super fun street art is a landmark that is very hard to miss!
UPDATE!
I learned years later (shame on me) that this 1993 mural is titled The Kelco Historical Community Mural, by artist Salvador Roberto Torres and his wife Gloria Rebolledo Torres. It was restored by Salvador Torres in 2012, which explains the scaffolding I had previously seen.
Salvador Roberto Torres is one of the founders of nearby Chicano Park, the largest collection of outdoor murals in the United States. He saw the great freeway pillars supporting the ramps to the San Diego–Coronado Bridge as potential concrete canvases, and so created the Chicano Park Monumental Public Mural Program in 1969. He was also one of the founders of the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park.
During that later walk I took additional photos of the mural!
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Cool mechanical shark on parking lot wall behind Undisputed Fitness Center in East Village.
A super cool street mural was recently painted in downtown San Diego’s East Village. I checked it out this morning!
Located on a parking lot wall behind Undisputed Fitness, at the corner of 16th Street and K Street, this large work of art really catches your attention and draws you in for a closer examination!
The image of a mechanical shark, operated from the inside by some sinister-looking people, was painted by Sheffield-based muralist Phlegm. I’ve never seen his work before, but apparently he often depicts similarly weird scenes, described as half-childlike, half-menacing. This particular mural was created as an act of “artivism” for PangeaSeed, an international environmental organization whose mission is to help preserve sharks and other marine species, through art and education. Sharks are being maimed and killed in large numbers for their fins, which are cut off the still-living animals and used to make shark fin soup and traditional medical cures in China.
Street artist Phlegm painted this unusual shark for PangeaSeed’s Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans.Shadowy, mysterious people secretly operate the black and white mechanical shark.Phlegm often paints masked figures controlling odd contraptions in this illustrative style.
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Lizards undergo transformations in a very creative street mural in San Diego.
Here’s a very cool mural I spotted last weekend after I watched the Boulevard BOO! Parade. I was just walking along through a neighborhood west of San Diego’s College area.
You can find this artwork at the corner of 56th Street and El Cajon Boulevard.
Ant and cacti grown to gigantic proportions beside an ordinary sidewalk.Cool urban art attracts the eye and stimulates the mind of those passing by.Colorful images on a building at 56th Street and El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego.
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Super cool mural in University Heights has colorful butterfly lady as centerpiece.
In the past I’ve glimpsed this super cool mural in University Heights, a neighborhood northeast of downtown San Diego. Finally I stopped to photograph it!
The psychedelic spray paint street art is splashed on a wall of a small, local grocery store on Park Boulevard. The images are extremely vivid and look almost brand new. After a close inspection, I noticed the mural is signed: DEXR EYEMAX PERSUE KUYA FIZSIX 2013.
A bit of research on the web uncovered an article about this awesome artwork. The grocery store owner had painted over a rather dull mural that had become very old, when the group of local street artists approached him. The artists asked if they could use his wall to give birth to a unique creation. He said yes!
And to his great delight, this awesome unplanned mural, painted in two days, is what he got!
Smiling sun or moon and other fantastic, psychedelic faces and cosmic images.This fierce two-faced tree seems ready to spring off the wall!Magical blue gnome and banjo-playing frog are fun elements in this awesome mural.Bold spray paint street art adds color to a small grocery store on Park Boulevard.
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