The San Diego History Center in Balboa Park, which is open free to everybody, has put up a beautiful ofrenda (altar) for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Their ofrenda appears a bit different from prior years, but it still honors and remembers figures from San Diego’s past. Oh–and San Diego’s famous town dog from the late 19th century, Bum, too!
Making a family ofrenda is a beloved tradition in Mexico. The beautiful altar in the San Diego History Center also contains traditional objects like marigolds, candles, papel picado and photographs of loved ones who’ve passed on.
A nearby table invites visitors to the museum to make their own tissue paper marigold. These hand-made marigolds can be added to the altar with a note containing the name of your loved one and a message.
You may also take your special marigold home.
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A new exhibition recently opened at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. San Diego’s Lost Neighborhoods takes a look at African-American communities that have been substantially altered, injured, or uprooted by practices such as redlining or urban development over the years.
Communities from Downtown to City Heights to La Jolla . . . and even to Julian in our local mountains have painful stories to tell. These stories can be understood through many old photographs, the words of residents affected by racial discrimination, and by viewing historical maps of affected neighborhoods.
Visitors to the exhibit could and should spend a good while taking it all in.
Yes, change over time constitutes history–but change too often has been self-serving, mean-spirited or unnecessarily destructive.
May we all be kind. Hopefully we learn from the past.
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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.
A lifelike bronze statue of a Navy SEAL frogman was installed this morning in downtown San Diego!
The frogman sculpture arrived by box truck, which parked on Kettner Boulevard near One America Plaza, just outside the future Navy SEAL Museum San Diego. (The museum opens very soon–on October 4, 2025.)
With extreme care, slowly, methodically, the new public art was removed from its crate and elevated to its black marble pedestal, which had been installed outside the museum a few days ago.
I and some bystanders were wondering how exactly the operation would proceed. We watched with great interest, and I snapped a bunch of photos.
Words engraved on the pedestal explain:
This statue is adapted from the original at the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. It depicts a SEAL placing a limpet mine, an underwater explosive device.
It was designed by master bronze portrait sculptor Lena Toritch, and honors the U.S. Navy SEAL combat diver: a symbol of unwavering courage, stealth, and precision, standing as a testament to their dedication, rigorous training, and selfless service to our nation.
Cleaning the top of the pedestal…
Injecting epoxy into four holes atop the supporting pedestal…
Aha! They’re going to use straps.
Tilting the diving frogman sculpture upright.
Up it goes!
So far, so good!
Centering it…
Workers screw in four rods, which will descend into the epoxy-filled holes on top of the pedestal.
Success!
As I understood it, the statue would remain this way for a while as the epoxy hardened. So I left.
I returned several hours later and found…
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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.
Waka poems are a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. A waka poem is unique in that it consists of 31 syllables.
An exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park contains examples of waka from Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) written in kana script. Each composition is beautiful, not merely as a poem, but as a visual work of art.
A sign in the garden’s Exhibit Hall explains: “Among the aristocracy of the time, romantic relationships often began through the exchange of waka… Since men and women had limited opportunities to meet in person, emotions were conveyed through poetry…”
Learn more about this exhibition at the JFG website here.
I was completely unaware of this type of poetry before visiting the garden today. Spellbound, I stood before the examples on display and read translations of each Japanese poem.
The English translations do not contain 31 syllables, obviously, but they definitely convey feelings indicative of romance. I noticed these wakas often employ metaphors taken from nature.
Here are a few of the translations:
There are many villages where the cuckoo bird sings. It’s a bird that I find attractive, but I don’t feel close to it. I like it, but it’s not mine, so I feel a bit jealous. Poet: The Tales of Ise
I won’t allow you to meet me, even if you imitate the crow of a rooster before dawn. Poet: Sei Shōnagon
I was dying to see you, but after I met you I want to live forever. Poet: Fujiwara no Yoshitaka
Should my heart waver and betray our love, then even the impassable waves of a tsunami would cross over the mountains. In other words, I would never be unfaithful. Poet: Author unknown.
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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.
The new Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is almost ready to open! Opening day is Saturday, October 4, 2025. That’s less than three weeks away!
This afternoon, walking past downtown’s One America Plaza building, I noticed the black marble pedestal that will support a Navy SEAL frogman statue has been installed outside. You can see it in my first two photographs. The nearby America Plaza trolley station is in the background.
I also observed new graphics have appeared near the museum’s front entrance!
Abandon Self – Embrace Team… The Deed is All – Not the Glory… Be Someone Special… The Only Easy Day was Yesterday
Responsibility – Service – Commitment – Discipline
How often do you see artwork made by visitors to a fine art museum–displayed prominently at that museum?
Should you visit the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park, that’s what you’ll find!
Composed of squares decorated by visitors to the museum, Make the Sun Shine is displayed in the Timken’s elegant Central Gallery.
Marisol Rendón, the museum’s resident artist this summer, furnished the golden circles, and the public, using markers, stamps and pens, created the surrounding rays. People took their inspiration from the many masterpieces that fill the museum galleries.
I was told Make the Sun Shine will be on view for a few more weeks.
The amazing Timken Museum of Art is always free to the public. It might be small, but it’s loaded with Old Master masterpieces. In fact, it’s the only museum in San Diego with a Rembrandt in its permanent collection.
Look how beautiful these shining suns are!
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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.
Visitors inside the world-famous San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park should look up. Not only will they see amazing aircraft exhibits suspended from the ceiling, but they might notice a very long mural painted along the museum’s circular inner wall.
The March of Transportation mural was created in 1936 for the California Pacific International Exposition. At over 9,300 square feet, it’s the largest mural of its kind found in North and South America.
Because so many cool aviation displays are jammed into the museum, I found it difficult to photograph large segments of the mural. But I’ve captured several glimpses, so you can get the idea of how the art appears.
A couple years ago I photographed the very end of the mural, which depicts futuristic forms of transportation (as conceived almost a hundred years ago). You can see those photos here.
Several murals decorated the Ford Building during the California Pacific Exposition in 1935. After the Exposition, the Ford Motor Company deeded the building to the City of San Diego for use as the “Great Hall of Transportation.” In preparation for the 1936 Exposition, this large mural was commissioned to express the theme–“The March of Transportation.”
The 1936 “Great Hall of Transportation” exhibits included vehicles of all ages, from reed boats, to the locomotive, to the concepts of air and space travel. The mural, 18 feet high, continues along the inner circular wall for 468 feet…
Master Artist Juan Larrinaga served as the Art Director for the 1935 and 1936 Expositions. He was assisted by New York illustrator, Charles B. Falls, and artists P.T. Blackburn, Mahlan Blane and Nicolas Reveles. Larrinaga labored long hours to produced the drawings from the artist assistants to fill in. More than 40 persons eventually contributed their talent and energy to the completion of the mural.
After years of deterioration, the building began a restoration in 1977. In 1979 the mural, too, was restored.
While this artwork depicts world history, it is also an important part of San Diego’s uniquely rich history.
Do these works of art represent the “real” world? Are they entirely fantastic?
Surreal pieces now on display in the San Diego Central Library’s art gallery might seem strangely familiar–but why and how?
The free exhibition is titled Uncharted Elsewhere. Stimulating pieces created by nine regional artists transport the viewer into uncharted territory located somewhere in the human mind.
I visited the Central Library’s 9th floor Judith Harris Art Gallery this afternoon and was wowed by the creativity of artists who have a special gift. Through sculpture, textile, painting and works on paper, they make curious people stand a very long while and wonder.
Are those eggs? Are those faces? Are those webs? Is that plant life? Are those landforms? What are these weird, oddly familiar things?
How did these fantastic visions come into existence? And what in our complex world is possible or real?
How, I wondered, might these visions relate to my own experiences in life?
The artists themselves, in their descriptions, explain how, through abstraction, they aim to produce enigmatic, mysteriously organic environments. Their works induce introspection, and perhaps enlightenment.
If you like weird, imaginative works of art, you’ll love Uncharted Elsewhere. For me, it’s one of the most engaging exhibitions I’ve experienced in this gallery.
You can check the artwork out for yourself through January 4, 2026. Learn more about the exhibition, the artists and the gallery hours by clicking 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.
Did you know National City in San Diego’s South Bay has a Historic Railcar Plaza?
The small museum-like building is located at the intersection of Bay Marina Drive and Marina Way. A train track running through the building is home to old Passenger Coach No. 1.
I posted a blog about the National City Historic Railcar Plaza almost ten years ago, after peeking inside. You can revisit that past blog post here.
From outside, anyone can peer through windows into four small display rooms at each corner of the building. When I walked by several weeks ago, it seemed that displays in two of the corner windows had changed. So I took photos!
In one window, dummies of passengers in Victorian-era attire stand or sit on a bench, as if waiting for a train or streetcar.
In a second window I found a variety of educational displays. They’re mostly about protecting the wetlands in National City and around the San Diego region.
According to one sign, the public is invited to participate in Creek Day on the last Saturday of every month, from 8 am to noon. The address where people meet is 1815 Hoover Avenue.
You can check out the Facebook page of Paradise Creek Educational Park by clicking here. (Unfortunately, that page doesn’t seem very active right now.)
Another sign inside the Historic Railcar Plaza indicates: “Display rooms are available to nonprofits to showcase artifacts and interpretive exhibits relating to the early railroads and local history. Contact the Port of San Diego Public Art Department for program information.”
What might I see the next time I walk past?
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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.
Will you be in Balboa Park tomorrow: Sunday, September 7, 2025?
Would you like to devour Chicken Adobo, a Chicken & Pork BBQ Stick, Pancit Noodles, Lumpia, or Turon (banana dessert)? How about a Combo Plate?
You’re in luck! The San Diego History Center has a Filipino feast ready for you!
Taste San Diego Filipino Culinary Journeys, a special event inside the History Center, will be offering delicious Filipino food ready for purchase! Hours are 11 am to 4 pm.
Why this special catered feast? Balboa Park’s International Cottages (including the House of the Philippines) are celebrating their 90th anniversary this weekend.
Where is the San Diego History Center? It’s inside the Casa de Balboa. Look for signs as you walk along El Prado.
I had one of those barbeque meat on a stick offerings. The food is prepared by Gabina’s Cuisine, which is headquartered in Chula Vista.
Yummy!
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 