Tag: photography

Beautiful new mural at Lemon Grove Library!

This very beautiful new mural was painted in April near the main entrance to the Lemon Grove Library. It’s titled Today for Tomorrow.

Positive messages conveyed by the mural include a love for family, the natural environment and reading. The extraordinary mural is the product of a partnership between the ArtReach Mural Program and the Lemon Grove Public Library. The lead mural artist was Mexican-American artist and designer Josué Baltézar.

A handout available inside the library explains: The ArtReach Mural Program Team led over 50 community members in design ideation and painting through out design-input workshops and Community Paint Day…This piece highlights the library as an uplifting and beautiful community space, welcoming and accepting of all people. Books are featured predominantly to mark the importance of learning, reading, curiosity, and imagination. The focal point of the lemon tree represents the community of Lemon Grove while also signifying growth and new beginnings. The figures placed in the books show that we all have our own stories to tell and create while also touching on family resilience, hope, kindness, caregiving and neighborhood unity…

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Lemon Grove Art and Photo Contest!

Do you live in Lemon Grove? Do you love to create original art or take photographs? The Lemon Grove Art & Photo Contest is now accepting entries at the Lemon Grove Library!

I learned today that the free contest has just opened. So you’re hearing about it early. The public is invited to submit entries to the library by mid-August. The theme of the contest is What does Lemon Grove mean to you?

Entered works of art and photographs will be displayed inside San Diego County’s Lemon Grove Branch Library through August 31, 2024, and winners will receive a valuable gift card! I was told there will likely be multiple winners!

Whether you’re young or old, why not go for it? You can learn more and get your entry forms at the library’s front desk, where friendly staff members will be glad to help you. Do you know families that lives in Lemon Grove? Pass the word!

(By the way, the beautiful graphic on the above flyer is from a mural that was painted recently by the library’s entrance. I’ll be posting photos of this colorful new mural next!)

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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.

A fun Abbott Elementary trolley for Comic-Con!

The third trolley wrap to appear in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024 promotes the ABC television series Abbott Elementary. And you can’t possibly miss it!

The fun circus graphics refer to the Abbott Elementary A.V.A. Fest (or A Very Abbott Festival), which originated in a classic episode in the show’s second season.

Critically acclaimed through its first three seasons, Abbott Elementary has been renewed for a fourth season. The humorous interactions of its well-rounded characters has kept the good-natured sitcom fresh and enjoyable!

Check out these photos taken today, about a month before the start of San Diego Comic-Con.

Excited yet?

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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.

Three more fun murals in Encinitas!

Enjoy photographs of three fun murals I discovered last weekend while walking in Encinitas. I was winding my way from Coast Highway 101 to the parking lot above Moonlight Beach and back.

Yes, our Southern California surf culture is alive and well in coastal Encinitas!

I hadn’t seen this street art during previous walks, so my camera got busy!

Surfer on side of building at 2nd Street and C Street in Encinitas.

Surfing Madonna and dolphins appear outside Moonlight Beach Apartments.

A fun mural on the side of Raul’s Shack in Encinitas.

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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.

Ghirardelli’s marquee and Gaslamp history.

Have you ever wondered why the Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter has an old-fashioned theater marquee? That’s because the building, erected in 1912, was originally a movie theater!

The Casino Theatre at 643 Fifth Avenue opened in 1913 and was one of several movie theaters in the Gaslamp that provided entertainment for ever-changing audiences over the decades. In the 1930s it was remodeled into the Art Deco style. Here’s an image from the 40s, with the Casino Café “Lunch” restaurant located next door, offering breakfast, waffles and steaks.

In the 1950s and 60s, The Casino and its movie theater neighbors at Fifth and G Street–The Aztec and The Savoy–would be open all night and show 3 big features, according to a comment here. Slowly these old theaters would fall as television’s popularity rose.

In the 1970s, while the Gaslamp neighborhood experienced urban decay, The Casino Theatre began to show X-rated movies, along with the other nearby theaters. I’ve been told sailors made up much of the clientele.

Here’s a gallery of photos of the The Casino Theatre over many years. Some of the titles you’ll read in the marquee are a bit salacious!

I hadn’t realized the marquee was seen in Marty Feldman’s 1980 movie In God We Tru$t. That image can be viewed here.

Today you’ll find a plaque near the historic building’s front entrance:

The Casino Theatre, 1912

The first theatre to be built with the new building ordinance for fire safety. It had two doors near the stage for fire escape and a five-foot-wide exterior passage on both sides and the rear for the protection of other buildings in case of fire. However, two years after construction, the northern passage was occupied by a food stand, and the southern passage contained a shoe shining establishment.

Temptation of a different sort! In a historic Gaslamp Quarter that now attracts loads of tourists, the colorfully lit old marquee teases you with ice cream, chocolate and hot fudge sundaes!

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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.

Win a historic, handmade quilt this Fourth of July!

You can win a valuable and historic handmade quilt in Old Town San Diego this coming Fourth of July!

The beautiful quilt has an antique Churn Dash top that was probably made in the 1890s or early 20th century. It was purchased in 2015 and finished by volunteers at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, while sitting on the front porch of the Threads of the Past building. Perhaps you saw these ladies dressed in old fashioned garb during a visit. While talking to passersby and explaining their stitching, they carefully applied cotton batting and a reproduction blue cotton backing.

The quilt’s mostly red, white and blue pattern has other fun names: Monkey Wrench, Hole in the Barn Door, and Hens and Chickens! The quilt can presently be seen inside the State Park’s Robinson-Rose House Visitor Center. That’s where you can purchase your opportunity drawing tickets, too!

One dollar purchases one ticket for the Fourth of July quilt raffle; five dollars will get you six tickets. The big jar containing tickets wasn’t terribly full when I saw it today, so your chances might be fairly good at winning!

The proceeds from the raffle will help fund Living History programs at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. You need not be present to win!

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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.

Surf, rock and smiles at Switchfoot Bro-Am!

The Switchfoot Bro-Am was held today on Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. The popular surfing and live music Beach Fest celebrated its 20th anniversary!

Back in 2005, internationally famous rock band Switchfoot, whose members grew up in San Diego surfing and making music, held their first Bro-Am on the beach. They started Bro-Am to help local, at-risk youth, and lift them up.

Since then, the surf competition and musical offerings have grown. I saw thousands out enjoying the day today, sunbathing on blankets before the main stage, wandering about the sand, playing, watching surfing action, and checking out the booths of various charities that benefit from this wonderful event. I saw folks from Rady Children’s Hospital, Feeding San Diego, the Monarch School and the Challenged Athletes Foundation! (Just a few.)

At heart, Bro-Am is about celebrating kids. They represent our future. And lots of kids were out on the sand, having a blast!

The Rob Machado Bro-Junior surf competition was for younger athletes. A second smaller stage featured youthful performers from the School of Rock.

I didn’t hang around long enough to hear Switchfoot perform–as I left for the Coaster train station to head back home, the great group Jettee was up on the main stage rocking the beach!

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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.

Eagle Scout project raises ocean safety awareness.

Chet Kinzelberg has embarked on an important Eagle Scout project. He will be creating an Ocean Safety Awareness booth on June 22nd and 23rd at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.

Today he and other Scouts from Troop 766 were offering cookies and tasty treats to raise funds for the project. I got a cookie and these smiling photos as I walked down a sidewalk, just before entering the Switchfoot Bro-Am surf and music event on Moonlight Beach. (Photos from the big event coming up.)

At his Ocean Safety Awareness booth, Chet will be handing out free cards that provide information for beachgoers. You can see one side of the card in my next photo. There will also be a prize wheel and a raffle for AirPods.

It’s great to see young people cheerfully working to make this world a better place! Those chocolate chip cookies were great, too!

If you’d like to learn how to have a safe beach day in Encinitas and the conditions right now, click this link. Then bookmark that page for your next beach trip!

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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.

Meaningful art at Encinitas Fire Station.

I found two instances of meaningful art as I walked past Encinitas Fire Department Station One today.

The first work of art I noticed was a mosaic in the sidewalk beside the station building. It memorializes New York fire fighters who lost their lives during the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The number 343 represents the number of New York Fire Department members that perished in the terrorist attacks.

I assume the mosaic was dedicated five years later, on 9-11-2006. If you know more about this mosaic, please leave a comment.

The second work of art is on the fire station itself, near its entrance. The beautifully carved wood panel depicts curling ocean surf and a rare Torrey Pine tree.

The panel reminds us that wonders surround us, and how every wonder is worth protecting.

I spied a small plaque at the edge of wood panel, dated 2022. It indicates the creators are Tijuana artist Jose Antonio Alcantar and Encinitas Fire Engineer Jake Fodor.

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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.

Fantasy world inside Doug Snider’s studio!

Those who enjoy a visit to Balboa Park in San Diego really should wander over to Spanish Village Art Center. Every artist studio is filled with magic. It’s hard to choose, but perhaps my personal favorite studio is number 15, the home of Doug Snider.

Doug Snider is an accomplished ceramics artist whose public art can be seen around the world and could be enjoyed in your own home. His colorful creations are utterly fantastic–there are weird amphibious and reptilian creatures, and exotic masks and eyeballs and tentacles and beaks that fill the walls and shelves of his studio in every direction. A sunny outdoor working area in the rear of the studio is home to even more creativity, including a big, happy, chameleon-like bench that would be perfect in your backyard!

Have you’ve seen his public art benches in Coronado’s Tidelands Park and National City’s Pepper Park? If not, you can view photographs of those four wacky, fun benches here and here!

When I visited Studio 15 the other day, another studio artist was hard at work. I asked if I could take photos. She said yes!

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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.