Enjoy some fun photos taken early this afternoon at the East Village Opening Weekend Block Party! The 2026 MLB baseball season has begun and our San Diego Padres have high hopes.
Lots of fans were wandering up and down several blocks of J Street just north of Petco Park. There was live music, dogs dressed like Padres fans, cool lowriders in a row, food, kids making swag chains, a spray paint artist, and even a wiffleball derby!
Too much fun!
Everyone is invited to the debut of new public art in Escondido!
On Saturday, April 18, at 3:30 pm, six new large-scale murals created by local artists will be unveiled on the Neighborhood Healthcare Building located at 460 North Elm Street on the wall that flanks the Escondido Creek Trail.
The project is known as the Escondido Creek Trail Outdoor Art Gallery. Learn more about it by clicking here.
Each mural reflects the spirit and identity of Escondido, transforming public spaces into storytelling experiences. The initiative continues ESCO Alley Art’s mission to elevate public art and foster community pride.
At the unveiling ceremony and community gathering there will be an artists meet-and-greet, kid’s activities, music and refreshments.
Bring the whole family to experience an event that promises to be historic, fun and inspiring!
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This weekend, San Diego is going bananas . . . again! The Savannah Bananas have returned to Petco Park, to play two banana ball games against one of their rivals, the Loco Beach Coconuts!
The Savannah Bananas’ popularity continues to grow, with their crazy, kid-friendly on-field antics during “banana ball” games and between innings. It’s like a non-stop circus, all the while playing a baseball game with unusual rules, that include fan participation. (If you catch a foul ball, the batter is out!)
The games have become so popular that there is a league of six teams traveling around playing each other. By the way, the Loco Beach Coconuts are 2-0 versus the original Savannah Bananas team so far in 2026!
Both games this weekend are sold out. Today I walked through the festival atmosphere just north of Gallagher Square, where families (often clad in yellow) were lined up for fun banana ball merchandise.
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Do you readers know anything about this sculpture of children at play at the Grossmont Center shopping mall? I discovered it a few weeks ago during a walk in La Mesa and have endeavored to learn more. Nothing so far.
The bronze sculpture, in front of Barnes & Noble Booksellers, shows one child helping another to climb a wall. I found no plaque. Someone on Pinterest claims it has been there for many years and that other similar sculptures are located in the family-friendly shopping complex. If I return to Grossmont Center, I’ll have to look around some more.
Can you shed any light on this fun public art? Please leave a comment!
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Char Car (@charcar04) supports literacy by providing books to children in hospitals and schools, including Rady Children’s Hospital. The San Diego Gulls ice hockey team is a big supporter of literacy, too, with programs like Reading is the Goal.
My own short stories, including One Thousand Likes, are read by students around the world, so naturally I’m in favor of these efforts.
I’ve learned that Char Car is holding a Gulls Hockey Fundraiser that keeps kids reading. Game tickets purchased through the fundraiser will benefit summer reading programs. For $20, you get to watch a great game on Saturday, April 18, 2026, and you benefit local families! Sounds like a great deal to me!
For more information, see the above graphic!
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A big Lunar New Year celebration is taking place this weekend in City Heights. The Year of the Horse–Fire Horse to be exact–is charging into San Diego!
The Fire Horse in the Chinese zodiac represents energy, excitement. Walking through the event as it got underway today, I could feel the energy. It would be a very fun day for many families!
Lion dancers were already performing to the delight of kids. Many booths, displays and food vendors were set up and ready.
The event is being held at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park. For more info concerning the free festival, a celebration of San Diego’s Little Saigon, read the banner in my next photo…
Beloved Wife and Mother
Beloved Husband and Father
In Loving Memory
Gone, But Not Forgotten
In Memory, From Daughters & Sons
Our Little Angel
Her Love Lingers
These are a few of the loving inscriptions on stone that linger in Oceanside’s old Oceanview Cemetery.
During a recent walk down South Coast Highway, I redirected my feet and wandered through the 3-acre resting place, originally called the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, established in 1895.
As a blogger who’s always searching for interesting sights, I was wondering if some “famous” person might be buried here.
Shame on me for thinking that way. I had missed the central message of a cemetery. It’s that we all might be mortal, but loves lives on.
Are you curious about the history of this old cemetery? A State of California resource document includes:
From its inception in 1895 until about 1950, when Eternal Hills Memorial Park opened in Oceanside, Oceanview was the primary non-denominational cemetery in Oceanside. During its heyday in the 1920s, 30s and 40s there were well over 1000 burials at Oceanview… over 1100 obituaries have been compiled, by the Oceanside Historical Society, of people interred at Oceanview… Oceanview contains the remains of veterans involved in every war or conflict from the Civil War to World War II, inclusive. Those interred at Oceanview range in age from just a few hours old to Agapita Soliz whose family claimed she was 110 years old at the time of her death in 1941. Many of Oceanside’s pioneers and merchants, dating back to the 1880s, are interred at Oceanview.
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People walking around Memorial Park in Chula Vista could easily miss this wonderful public art. It’s located on the other side of a fence at the north end of the park. The bronze sculpture depicting a loving mother and two children stands in front of the One Park Apartments.
Jugando is the name of the sculpture. That’s Spanish for the word “playing.” Jugando was created in 1986 by artist Miriam Newman. The graceful figures are very plain, almost featureless. Diverse people who regard these figures might personally relate.
The Smithsonian Institution Art Inventories Catalog describes the work: A woman stands holding a nude baby above her head with both hands. A young girl embraces the woman from the front. Both the woman and the young girl are wearing long, pleated skirts. All three figures are faceless.
I took these photos a couple weeks ago…
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That’s San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso) in the above photo. He was painting an image of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods (or Shichifukujin) on the downtown sidewalk outside his studio yesterday. It’s number 93 of the 100 paintings he’s presently working on.
I had to look up those lucky gods to understand what he was painting. He also showed me a painting of his own family, which got me to thinking.
Mythology, literature, and every creative work uses symbolism. We use symbols in order to better understand and engage with an infinitely larger reality.
Now, what do we understand best? Our own lives.
So it isn’t surprising the symbols we create reflect our human experience. The deities of mythology explain the mysteries of this world, but tend to be very human. The illuminating words of great literature rely upon human experience and interaction. In a strange way, created symbols and reality combine in our own minds. Symbols inform our living.
James Watts loves mythology, literature and life, and his symbolic art connects it all. Or so it seems to me.
His next painting is of the characters in Voltaire’s novel Candide…
The next photograph shows James Watts’ family years ago, when he was a youth. That’s him in a white t-shirt…
And here’s a painting he recently created, based on the old photo…
Symbols we create can be extremely powerful.
Might we all strive to understand, remember, live fully.
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Lovers of art in San Diego are in for a treat. Head down to the Wisteria Cottage Gallery in La Jolla and you can admire the work of two celebrated local artists who taught at UC San Diego.
Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson contains numerous fine works by this husband and wife team who made their home in Leucadia.
Paintings large and small, beautiful sketches, historical photographs, and books the pair published are all on display.
Both artists liked to create images of simple, familiar things. Family life and home are frequent subjects. The images are friendly and warm. If I could reach into two dimensions, I’d happily take the depicted scenes and objects into my hands and make them my own.
You’ll notice when you visit the gallery that Patricia often paints people and moments in life. Manny often creates collage-like images of ordinary objects. To viewers who love living, they can all make a powerful connection.
Here’s the exhibition webpage.
Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson will be open free to the public through February 1, 2026.
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Cool San Diego Sights! 