Mario will be riding the San Diego Trolley during Comic-Con 2025!
The latest San Diego Trolley wrap for Comic-Con promotes the Nintendo Switch 2 and ever popular Mario games, including Mario Kart World, which launched on Switch 2 last week.
For 2025, this is the third Comic-Con trolley wrap design I’ve noticed so far. Considering San Diego’s international pop culture event is still a month and a half away, I reckon there will be many more to come!
Time to Power Up Your Play!
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Gigantic gorillas are ready to bust loose and roam around San Diego! Strangely, the gorillas all resemble Donkey Kong!
As Comic-Con 2025 nears, the rampaging gorillas will be clinging to San Diego trolley cars in the wild riding through the city! And I’m not talking about gorilla cosplay on trolleys!
The latest trolley wrap for Comic-Con 2025 promotes Donkey Kong Bananza, an upcoming platform game for Nintendo Switch. According to Wikipedia, the game is scheduled for release on July 17, 2025, right around the time of Comic-Con, which begins the following week.
I remember playing the original Donkey Kong arcade game when I was a kid. I never did master it. I was better at Galaga. Doesn’t seem that long ago. Time flies.
I had to take these zoom photographs from a distance. If I manage to get better images in the coming days, I’ll post an update!
UPDATE!
A couple days later, I got these pics:
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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.
By strolling around Collier Park, you can also discover a bit of history.
As the city of La Mesa’s first park, Collier Park has long served as a community gathering space.
Kumeyaay – The Kumeyaay Tribe of Indigenous peoples have a rich history in the area, harnessing nature’s local resources. The natural spring in the park once served as a seasonal stopping place for the local Kumeyaay.
David C. Collier – Colonel David Charles (D.C.) Collier, a pioneer community developer in La Mesa and throughout San Diego County, was responsible for donating the land to the community for what would become the City’s first public park after incorporation in 1912.
In the next photograph, you can spot La Mesa’s historical Spring House. Curious? I blogged about it 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.
Are you a gamer with heart? Would you like to improve the lives of hospitalized kids? Gamers Outreach is a charity that would appreciate your help.
The two cool people in the above photo are raising money for Gamers Outreach during TwitchCon in San Diego. I spotted them today grilling hot dogs at a tent on Harbor Drive. Look for them near a dancing hot dog!
Their objective: help fund programs that brighten the day of sick kids in hospitals, including San Diego’s own Rady Children’s Hospital.
Let me share two paragraphs from Gamers Outreach literature:
WHO WE ARE
Gamers Outreach is a charity that empowers hospitalized families through play. Our goal is to build a world where activity is easily prioritized as part of care. Video games are our tools of choice.
WHY WE DO IT
Being in the hospital can be scary and isolating. Games give kids access to adventure and opportunities to socialize. Sometimes healthcare staff even use games to assist with treatment!
Gamers Outreach has several programs. Click here to check out their GO Karts (Gamers Outreach Karts), which are portable video game kiosks built specifically for hospitals. Kids stuck in bed can play!
The Player 2 program encourages volunteers to distribute, manage, and play games with hospitalized kids! This role is particularly great for college gamers!
The Save Point program provides hospitals with high-tech vending machines that distribute items such as toys, game codes, and fun swag to kids receiving care . . . as they progress through treatment. Make getting better a fun goal! Curious hospitals should check this out!
Gamers Outreach helps thousands of children per year in a multitude of hospitals. Interested in learning more, and perhaps helping this effort? Visit their website by clicking here!
If you’re in San Diego for TwitchCon, head over to the fundraising tent on Harbor Drive across from the convention center, near the Gaslamp trolley station. I spun their prize wheel and got a free hot dog!
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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.
Thousands of video live streamers and fans will soon be converging on the San Diego Convention Center. San Diego is getting ready for TwitchCon 2024!
This year, TwitchCon will be bigger than ever, and evidence of its popularity has begun to pop up around downtown–in particular the Gaslamp Quarter.
TwitchCon 2024 will run this weekend from September 20 to September 22. The San Diego Convention Center is already decorated for the event, as you can see from these photos taken Tuesday afternoon.
The TwitchCon Block Party will be held in the Gaslamp Quarter near the convention center on Fifth Avenue this Saturday, September 21, beginning at 7:00 pm. Head on down for three hours of food vendors, live music options, themed photo ops, plenty of spots to chill with friends, and more.
A bunch of advertisements concerning TwitchCon have appeared up and down Fifth Avenue. Here are two “glitchy” ones…
And check this one out. Find five marbleverse marbles and get free loot!
Gamers! This is really cool.
Bards & Cards at 936 Fifth Avenue will be hosting a free event. On Saturday, September 21, from 11 am to 4 pm, you can meet Briana White, the voice of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII Remake! Get her autograph and photos!
Briana White is also a Twitch streamer. She’s known as TheStrangeRebel.
Finally, if you’re a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, go check out the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café at 910 J Street, just north of Petco Park. They debuted before Comic-Con and will remain open to the public until early November.
Inside they’ve got fun graphics for photo-ops, all sorts of Sonic merch, and really great fast food. Tonight I took home one of their Knuckles chicken sandwiches and it was tasty good!
UPDATE!
Next day, street lamp banners were appearing in the Gaslamp…
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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.
The vast entertainment empire that is Dragon Ball is on full display in San Diego during Comic-Con 2024. Their free-to-the-public offsite activation, on the Marina Terrace behind the Marriott Marquis hotel, is a feast for the eyes to anyone who loves the movies, television shows, anime, manga, video and card games produced by Dragon Ball.
I must admit I’m no expert when it comes to Dragon Ball, but I love looking at all the graphics and detailed figurines on display. And there’s the gigantic statue of Goku, too!
I saw excited kids and adults wandering about trying to take it all in. Visitors to the offsite can try their hand at video games and learn how to play the Dragon Ball card game. They can even make Son Goku models. I was told that if you arrive at the offsite between 9 am and 11 am, you get free stuff including an awesome swag bag. I’ve done that in past years. It’s well worth it.
I wandered about like everyone else on Thursday and took some cool photos…
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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!
A couple of fun, free, family-friendly events are coming up this summer in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park!
On Thursday, June 13, 2024, from 10 am to 4 pm, everyone can enjoy the Pastimes of Old Town San Diego. There will be wheelbarrow races, tug of war, sack races and more 19th century games on the grassy plaza at the center of the park. If you’ve ever been to Old Town State Park and seen these games, you know how fun they are! This particular event is part of California State Parks Week.
Then there’s the Fourth of July! The annual Independence Day event starts at 11 am with a flag raising ceremony in the plaza, and patriotic fun will continue until 3 pm. Visitors can enjoy live music, crafts, and more historical games.
If you love history, Americana or nostalgia, you’ll almost certainly love these events. You might think you’ve stepped back in time to the days of early San Diego.
Here are a few photographs that I took in past years…
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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.
Many members of the San Diego Lawn Bowling Club were in Balboa Park today, competing in the Jay Robbins Knockout tournament.
People lawn bowling in Balboa Park? It must be a Saturday!
When I walk through Balboa Park on a Saturday, I’ll often sit on a bench by the lawn bowling green on the park’s West Mesa, at the west end of the Cabrillo Bridge. It’s a fine place to watch games while relaxing or having a bite to eat.
The players, dressed in white or light colors, in various poses on the green, together present a sunny, relaxed scene–like a nostalgic painting of summer. Watch the players closely, however, and you’ll notice they’re competing in earnest, strategizing, concentrating, trying very hard to defeat their opponents.
How does one play lawn bowls? This page explains the game.
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
San Diego’s future MLS soccer team, San Diego FC, brought its Chrome Ball Tour to Santee today!
A huge crowd turned out at the Town Center Park East recreational fields to watch and play in a big multi-team soccer tournament. In addition to the games, there were opportunities to learn about San Diego FC, meet sports fans and enthusiastic booster clubs, obtain team merchandise, and generally have a good time. The party continued even when the rain began!
The fun included the big, shiny Chrome Ball, which features the names of tour cities throughout San Diego County. The Chrome Ball Tour will continue through the end of 2024 and stop in 18 cities! You can see which cities are coming up by clicking here.
As I walked around and spoke to participants, I learned that the Star Wars group 18th Battalion supports San Diego Football Club, and that the Riptides are super passionate fans who also perform community service. And there were others–click here to see many diverse supporters of San Diego FC.
Are you excited that Major League Soccer is coming to San Diego? I absolutely saw that many people are!
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Enjoy some photographs that I took this afternoon, just as the 2023 NWSL Championship Fan Fest officially opened outside San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium.
Around two o’clock fans of the OL Reign and Gotham FC (as well as those who root for our own San Diego Wave FC or who simply enjoy watching National Women’s Soccer League action) began arriving in earnest to the free Fan Fest.
Many family-friendly activities welcomed the public on the grass. People kicked soccer balls around, made signs for the big game, enjoyed face painting, took advantage of various unique photo opportunities. Others played sports video games, and others danced to music spun on stage by a DJ.
Players would sign autographs, and those in attendance a bit later on could listen to a concert by Bishop Briggs.
Fans were lined up to buy official NWSL merchandise and game sponsors had fun booths all over the place. The championship trophy was on display, too!
I took the trolley over to Snapdragon Stadium after work and walked about and took these photos. I’m sure the crowd continued to grow after I left.
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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 