I realize schools of fish swim under the Imperial Beach Pier, but how do fish survive swimming on top of the pier? Because they’re made of sunlight!
This cool public art can be found during an easy walk down the pier. A sheltered area permits light to pass through cut out shapes, projecting images of fish and bubbles onto the wooden pier.
Those fish made of light better be careful, however. There’s a huge shark swimming above them!
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Wanted posters picturing One Piece pirates and other scoundrels have been hung inside the IB Kitchen at the end of the Imperial Beach Pier! I looked right and left for pirates inside the restaurant today, hoping to receive a reward. No luck!
Imperial Beach Kitchen has operated at the end of the IB Pier for about 8 months now. They serve Korean food, seafood tacos, and good old American staples like hamburgers. Fish and chips, too! The friendly owner with whom I briefly spoke loves Asian anime and manga, including the very popular One Piece from Japan.
Arranged along the ceiling is a Who’s Who of pirates and other rascally characters in that fantasy world!
I’ll be blogging about San Diego Comic-Con trolley wraps in a couple weeks, most likely, so a post concerning pop culture is timely now. (If you’re interesting in seeing my past Comic-Con related coverage, click here!)
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A hot day for mid-March. I stayed near the beach–in Oceanside. As I walked out onto the Oceanside Pier, look what I saw! Someone was digging a huge skull and crossbones into the sand!
Turns out the friendly, creative guy was David. He was working on his pirate Jolly Roger flag design in the sunshine, while people strolling along the beach would stop, look and chat.
He’s been making artwork in the sand like this for several months, he told me. He’s created perhaps a dozen such works at the beach.
He told me there’s another guy who makes cool designs using a garden rake. That sounds awesome, too. Perhaps I’ll stumble upon that one day.
Here’s what I saw around noon as I walked out on the pier:
After I ate lunch, I returned to the pier and saw this:
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If you’ve walked past the USS Midway Museum lately, you might wonder about that construction activity on Navy Pier. What you’ve observed are workers reinforcing the old pier, site of future Freedom Park, which is scheduled to open in 2028.
The Navy Pier Freedom Park Structural Pier Reinforcement–as a nearby sign proclaims–is being undertaken by the Port of San Diego and the USS Midway Museum.
The old Navy headhouse on the pier’s east end was demolished about a year ago. Now the work is to reinforce the pier with concrete by jet grouting along approximately 380 linear feet of retaining wall. What, you ask, is jet grouting? Here’s the Wikipedia page that explains.
According to a press release from last summer, this reinforcement phase is scheduled to be completed by February 2026.
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There’s a very cool holiday tradition at the Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach. Every year, a Christmas tree and wreaths appear at the pier’s end!
This year the festive scene, hovering magically over the blue Pacific Ocean, is just as wonderful as ever. The big Christmas tree lights up at night, and creatively made wreaths hanging along the pier’s white wooden railing celebrate the season, courtesy of Pacific Beach businesses and community organizations.
I walked down Garnet Avenue today and couldn’t resist a stroll out over the water. Starting from the Crystal Pier Bait Shack, this is what I found…
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The views this morning from the Imperial Beach Pier were dramatic!
Stormy weather brought a procession of very dark clouds, through which bright sunshine penetrated. The waves were pretty big, too, as you can see from these photographs!
Yes, some surfers were out. I saw a KEEP OUT OF WATER sign posted on the beach by the County of San Diego. For their sake, I hope those surfers don’t become sick from the rain’s runoff and all that raw sewage coming from the Tijuana River.
Anyway, the storm clouds, light and breaking surf resulted in great photos!
When I arrived on the Imperial Beach Pier, I saw a rainbow!
A few minutes after I left the pier, a big cell arrived and there was a long-lasting downpour. My final photo was taken from the shelter of a bus stop on Seacoast Drive.
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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.
During the next four days, September 4th to 7th, 2025, physically challenged athletes will take to the surf north of the Oceanside Pier and vie for thousands of dollars in prizes in different surfing competition categories. The event is brought to the city of Oceanside by the Stoke for Life Foundation and the U.S. Open ASC Competition Committee.
Last year 96 adaptive athletes from 18 countries from around the world competed, and this year it should be bigger than ever!
You can find more info, plus the U.S. Open Adaptive Surfing Championships daily schedule, by clicking here.
Today during a walk I spotted tents set up on the beach. I missed a special opening parade because I didn’t know about it. Near the pier I noticed workers getting everything ready at the announcer stand.
After walking out on the pier, I observed one of the athletes catching a wave while prone on a surfboard. He was practicing for the competition.
Good luck to everyone!
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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.
Anyone walking the length of San Diego’s Embarcadero might have observed three very unusual sights today!
First, starting at the south end of the Embarcadero, very close to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel, an immense NASSCO drydock has appeared!
This floating drydock, the NASSCO Builder, is usually stationed down at the NASSCO shipyard well south of here, in the vicinity of the Coronado Bay Bridge. It’s capable of containing very large ships. The public typically can’t get a close view of its immensity.
Today the NASSCO Builder was docked strangely at the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal, where the Dole banana boats usually unload! Someone with the Coronado Ferry said the gigantic drydock appeared there yesterday.
The next photo was taken from Embarcadero Marina Park South…
Nearby, at the Hilton, some wise words…
Next, I noticed some guys were repairing a purse seiner net on the pier adjacent to Seaport Village. This is seldom seen. More often, these large nets are repaired across Tuna Harbor at the longer G Street Pier.
These nets are unspooled into the ocean from purse seiners in order to catch bait fish, which are in turn used for sportfishing.
Finally, I noticed that America’s Tall Ship, the United States Coast Guard training ship USCGC Eagle, has returned to San Diego! It was out on the ocean the last few days, with future Coast Guard officers aboard, transforming themselves from young “swabs” to cadets!
I went aboard the amazing Eagle last weekend and took these photos!
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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.
People in San Diego had an incredible opportunity this weekend to step aboard “America’s Tall Ship,” the USCGC Eagle, which has been docked for a few days at the B Street Pier. Visitors were invited to explore the nearly hundred-year-old, 295-foot, three-masted barque, which is used to train future United States Coast Guard officers.
I took the opportunity to come aboard the historic tall ship myself, and I captured photographs of one amazing ship!
A number of interesting banners hang around the Eagle, explaining its history and current role in training future Coast Guard officers. Eagle is the largest tall ship flying the Stars and Stripes and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.
I learned a new batch of prospective officers had themselves come aboard a couple days ago. This week they’ll be sailing in the nearby Pacific Ocean. When the Eagle returns to San Diego, this new group of “swabs” will be considered honest-to-goodness cadets!
I must say all of the young people who are training to become officers were extremely friendly, polite and professional. The Coast Guard’s future appears to be in great hands!
Now enjoy my photos…
Welcome Aboard America’s Tall Ship.USCGC Eagle is both a Coast Guard cutter and a barque.The Eagle has over six miles of standing and running rigging, 23 sails, and more than 22,000 square feet of sail area that allow her to sail at 17 knots (19.5 mph).Eagle was originally German, launched in 1936, and was operated by the pre-World War II German navy. In 1946, after the end of World War II, United States Coast Guardsmen sailed the Eagle to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.Originally, the Eagle trained German Navy sailors as Horst Wessel. It sailed to the Canary Islands and West Indies, and later, during World War II, on the Baltic Sea. She carried anti-aircraft guns, and her logs indicate that she fired at Allied and German aircraft.A permanent Coast Guard crew of approximately 60 personnel maintain and operate the Eagle year round.The Eagle gives officer candidates and enlisted servicemembers hands-on, teamwork-focused opportunities to lead, train and serve at sea…The Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut produces leaders of character… Nearly 300 high school graduates enroll annually…Sail training offers…a unique and useful training experience. This includes learning the fundamentals of seamanship, weather, and nautical tradition…
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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.
This mural in Oceanside is one of the coolest I’ve seen!
The artwork is painted on the side of Security Public Storage on South Coast Highway. It celebrates all things Oceanside!
The mural contains images of surfers by the Oceanside Pier, local Chargers hero Junior Seau, Oceanside Harbor’s faux-lighthouse, the famous Top Gun house and nearby Camp Pendleton.
Sunset colors over a beach perfectly capture the SoCal lifestyle.
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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.
