A unique Valentine’s Tree greets customers inside Valentine’s Mexican Food in downtown San Diego!
At first glance one might assume it’s a Christmas Tree, but decorated entirely with red tinsel, ribbons, crafted roses and glittering ornaments. With a closer look the truth is revealed. The tree is wrapped with Love!
The rooftop of the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park is seldom open to the public. I was lucky that the rooftop happened to be open today, the first Tuesday of the month, when The NAT is free to San Diego residents and active military and their dependents. But I was told that’s not always the case.
The rooftop is indeed reliably open to the public the third Friday of every month, when the museum presents Nat at Night and remains open until 10 pm.
The Natural History Museum’s rooftop not only offers spectacular views, but there’s food and drink and plenty of tables. Today The Craft Taco had their menu available. Later this year, the food will be provided by San Diego’s Restaurant of the Year in 2024 (according to San Diego Magazine): Wolf in the Woods.
Rooftop views are to the east and south. To the east, one can see Balboa Park’s beautiful Desert and Rose Gardens, Morley Field and Florida Canyon, and in the far distance, the Cuyamaca Mountains. To the south is the Bea Evenson Fountain, the Fleet Science Center, and glimpses of downtown San Diego skyscrapers through treetops. In the distance one can recognize a slice of South Bay, and, on a clear day, one can see all the way to Mexico.
Okay! Time for today’s photographs!
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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.
Fiesta de Reyes in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park appears to be ready for Christmas!
The Mexican restaurant and its colorful shops have been decorated with bright wreaths, poinsettias, Christmas trees, a Nativity scene, and a larger-than-life display up on one stage depicting the three wise men.
As you can see from my photographs taken this morning, many of the holiday decorations have a festive Mexican flavor!
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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.
Should we be frightened? Halloween has crept into San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter!
I took these spooky (and fun) photographs early this morning in dim light, then in the late afternoon as restaurants and bars prepared for a terrifying onslaught of evening partiers.
Trick or treat!
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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.
Over the weekend, as I walked through the Bella Vita Fest in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood, I noticed a large display of fascinating old photographs.
Convivio, a cultural organization that works to preserve the Italian community’s history in San Diego, was showing images from our city’s past!
There were photographs of tuna fishermen and boats and cannery workers, old restaurants and businesses on India Street, Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Washington Elementary School, families, neighbors playing bocce…
It was pointed out to me that many of the houses and buildings that were photographed generations ago can still be recognized on the present-day streets of Little Italy!
Checking out the Convivio website, I see they are undertaking an important history preservation project. Their Italian Digital History Initiative hopes that residents of San Diego will contribute to a growing archives full of memories. The current cornerstone of Convivio’s preservation focus is the Italian Digital History Initiative, established in 2006, which preserves the local Italian community’s heritage through photographs, documents, oral histories, and other new-media resources.
If you have interesting material that helps tell the story of Italian immigrants in San Diego, you can bring it down to the AMICIBAR (the historical Amici House) next to the Little Italy Dog Park on Sundays, between 10 am and 2 pm. They’ll digitize photos, documents (marriage, birth certificates), awards/certificates of recognition, personal letters, permits and licenses (fishing or retail industries, for example), and whatever tells THE STORY OF YOUR FAMILY HERITAGE!
Learn more about this important project by clicking here.
Irving Gill was an American architect who did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture.
When I visited Oceanside a little over a month ago, I photographed Irving Gill’s final project: the 1936 Blade Tribune building. Let me share those photos now!
If you’d like to read a great article concerning the history of the now defunct Oceanside Blade-Tribune newspaper, click here.
The 1936 Irving Gill building you see in these photos, at 401 Seagaze Drive, was built to accommodate a newly created Oceanside Daily Blade Tribune and News. The unique building with an Art Deco façade was restored in 2019 and today is home to the Blade 1936 Italian restaurant!
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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 beach scene mural that shows the Oceanside Pier, a woodie and three girls with a surfboard on the sand has appeared in downtown Oceanside. You can view it on the parking lot side of Finney’s Crafthouse restaurant. Postcard-like words read: Greetings From OCEANSIDE.
The artist is Jerry Ragg. The mural was painted in 2024 in memory of JT Ragg.
I spotted the cool artwork during my weekend walk in Oceanside and took these photographs into the sun. Consequently, I had to increase the contrast of each image quite a bit.
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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.
Hand and shoe prints in concrete of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
If you’re heading to San Diego Comic-Con this week, heads up! Did you know you can see the actual hand and shoe prints of major movie stars and celebrities in a Gaslamp Quarter restaurant?
The prints of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Downey Jr., William Shatner, the actors who played R2-D2 and C-3PO, and even Michael Jackson can be viewed on the floor when you step into Mr. Tempo Gaslamp San Diego at 701 Fifth Avenue!
The building formerly was home to the Theatre Box movie theater. They had these hand prints brought in from Los Angeles, and they remain here to this day. Sadly, Mr. Tempo has dropped the Hollywood theme and many of the prints are now covered by tables. But it’s well worth stepping inside for a quick look!
By the way, the Shatner prints, if you can find them, were created here in San Diego, a couple years ago during Comic-Con!
Hand and shoe prints of The Hunger Games actors.Hand and feet prints of Shirley Temple.Hand and shoe prints of Humphrey Bogart.Hand and shoe prints of Robert Downey Jr.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
The Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café pop-up fast food restaurant has returned to San Diego for Comic-Con 2024. And they’ve opened before the convention begins!
I swung by 910 J Street today shortly after the the Speed Café opened at 11 am. Not many people were about. In a few days, during Comic-Con starting Wednesday, there will probably be a line halfway down the block–like last year!
I took these photos of the fun Sonic the Hedgehog themed interior, then ordered a milkshake and chicken sandwich (that I consumed a moment ago) from the super friendly people behind the counter.
I must admit the mocha shake and spicy fried chicken sandwich were actually really good! Better then some other fast food joints! The chicken was tasty, crispy and moist inside–yum!
When the Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Café pop-up officially opens on Wednesday, I’m told Sonic himself will be present for the kids. And, of course, there will be Sonic video games that can be freely played, 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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 