Did you know that a very famous rodeo used to be held in Lemon Grove? And that it attracted legendary celebrities like Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Jack Haley who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz?
Lemon Grove’s Mission Rancho Horse Show (Rodeo and Fiesta) was held every July from 1941 to 1957. The event was the brainchild of Monsignor Daniel O’Donaghue, the Pastor who founded Saint John of the Cross Catholic Church in 1939. Rodeo week was held near the church, and featured, according to this great article, English dressage events, children’s competitions, bull-dogging and other Western events, Roman riding by the 11th U.S. Cavalry…
Monsignor O’Donoghue raised money from the rodeo to build a parish school, and eventually to build a larger church.
Until yesterday I didn’t know this Lemon Grove history. I learned about the famous old rodeo during my visit to Lemon Fest, an annual festival at Saint John of the Cross Catholic Church. Many framed historical photographs in the church’s hall show Western celebrities and rodeo action.
The above photo is of Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger. The photo below is of Buffalo Bill Cody shaking hands with Monsignor O’Donoghue…
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Are you old enough to remember the golden age of surf culture? You know–those years when the radio was filled with pop music by The Ventures, Jan and Dean, and The Beach Boys. Back when surfing movies were on the marquee of your local theater, and Gidget was a popular show on television.
If you love nostalgia, the California Surf Museum has a really great exhibit that might tickle your fancy. It might also bring back memories. Star, Cars and Guitars – The Birth of the Modern Surf Era: 1958 to 1965 features photographs, posters, rare artifacts and memorabilia from those days when the surfing subculture sprang forth and quickly took center stage in the popular culture.
I visited the California Surf Museum last Saturday and enjoyed looking at the extensive display.
This era came right before I was born, but in my youth echoes of it still lingered on the radio and on television. I remember I had the incredible Endless Summer album by The Beach Boys which I loved to hear on my scratchy record player. Yes, that was a long time ago!
(How many San Diego area locations are mentioned in The Beach Boys hit song Surfin’ U.S.A.? Well, let’s see: Del Mar, Trestles, Swami’s, San Onofre, and La Jolla!)
The museum exhibit covers those golden days when surfing’s popularity exploded across California, the U.S.A. and the world, including the era’s trailblazers and athletes, surfboards, fashion, cars, popular surf spots and early surfing competitions.
Honestly, all of the exhibits in this one-of-a-kind museum are cool. If you live in Southern California and you’re at all into surfing or the lifestyle, and you haven’t visited the California Surf Museum, you’re really missing out!
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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.
It’s the final day of Comic-Con 2024 in San Diego. As usual, I went for a morning walk with my camera in hand.
In the early morning few people were about. I imagine many fans were sleeping in after yesterday’s super exciting Hall H reveals by Marvel, the Crunchyroll concert at The Shell, and other late night San Diego Comic-Con parties.
By mid-morning a crowd was growing in the Gaslamp Quarter and outside the San Diego Convention Center. While two offsites had disappeared overnight (the Bathroom Battlestation and MrBeast Lab), lines for the activations behind the convention center near the bay (FX, Voodoo Ranger, Adult Swim, Hulu, Abbott Elementary, and Dragon Ball) were already long.
Sunday is a day when many local San Diegans come out to enjoy the free offsite activations. I saw lots of families with kids!
Walking down Fifth Avenue early Sunday morning I saw this!Police bomb-sniffer dogs were getting underway. Thank you for keeping everyone safe!A fun photo near the FX offsite early in the morning.The IMDb Boat is gone.Banners remain for the two Crunchyroll concerts at The Shell.Fun graphics at The Shell box office.Additional colorful One Piece graphics remain at the San Diego Symphony’s outside venue, The Shell.No super long Hall H line winding through Embarcadero Marina Park South on Sunday.A Comic-Con view on Sunday morning from Embarcadero Marina Park South.The Dragon Ball line on Sunday morning was long. They give out good swag.Back in the Gaslamp. Wolverine and Deadpool got their masks confused!Sunday morning line at The Lodge.You can see how the crowd was growing during the course of Sunday morning.Romans in togas greet fans passing the Those About to Die chariot racing offsite in Gaslamp Square. A line was growing here, too.Setting up a sign by the SpongeBob squirting activation.A hot dog with mustard and no ketchup. Promotion of Universal Basic Guys on FOX.Shortly after ten o’clock the Petco Park Interactive Zone was already quite busy!Super cool Predator cosplay!Once more I’m behind the San Diego Convention Center. Comic-Con International chalk art!Pirates busy signing in visitors along the Adult Swim line.Having fun on the big carnival swing ride at the A.V.A. FEST of Abbott Elementary.More fun being had at the A.V.A. FEST!Will this guy get dunked?LANFest, through gaming, raises money for charitable causes. See their website here. They have 18 chapters in 3 countries!Stilt walkers greet fans to A.V.A. FEST during Comic-Con 2024.Adult Swim banner flies!Captain Hook cosplay near the FX offsite. Its line was very long by late morning!Now I’m heading back over the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge. Less cosplay on Sunday, but still some good ones!Waiting a long time for a free slushy isn’t my cup of tea.I’m afraid I missed the Dexter activation. I’m going to steer my feet toward home.I have some cold water at home. Thanks anyway!A decent crowd in the Gaslamp Quarter just before noon. It’s Sunday at Comic-Con 2024.Powdered Toast Man cosplay from The Ren & Stimpy Show. Makes me wonder about lunch: What’s in my refrigerator?
I hope you enjoyed my photographic coverage of Comic-Con 2024. I think I’ll call it quits. My aging legs are tired!
It’s time to transition my blog back to its more normal self. I’ll be publishing a variety of posts concerning San Diego: unique events and festivals, museum exhibits, historic places, nature walks, street art–the usual Cool San Diego Sights stuff. I’m never entirely sure where I’ll walk next. Or what I might discover by sheer chance!
I do know I have photographs concerning Balboa Park coming up in the next couple days. So if you live in San Diego, or simply love the city, stay tuned!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view all of my coverage concerning San Diego Comic-Con, including hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things in San Diego, 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.
Hundreds of super creative cosplays could be seen all around San Diego on Saturday during Comic-Con 2024!
Enjoy another collection of fun cosplay photos taken as I wandered here and there outside Comic-Con in the San Diego summer sunshine.
There’s one more day to go. Hopefully offsite lines are shorter this Sunday–there are still a few activations that I haven’t visited!
Too much fun!
If you want to see even more, click here to view 150 cosplay photos taken during past San Diego Comic-Cons!
Venom and Carnage cosplay.Miles Morales cosplay.Helldivers cosplay.Zebra Batman cosplay! First time I’ve seen this!Deadpool cosplay. Very popular at SDCC 2024.Borderlands Psycho cosplay. Also popular in 2024.Moon Knight cosplay.Batgirl and Kite Man cosplay.Powerpuff Girls cosplay.Black Panther cosplay.King Mickey cosplay.The Purge cosplay.Thor and Jane Foster cosplay.The Last Airbender cosplay.Luz Noceda and Jumanji cosplay.Grand Admiral Thrawn cosplay.Mario family cosplay.Cyclops cosplay.Joker cosplay.Joker and Harley Quinn cosplay.Demon Slayer cosplay.Barf from Spaceballs cosplay!Super cool Alien cosplay at San Diego Comic-Con!Average Joe’s from Dodgeball cosplay.Peely from Fortnite cosplay. Very appealing!Pee-wee Herman cosplay!
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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!
Not only is San Diego Comic-Con back in full force for 2024, but the cosplay you can spot around downtown, the Gaslamp Quarter and convention center is plentiful, and frequently amazing!
Here are more cosplay pics taken outside during Comic-Con 2024. Simply walking around randomly is like journeying through a wonder world of fantasy and imagination…
Feast your eyes on another collection of cool cosplay photographs!
Rubik’s Cube cosplay.Wario cosplay.Captain America cosplay.Thor cosplay.Doctor Octopus cosplay.Deadpool and Wolverine cosplay.Beetlejuice cosplay.Hellboy cosplay.Wolverine cosplay.Mystique cosplay.Spock cosplay.Elektra cosplay.Static Shock and Captain Marvel cosplay.Green Lantern and Hawkgirl cosplay.Power Rangers cosplay.Animal the Muppet cosplay!
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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!
Lupita Nyong’o and Kit Connor surprised an outdoor crowd today at Comic-Con 2024 when they appeared in public to promote their upcoming animated film The Wild Robot!
Late Saturday morning, a remote controlled robot version of Roz (the movie’s protagonist), created and operated by Catalyst Engineers, was standing near the entrance to the Omni San Diego Hotel, moving its head and body and talking to random fans who’d gathered nearby. Little did anyone know that voice actress Lupita Nyong’o was actually hidden from sight and speaking through the robot.
When the cast members suddenly appeared from around a corner, the crowd went crazy!
The Wild Robot is an upcoming American animated science fiction film that will hit movie theaters on September 27, 2024.
I arrived early and waited for several minutes, having an inkling of what might transpire, and managed somehow to get some fun celebrity photographs!
Oh–that bird on Roz’s shoulder is an orphaned gosling with whom the robot develops a relationship while shipwrecked on an uninhabited island.
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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!
Costumes worn by actors in both the Doctor Who and Star Trek science fiction franchises are now being displayed in San Diego for Comic-Con 2024!
The free-to-the-public exhibition is titled Friendship is Universal. It’s located at two separate locations: 226 and 230 Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter. The original television and movie costumes fill the latter address, and that’s where I took these photographs yesterday afternoon. (I’m afraid I accidentally missed two Star Trek costumes as I moved through the exhibit–Seven of Nine and Kathryn Janeway.)
If you’re in San Diego during San Diego Comic-Con this year, check it out! The offsite activation opens each day at 11 am. There is a photo op and merch to be had at the second address, just a few steps away. The lines for both locations tend to be small.
If you can’t see these costumes in person, please enjoy some cool photos!
Through fifteen Doctors and their companions and over a dozen brave captains and their crews, we’ve traveled on journeys spanning the cosmos…
Doctor Who costumes:
Left: Amy Pond, Vincent and the Doctor Costume. Right: Eleventh Doctor, Various.Left: Yasmin Khan, Flux Costume. Right: Thirteenth Doctor, Various.Left: Fourteenth Doctor, 60th Anniversary Costume. Right: Donna Noble, 60th Anniversary Costume.Left: Ruby Sunday, Boom Costume. Right: Fifteenth Doctor, Boom Costume.
Star Trek costumes:
Left: Beckett Mariner, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Right: Brad Boimler, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.Left: Nyota Uhura, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Right: Hemmer, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.Left: Emperor Philippa Georgiou, Star Trek: Discovery. Right: Michael Burnham, Star Trek: Discovery.Left: James T. Kirk. Right: Spock.Visor used by Geordi La Forge.Hat and pipe used by Data playing Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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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!
If a traveler had arrived in San Diego today, not knowing our city is in the middle of Comic-Con, and if they were to walk anywhere downtown or near the San Diego Convention Center, they’d conclude people have gone completely nuts. And to a certain extent they’d be right! Nuts can be good!
Check out these photographs I took while strolling outside Comic-Con today. The crowds were enormous. Super creative cosplay was everywhere. Some silly, bizarre sights designed to attract attention certainly attracted my camera!
A throng of Deadpools riding unicorns? Marketing genius! Funny, too!
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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!
A comic art Mini Con will be coming to San Diego on August 24th, 2024. The free event will be held at Southern California Comics at 8280 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., #124, from 11 am to 5 pm.
Featured artists will be Jevin Loop, Kevin Tran, Phillip Quick, Action Figure God and Zander6comix. This morning at San Diego Comic-Con, Zander himself told me about this cool local comic event. We’ve met on a couple of occasions in the past while I’ve blogged about events around San Diego.
Come support great comic talent and have a fun time. Burgers and Fries will be on hand, too!
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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!
Are you a fan of Harry Potter and the Wizarding World “Potterverse” characters, as they were portrayed in the popular movies? Enjoy these cool cosplay photos taken today in San Diego outside Comic-Con 2024.
Comic-Con’s fun Harry Potter cosplay group has returned!
I spotted the witches and wizards on MLK Promenade, not far from Children’s Park. They would afterward walk through the Comic-Con crowds, casting their magic wherever they turned.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 