Tag: hotels

Christmas tree auction helps San Diego homeless!

Would you like to have a uniquely beautiful Christmas Tree this holiday season? Would you like to help San Diego’s homeless at the same time?

Seventeen wonderfully decorated Christmas Trees are now on display in the lobby of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. They are being auctioned to help the homeless. The event is called 1st Annual Holiday Village at the Bayfront: A Cause to Celebrate!

Each one-of-a-kind Christmas Tree has its own fun theme. All were decorated by folks who help our city’s homeless at Father Joe’s Villages. One very special Christmas Tree features ornaments created using the imprints of the hands and feet of children who attend Father Joe’s Therapeutic Childcare Center!

Complete information can be found on this web page. Funds raised go to helping thousands of San Diegans have safe shelter, hot meals, and hope during the holidays. The auction ends on November 24, 2024.

Visit the auction page and see photos of each amazing tree by clicking here!

I really like the kids-made tree: Santa’s Whimsical Workshop!

…

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.

Creative Halloween pumpkins at Hard Rock Hotel!

The Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter has an awesome Halloween display inside their lobby!

The hotel’s different departments have each “carved” a pumpkin. Their creative efforts fill a large table, and guests are invited to vote for their favorite. The winning department receives a trophy!

I checked out all the great pumpkins this morning. Some are really scary. Some are pure fun. (I like the pumpkin with a spa facial.)

Here come the photos…

…

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 giant Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista!

Look how gigantic the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in Chula Vista has become! I walked around it on Sunday and the main hotel building is positively immense! Because I took photographs from a good distance, it might be hard to visualize exactly how large it is.

The resort and convention center, when completed next Spring, will feature 1,600 guest rooms and suites, plus a 4.25-acre water park on the property’s bay side. You can see two big blue water slides in the following photos.

To visualize the progress of this project’s construction, check out photos from almost two years ago, when there was practically nothing on the huge lot but dirt. See those here. Then I took photos about a year ago, which you can see here.

After walking around the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, I headed from nearby Bayside Park around Marine Group Boat Works, and discovered a beautiful new path along the edge of Chula Vista’s upcoming Sweetwater Park–a huge park that is now in development!

I’ll post photos of that walk coming up!

…

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.

Honoring emergency responder heroes in San Diego.

There are heroes in this world who will risk their own life to save the lives of strangers. Heroic firefighters and other emergency responders were honored today during the annual San Diego Memorial 9/11 Stair Climb.

The event attracts firefighters and emergency responders from all over San Diego and the surrounding region. The heroes and their families enjoy a day full of fun, sunshine and comradery on the grass in front of the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. And participants honor heroes who’ve come before, particularly those who fell during the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City.

The stair climb recreates the incredible effort of the responders who lost their lives trying to save those up in the World Trade Center towers. It’s jolting to remember, but 403 responders made the ultimate sacrifice that day. The stair climb also raises money to help keep the memory of these heroes alive.

At the event, the 9/11 Remembrance Project displayed photographs and artifacts from that terrible day. It brought everything home again. One poster recalled the efforts of the San Diego Urban Search and Rescue Task Force in the aftermath of the New York attack.

Never forget. NYC 09.11.01.

You can donate to the cause by visiting the event website by clicking here.

Visit the Wall of Heroes and read inspiring life stories by clicking here.

…

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.

People rappel down 34-story building in San Diego!

People in San Diego could experience the thrill of a lifetime today! The annual fundraising Over The Edge event was held downtown, on the vertical side of the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel tower!

People who raised a certain amount of money for Reality Changers could rappel 34 stories straight down! I stood at ground level in front of the hotel and zoomed my camera lens to capture a bit of the action.

Reality Changers helps disadvantaged high school students go to college. They prepare youth to become first-generation college graduates and agents of change in their community. You can donate to this worthy cause by visiting the Reality Changers website here.

That’s rather high, don’t you think? Looks scary! But these events, running for many years now, have never had an accident. Safety is the first priority.

Why don’t you consider participating next year?

…

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.

SpongeBob greets hotel guests in San Diego!

SpongeBob SquarePants and his watery friends are now greeting guests inside San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel!

Fun SpongeBob graphics can be spotted in the hotel’s lobby. They celebrate the 25th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants during Comic-Con 2024. The Hard Rock Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter will be buzzing with activity once Comic-Con begins later this week!

The exterior of the hotel is now covered with colorful SpongeBob graphics, too! If you’d like to see photographs of the huge, very funny building wrap, click here!

Paramount+ is behind the hotel’s fun interior and exterior during Comic-Con. They encourage people to Stream Like a Sponge!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Comic-Con’s elevators to Animation Domination!

Animation Domination awaits those who ride these special elevators during Comic-Con 2024!

The Omni San Diego Hotel has been decorated by FOX to promote their popular animated shows, from The Simpsons to Family Guy to Bob’s Burgers to Krapopolis. In addition to a positively enormous Animation Domination building wrap, the hotel’s main elevators now have some very colorful graphics, as you can see in these photos taken today.

As we approach the start of Comic-Con, more and more cool stuff is popping up around downtown San Diego! Stay tuned!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Star Trek captains beam down to Comic-Con!

This morning I noticed that two Star Trek captains are beaming down to San Diego for Comic-Con 2024! They’re materializing high up on the Marriott Marquis hotel in the form of a gigantic building wrap!

The wrap, when finished, will no doubt promote Star Trek shows on Paramount+.

(That yellow section in the middle of captains Picard and Pike is an old Esri User Conference wrap being removed now that their recent convention is over.)

I’ll take more photos once this cool Star Trek wrap is completed and post them below as an update!

UPDATE!

The awesome Star Trek wrap appeared to be nearly finished the following morning. I added contrast to the photos to bring out the colors, as our San Diego sun hadn’t yet penetrated the early overcast.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Animation Domination returns to Comic-Con!

FOX has returned to San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 to assert their Animation Domination!

This afternoon I saw that a huge building wrap is now being applied to the Omni San Diego Hotel. Over the years, the tall building has been Fox Broadcasting Company’s canvas during Comic-Con, strategically overlooking Gaslamp Square and the San Diego Convention Center. Their past wraps have promoted their perpetually popular animated shows.

How long has The Simpsons been running now? Almost four decades? Is that possible?

Here are some photographs. I’ll take more photos as the wrap grows and post them as an update below.

What’s this? Alvin has arrived and is photobombing me!

He must be jealous of FOX’s Animation Domination.

Alvin! ALVIN! ALLVINNNNN!!!

UPDATE!

The next day (with no pesky Alvin)…

ANOTHER UPDATE!

And later…

ANOTHER UPDATE!

The next day…

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

Deadpool and Wolverine look down on San Diego!

I’m not sure whether we should be comforted. Because Deadpool and Wolverine are now looking down on our ever lovin’ city!

Why are these Marvel superheroes in San Diego, and up on the exterior of the Hilton Gaslamp? They’re here for Comic-Con 2024! Yes, their movie will be premiering on the Friday of San Diego Comic-Con. The hype and anticipation has reached an unprecedented level of crazy!

The incomplete building wrap, which I photographed this afternoon, appears to involve Marvel Contest of Champions and promote Google Play.

Lots of cool building wraps are appearing all around the Gaslamp and San Diego Convention Center. If you’ve been following Cool San Diego Sights, you’ve see a few already! I know that more are on the way, so stay tuned!

I’ll take more photos of this cool wrap in a day or two when it’s completed, and I’ll post them below as an update!

UPDATE!

The next day…

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!