A huge event showcasing lowriders, classic cars, bikes and tattoo artists could be enjoyed today at Day At The Bay 2024!
Hundreds of cars were out on display at Embarcadero Marina Park North on San Diego Bay. Late this morning I walked around admiring these vehicles, which are true works of art. You could see how local car enthusiasts have gone all out to make their ride absolutely amazing.
Let me share this collection of cool photographs!
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The 12th Annual East Village Block Party is being held today along several blocks of J Street, just north of Petco Park. The event, usually held on the San Diego Padres opening weekend, was originally scheduled for March 20, but rainy weather that day caused a postponement. In 2024 it’s a summer block party!
I walked along J Street late this morning to absorb some of the festive atmosphere. Many of San Diego’s other sports teams were present. There was music and art and lots of smiling Padres fans. And there was a ton of food, too!
If you read this in time, you might head down to the East Village Block Party before it ends at 4:30 pm. It takes place on J Street between 7th and 10th Avenue.
A sunny day in San Diego’s East Village.Kid has fun at San Diego Legion rugby challenge.Special shout out to the San Diego Mojo professional volleyball team. I won a cool t-shirt!One of many smiles! That Topo Chico sparkling mineral water was great!Peter Seidler in an awesome Padres baseball spray paint mural created by @dyseoneclothing, @hasler.88 and @bigchill8825.A blessed smile at the East Village Block Party in San Diego!Providing block party music!Lots of Padres merchandise could be found.Larry Turner, candidate for San Diego Mayor, smiles for a photo!More smiles!A fine Saturday in downtown San Diego.
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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.
I believe these murals are fairly new. I saw them the other day at Civic Center Plaza, near the front entrance of San Diego’s City Administration Building. The half dozen images greet visitors to City Hall.
By searching the internet, I can find out nothing about this installation of photographic art. So I need the help of Cool San Diego Sights readers! I hope someone out there might provide more information with a comment.
I’m afraid the only individual I recognize of the six is San Diego’s renowned muralist Mario Torero–he’s in the final photograph.
I captured these photos in somewhat dim light, so I’ve increased the contrast quite a bit…
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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.
I was walking past One America Plaza in downtown San Diego this morning when I had to stop in my tracks and do a double take. Staring out a window at 1001 Kettner Boulevard was a U.S. Navy SEAL!
The surprising window graphic draws attention to the fact that this building is the future home of Navy SEAL Museum San Diego. You might recall how years ago this space, across from Santa Fe Depot, was used as a gallery by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. (MCASD has since moved everything from their downtown San Diego location to La Jolla.)
As you can see from my photo, construction of the new Navy SEAL museum is now underway. According to their website, Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is scheduled to open in 2025.
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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.
Comic-Con 2024 is less than three weeks away. Around San Diego there are more and more signs that the epic international event is fast approaching!
It seems that dozens of San Diego trolleys are now wrapped for Comic-Con–you can spot them all over the city. The fifth, latest Comic-Con related design I photographed this morning. It’s from Jack in the Box, and features Deadpool & Wolverine and new Mini Chimi Bang Bangs!
A couple days ago I saw Scarlett Johansson in a graphic on the big new video screen in Gaslamp Square. The video board will probably be busy during Comic-Con promoting upcoming movies and other popular entertainment. As I’ve walked around, I haven’t seen any offsite construction . . . yet. But I did see a guy with a cool shirt!
The Fantastic Four street lamp banners have expanded beyond the Gaslamp Quarter and can now be seen throughout downtown San Diego. Marvel appears to be going all out promoting the highly anticipated movie!
As usual, clever shops along Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp have displays in their windows that might appeal to pop culture fans.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Five years ago, during the month of July, there was a whole lot of excitement in San Diego!
The two biggest, most exciting events that Cool San Diego Sights documented back in July 2019 were the 250th Anniversary of San Diego and, of course, San Diego Comic-Con!
I shared hundreds of photographs that month. Please enjoy links to just a few of those past blog posts.
I’ll be covering Comic-Con again this year. I live in downtown San Diego and will take the week off from work. So stay tuned for more adventures!
Click the following links for loads of fun photographs…
The Granger Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter is undergoing a very big change. The historic downtown office building, erected in 1904, is being converted into an elegant hotel.
Those who walk past the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue can view the construction now in progress. Surprising graphics along the sidewalk advertising the soon-to-open Granger Hotel really catch one’s attention, however. Why are there old-fashioned images of a monkey, tiger and giraffe?
Because the basement of the Granger Building once held zoo animals!
Before I get to the unusual explanation, you might wonder: why is it called the Granger Building?
This web page explains how Ralph Granger made his initial fortune from the Last Chance Silver Mine in Colorado. When he came to San Diego in 1891, he settled in National City, where, in a addition to a mansion, he built the architecturally important Granger Music Hall. (Those who drive down Interstate 805 can easily see the notable but dilapidated building. I once blogged about the Granger Music Hall here.)
Granger would then hire renowned architect William Quayle to design an office building in downtown San Diego: the Granger Building. The Romanesque style structure, built for $125,000, was steel framed and constructed of pressed bricks. It is five stories high and features embossed metal ceilings, gas lights and a manually operated elevator. The first floor would be home to the Merchant’s National Bank, with the son of President U.S. Grant the initial Director. In 1924, the bank became the Bank of Italy, the forerunner of the Bank of America.
But what about those zoo animals in the building’s basement?
Well, Dr. Harry Wegeforth was a physician who happened to have his practice in the Granger Building. He was also founder of the Zoological Society of San Diego and the San Diego Zoo. You might recall how he was inspired to start the zoo when he passed animals that had been displayed during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park and heard a lion roar.
In the early days of the expanding San Diego Zoo, as Dr. Harry Wegeforth acquired new animals, he kept some of them in the basement of the Granger Building!
Guests of the new Granger Hotel will be staying in a property that is full of surprising history. Past tenants of the old office building have also included C. Arnholt Smith, owner of the Pacific Coast minor league Padres, and Joseph Jessop, our city’s most famous jeweler.
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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.
This mural in Little Italy, whose paint is gradually peeling away, is strangely appealing to my eye. The beautifully conceived face has obtained more texture–and beneath the blue and violet painted color there’s a layer that appears in hue like natural skin.
The mural was painted by Kelcey Fisher (@kfishla) about a year and a half ago. You can see it on a parking lot wall at LUCE on Kettner, just south of the now closed Little Italy’s Loading Dock bar and event venue.
As paint continues to flake away, the remaining beauty will sadly vanish.
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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.
Have you ever wondered why the Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter has an old-fashioned theater marquee? That’s because the building, erected in 1912, was originally a movie theater!
The Casino Theatre at 643 Fifth Avenue opened in 1913 and was one of several movie theaters in the Gaslamp that provided entertainment for ever-changing audiences over the decades. In the 1930s it was remodeled into the Art Deco style. Here’s an image from the 40s, with the Casino Café “Lunch” restaurant located next door, offering breakfast, waffles and steaks.
In the 1950s and 60s, The Casino and its movie theater neighbors at Fifth and G Street–The Aztec and The Savoy–would be open all night and show 3 big features, according to a comment here. Slowly these old theaters would fall as television’s popularity rose.
In the 1970s, while the Gaslamp neighborhood experienced urban decay, The Casino Theatre began to show X-rated movies, along with the other nearby theaters. I’ve been told sailors made up much of the clientele.
Here’s a gallery of photos of the The Casino Theatre over many years. Some of the titles you’ll read in the marquee are a bit salacious!
I hadn’t realized the marquee was seen in Marty Feldman’s 1980 movie In God We Tru$t. That image can be viewed here.
Today you’ll find a plaque near the historic building’s front entrance:
The Casino Theatre, 1912
The first theatre to be built with the new building ordinance for fire safety. It had two doors near the stage for fire escape and a five-foot-wide exterior passage on both sides and the rear for the protection of other buildings in case of fire. However, two years after construction, the northern passage was occupied by a food stand, and the southern passage contained a shoe shining establishment.
Temptation of a different sort! In a historic Gaslamp Quarter that now attracts loads of tourists, the colorfully lit old marquee teases you with ice cream, chocolate and hot fudge sundaes!
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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! 
