The lively Home mural at Liberty Station!

How can you not love this colorful mural at Point Loma’s Liberty Station? It was created in 2023 for the arched passage between Barracks 14 and 15.

The over 2,500 square foot mural, designed by local Chicana artist Scarlett Baily, is titled Home. The installation was painted by many in the community.

According to a nearby plaque, it bridges the history of the Naval Training Center with regional indigenous maritime culture. Native flora and fauna stage the celebration of San Diego’s heritage and acknowledge the generations that have called Point Loma home…

You can’t help smiling as you walk up to and through this lively artwork!

I see faces, flowers, a whale, seagulls, a heron, even a sea lion!

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Planting summer flowers in the Alcazar Garden!

This morning the Alcazar Garden in Balboa Park was filled with activity. The City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department and volunteers belonging to the Balboa Park Garden Stewards were planting hundreds of flowers!

The new flowers will fill the garden’s large beds in time for summer and Memorial Day weekend!

Thank you to everyone with sore backs and dirty knees for making San Diego’s crown jewel even more beautiful!

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Spring beauty in the Sri Chinmoy Peace Garden.

It’s springtime in San Diego, and the Sri Chinmoy Peace Garden in North Park is in full bloom!

Sri Chinmoy was a spiritual leader from India who taught meditation in the United States. What better place to meditate but in a place of tranquil beauty.

The Sri Chimnoy Peace Garden was established in 2013 and includes a statue of the spiritual leader and benches for quiet sitting.

The small garden, located off Adams Avenue just east of Arizona Street, has been maintained by the San Diego Sri Chimnoy Centre, which according to Google is permanently closed. As a sign explains, the natural setting is intended to enhance the beauty of the area and offer the community a place for reflection.

Spring is a time for renewal–perhaps for the soul as well.

Sri Chinmoy – STUDENT OF PEACE – CHAMPION OF THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF MANKIND

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Join Balboa Park’s volunteer Rose Garden Corps!

Do you love gardening? Do you love roses?

Perhaps you’d like to join Balboa Park’s volunteer Rose Garden Corps. You’ll help beautify the world-class Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden!

I saw a small army of volunteers today in the rose garden, pruning, weeding, raking and fertilizing, while enjoying the San Diego sunshine. Rose Garden Corps members work Tuesdays or Thursday in the morning, and there is a monthly meeting.

If you think you’d like to join the Rose Garden Corps, check out this webpage to learn all about it!

Incidentally, the rose garden is in peak bloom right now. It’s spectacular!

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.

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San Diego Epiphyllum Society show on Mother’s Day!

A very busy Mother’s Day in Balboa Park included the San Diego Epiphyllum Society’s annual flower show and sale. I strolled through the Casa del Prado’s Room 101 and was wowed by hundreds of incredibly beautiful, very colorful blooms.

The web page describing the show claims SDES’s annual Mother’s Day Show is the ultimate Epi Flower Show in the country. I can see why!

The San Diego Epiphyllum Society is celebrating their 55th anniversary, and there were floral displays that proudly announced it! There were Mother’s Day displays, too, and many others that were artistic, or that provided useful information.

The flowers themselves were the star of the show!

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Orchids, staghorns returning to Botanical Building!

If you’ve been inside the newly restored Botanical Building in Balboa Park, you might’ve noticed certain plants seem to be missing. Orchids and staghorn ferns!

I visited the beautifully renovated building today. It’s now so airy and light filled.

I asked a Forever Balboa Park volunteer about additional plantings that are planned. He told me that the orchids and staghorn ferns that have been so popular in the past will be returning soon.

As I understand it, the colorful orchid displays will be just inside the Botanical Building’s front doors, as they were previously. The staghorn ferns, however, won’t be directly mounted to the building’s interior wall. Apparently that had caused damage. They’ll be mounted in a different manner that protects the integrity of the newly restored building.

Picture the beautiful entrance once again filled with orchids…

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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.

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A colorful Easter walk in Balboa Park.

Easter Sunday, for many, is a day full of promise, joy, new life.

As I walked through Balboa Park early this afternoon, I could see in many open faces a love of life. Laughter and smiles. Delighting in the sunshine. Soaking in our world’s beauty and the bright colors of spring.

I wandered about without any destination in mind…

A smile and Easter Bunny ears in the Balboa Park Visitors Center.
Joyful baile folklórico dancing in the Plaza de Panama.
Is there a more wonderful place?
Plenty of flowers for a photographic background.
The Spring Orchids In The Park Show attracts a big crowd inside the Casa del Prado.
A street performer has colorful balloons ready.
Mitchell Walker brought three didgeridoos today!
Spring has turned the park’s trees bright green.
I see golden California poppies along the San Diego Natural History Museum’s new nature trail.
Spanish Village is always colorful, no matter the season.
Abstract artist Lucas Smith is exhibiting in Gallery 21 through tomorrow.
Another weekend in Spanish Village means more live glassblowing!
Plenty of color here!
The San Diego History Center will soon have the official opening of Taste San Diego: Filipino Culinary Journeys.
What spring looks like between Casa de Balboa and the House of Hospitality.
A couple of the International Cottages were open on Easter Sunday. This very beautiful pendant is displayed in the House of Korea.
Imagination Station is now playing at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater.
A prickly pear blooms in the Kate O. Sessions Cactus Garden.
Colorful umbrellas provide shade during rehearsal before the Sunday two o’clock organ concert.
Talented musicians in a splash of sunshine along El Prado.
An artist has captured some of this world’s infinite color.
Balboa Park’s thriving rose garden attracts many families on Easter Sunday.

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.

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Beautiful mural at La Mesa’s Collier Park!

This beautiful mural decorates the trash enclosure at Collier Park in La Mesa. I was told by a friendly gentleman at the La Mesa Community Center that the art was painted not too long ago.

I found an article about the mural’s creation. It was a project of ArtReach, completed last year in partnership with the City of La Mesa. More than forty community members helped to paint it!

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Walking the main trail at new Sweetwater Park!

The new Sweetwater Park in Chula Vista opened early this month. Many people have already explored its nature trails. I did so, too, a few days ago.

One trail runs the length of the park on its west side, nearest San Diego Bay. It offers benches and blinds from which one can view bird activity in a wide expanse of native coastal vegetation.

I took photographs as I veered off the bikeway at the south end of Sweetwater Park and started up this main trail. It’s an easy level walk. This is what you might see should you walk as far as the gate restricting access to Gunpowder Point Drive.

(If you choose, you can continue up the trail, which curves around the Sun Outdoors RV resort. Then, using your wits, taking a dirt road and path, you’ll end up at E Street at Bay Boulevard, near Interstate 5.)

Here we go…

Looking to the east, you’ll see Rigors of Flight, a sculpture in the shape of a wishbone.

Continuing north. I’ll take the short branching path on the left that passes a bench, then return to the main trail…

Gazing to the south, one can see Marine Group Boat Works and their immense boat-lifting Travelift. It was a bit foggy this day…

I believe these are bush sunflower…

Another side trail and bench…

A short trail leads west to this rusty blind with a bench…

Looking north, you can see the Living Coast Discovery Center and the adjacent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services building. Way in the distance I see Point Loma, the Coronado Bridge and downtown San Diego…

Heading back up the main trail…

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Spring sights fill Seaport Village!

You can tell Spring has arrived in and around Seaport Village!

During my walk today, as I enjoyed the warm San Diego sunshine, I found bright flowers, colorful kites flying above Embarcadero Marina Park North, and a huge yellow duck!

I asked a shopkeeper why a giant inflatable duckie has appeared in Seaport Village. She just assumed it was the time of year. Makes sense to me!

I looked for ducklings in the Seaport Village pond, but didn’t find any. I did observe a duck taking a springtime nap.

Shorts and other beach attire have appeared outside shop doors…

Bird poop must be periodically cleaned off Morning, a sculpture created by renowned San Diego artist Donal Hord. Seagulls like perching on the head. (Imagine how the droppings appear. Yuck.)

The Beach Bunny Kite Festival will be taking place at Seaport Village this Saturday, April 12, 2025, from 1 to 4 pm. (I wonder–is the Beach Bunny a friend of Surfing Santa?)

Today was the perfect day to go fly a kite…or many kites!

You know it’s Spring if the American Academy of Neurology is in town for their big convention. Seaport Village, the San Diego Convention Center, and the surrounding area was swarming with attendees.

You can always count on Alamo Flags to have seasonal banners outside on display! Easter Sunday is less than two weeks away.

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!