Tag: events

Scary signs Halloween approaches San Diego!

Attention! Beware! Halloween is creeping ever closer! It’s steadily drawing nearer, nearer…

Halloween is destined to arrive in San Diego in merely two weeks!

Are you ready to encounter spooky ghosts, crafty witches, thirsty vampires and undead zombies? Have you stocked up on candy?

Looking around, it seems the entire city is preparing for Halloween. Ominous signs are everywhere. You see omens of the approaching day in shop windows, front yards, public spaces…

For the past couple weeks I’ve been photographing Halloween stuff that I’ve encountered.

Can you identify a few of the places where I took these photos?

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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.

Feel free to share!

Memories on the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy.

Today is officially the 250th birthday of the United States Navy. On October 13, 2025, the U.S. Navy was established by the Continental Congress.

Needless to say, the Navy has a very large presence in San Diego, with important bases that include Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Point Loma, Naval Air Station North Island (where naval aviation was born), and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. Over the years, countless sailors trained at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, and have deployed from San Diego’s harbor on ships in both wartime and peacetime. Until 1997, Top Gun pilots trained at Naval Air Station Miramar.

I’ve published a wide variety of blogs concerning the U.S. Navy in San Diego. Given today’s 250th anniversary, I thought this would be a good time to revisit some of those past blog posts.

Click the following links to bring back some U.S. Navy memories…

Creating a plaque: Navy history in San Diego revealed!

History of recruits at Naval Training Center San Diego.

The Ship’s Bell mosaic at Liberty Station.

Inside the Navy’s landlocked USS Recruit training ship!

Nautical History Gallery & Museum opens!

The Naked Warrior stands in Coronado park.

Chow: Feeding a Navy in San Diego.

Coronado’s surprising role in submarine history.

Top Gun fans vs. reality on USS Midway!

Monument to tallest structures ever built in San Diego.

Bronze plaque marks birthplace of naval aviation.

Memories of the Greatest Generation at Liberty Station.

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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.

Feel free to share!

Day of the Dead and early San Diego residents.

Another year is passing by. In a couple of weeks, Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) will be observed. Loved ones who’ve passed on from this life will be remembered.

The gravesites at El Campo Santo in Old Town are decorated already. Every early resident of San Diego buried here is remembered with flowers, papel picado, Day of the Dead skulls… Every person here was loved by someone.

This small cemetery is the final resting place of so many different people: the Kumeyaay, Spanish, Mexican, American. Newborn babies, the elderly. The rich, the poor. Public figures, unknown people. The lucky, the unlucky. Victims of old age, disease, accident, violence, injustice.

Mortals all.

Every one was loved by someone.

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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.

Feel free to share!

Polar research sailboat Persévérance in San Diego!

Have you seen the enormous sailboat Persévérance docked in San Diego?

I saw the amazing boat this morning. It was a little north of the Maritime Museum of San Diego. I was told it has been in San Diego the past few days.

The Persévérance is a research vessel operated by world-renowned French explorer and polar expedition pioneer Jean-Louis Étienne.

According to a map displayed on the boat, the 2025-2026 Jean-Louis Étienne and Elsa Pény-Étienne’s Expedition has has already visited Greenland and the Arctic region via the Northwest Passage. After leaving the West Coast it will cross the Pacific Ocean and head south to study Antarctica!

The unique oceanographic schooner gathers data on climate and ocean currents, visits Marine Protected Areas, and seeks to analyze human impact on the oceans. Marine Protected Areas on the itinerary include Clipperton, French Polynesia, Ross Sea, and the proposed Dumon d’Urville MPA in East Antarctica.

I asked whether there will be public tours of this remarkable sailboat, but was told, unfortunately, no.

If you’d like to learn more, here’s the Persévérance website!

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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.

Feel free to share!

Borrego Springs artist’s sculptures in San Diego!

People in downtown San Diego have a special treat this weekend! Four metal sculptures by Ricardo Breceda (whose famous landmark sculptures can be seen around Borrego Springs) are on display in front of the San Diego County Administration Building!

Check it out!

There are two bighorn sheep about to butt horns, a giant coiling rattlesnake, and a fierce dinosaur on a flatbed! They’re on display in the sunshine on the grass near Harbor Drive. You can’t miss them!

Ricardo Breceda’s sculptures in Borrego Springs have won the artist international renown. He brought these four pieces here so residents of San Diego can enjoy some of his work, and so everyone is hopefully inspired to head out to the desert where over 130 of his incredible sculptures can be viewed. Here’s his website.

(Five years ago I photographed his Wild Horses public art installation in Vista, California. You can see those photos here!)

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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.

Feel free to share!

Halloween fun at San Diego Model Railroad Museum!

The San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park is going full throttle for Halloween!

Halloween displays can be found throughout the museum. Spooky scenes can spotted in certain model train layouts and particularly in the amazing Toy Train Gallery. Witches, ghosts, grinning pumpkins, tiny skeletons and even Dracula await!

Watch out for the creepy life-size animatronic engineer!

The San Diego Model Railroad Museum has always been a favorite destination for families and kids, but during Halloween it’s simply awesome!

Some photographs from my visit yesterday…

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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.

Feel free to share!

Return to Spooky Hollow in Balboa Park!

You know Halloween is coming up when lots of fun spooky events are around the corner! Are you and your kids ready to “Return to Spooky Hollow” in Balboa Park?

“Return to Spooky Hollow” is an original Halloween-inspired children’s puppet show written and directed by Heather Whitney. It’s described as: Come along with Gordy, Squash and Calabaza as they try to top last year’s Spooky Hollow party and meet lots of fun folks along the way. This is an all-ages hybrid shadow and live puppet show with music, songs, and audience shout-outs!

Performances will be at the historic Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park. Shows are on Saturday, October 18: 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM; and on Sunday, October 19: 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM. Each show last about 30 minutes.

Tickets can be purchased here or at the box office shortly before showtime. The box office is located near the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater entrance.

(If you go, make sure to look up and backwards from your seat. You’ll see two of the puppets used by McDonald’s for their classic McDonaldland advertisements!)

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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.

Feel free to share!

69th Annual Massing of the Colors next Saturday!

The 69th Annual Massing of the Colors and Service of Remembrance will be held this coming Saturday, October 11, 2025 in Balboa Park. Everyone is invited!

Dozens of color guards from all around San Diego County will come together for an amazing patriotic event at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. The event will take place between 10:30 and 11:30 in the morning. It’s free and open to the public.

If you’ve never witnessed the Massing of the Colors, you’re missing out on a very stirring spectacle. Representatives from the military, Junior ROTC, Scouts, and patriotic organizations around San Diego will honor those who’ve served and sacrificed by filling the Spreckels Organ Pavilion with a sea of flags.

The Massing of the Colors is presented each year by the San Diego Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars, a patriotic organization that was founded in 1926. Their motto is: It Is Nobler To Serve Than To Be Served.

Here’s the flyer concerning Saturday’s event:

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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.

Feel free to share!

Artists help Feral Cat Coalition in San Diego!

A great exhibition of art in Gallery 21 at Spanish Village in Balboa Park is about to wrap up. What has made this exhibition unique is that sales directly help a San Diego organization called the Feral Cat Coalition.

The Sixth Annual Reigning Cats and Dogs Art Show continues through tomorrow, Monday, October 6, 2025. (I wish I’d come by a bit sooner.) If you can’t make it but would like to help the Feral Cat Coalition, no problem!

Here’s the Feral Cat Coalition website, where you can make a donation or buy fun merch. Funds raised are dedicated to reducing the overpopulation of feral and abandoned cats through free, humane Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).

Neutering these feral cats (which are mostly unadoptable) is considered compassionate. Feral cats multiplying outdoors can result in their offspring being unhealthy or malnourished or captured and euthanized.

Some photos taken in Gallery 21 today…

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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.

Feel free to share!

Beer, pretzels, dogs and fun in La Mesa!

Oktoberfest has returned to La Mesa!

The annual festival is just as epic as ever. Big weekend crowds are filling several blocks of downtown La Mesa and enjoying a big party.

As one might expect at Oktoberfest, there’s no shortage of beer, pretzels, bratwurst and, indeed, tempting German and International food of all types. There are plenty of activities for the whole family, including a big Ferris wheel and games for kids. And, of course, how can I forget the hilarious weiner dog races?

The festival continues on Sunday, with plenty to see and do. It’s free to walk in. The three biergartens, however, have an entry fee.

A good way to get to all this fun is by trolley. For more info, visit the La Mesa Oktoberfest website here.

Here’s my collection of colorful photos taken on Saturday afternoon…

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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.

Feel free to share!