Right now there is a whole lot of construction activity along downtown San Diego’s waterfront.
Today, during a walk along the Embarcadero, anyone could observe new buildings rising, an aircraft carrier’s hull being inspected, a cruise ship pier being reinforced, and an iconic San Diego landmark being painted!
First up, check out how quickly the buildings of the Research and Development District (RaDD) are rising!
The five new bayfront buildings will be grouped around the U.S. Navy Region Southwest Headquarters building, which itself was completed two years ago.
I learned from a USS Midway Museum volunteer that the Midway’s hull is inspected and cleaned every year.
The extensive operation consumes a substantial part of the aircraft carrier museum’s budget.
There are numerous sealed inlets in the enormous ship’s hull where saltwater from San Diego Bay might invade. There is also algae and other marine growth to be removed below the waterline. It’s part of a vital hull preservation program.
As I approached the B Street Pier today, home of the Cruise Ship Terminal, I observed a huge drill and other ponderous machinery.
I’ve learned the structural stability of the pier is being improved.
The Port of San Diego project is technically described as curtain wall repairs and backfilling. Don’t ask me exactly what that means!
Lastly, the landmark 1938 County Administration Building’s new paint job continues.
The sections that have been finished look great!
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There’s a very beautiful mural near the front entrance of the Living Coast Discovery Center in Chula Vista that was painted fairly recently. I saw it a couple weeks ago when I visited Sweetwater Marsh in the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
The very colorful mural, depicting native wildlife and plants, decorates a roll up door behind a group of outdoor picnic tables. I took these photos.
I asked a Living Coast Discovery Center employee about it, but she didn’t know who the artist was. If you happen to know, please leave a comment!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The games might be played inside Petco Park, but during the first two days of the 2022 National League Championship Series, plenty of excitement fills the streets of downtown San Diego!
Walking outside the ballpark, one feels the energy from thousands of enthusiastic Padres fans. Many families and generations are creating forever memories.
Baseball gloves are already on many hands, as fans hope to catch a ball during the NLCS.
I’ve never seen so many swag chains!
A few Philadelphia Phillies fans are out there too, but the Friar Faithful far outnumber them.
Enjoy these photographs that I took this morning!
Hopefully the Pads prevail in Game Two early this afternoon, before Major League Baseball’s National League Championship Series heads over to Philadelphia.
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Major League Baseball’s big 2022 National League Championship Series begins in a matter of hours. And the San Diego Padres have home field advantage!
Downtown San Diego has been busy getting ready for the upcoming games at Petco Park. Huge, super excited crowds will be filling the streets this evening!
I wandered around the Gaslamp Quarter and East Village this morning and saw flags and banners going up, sidewalks getting spruced up, news reporters hanging out near the ballpark, and fans in Padres hats and jerseys walking around.
Lots of video production trucks are now parked on two sides of Petco Park.NLCS graphics were up on one of Petco Park’s big videoboards.City workers were repainting stripes on the street near Petco Park.Those barricade “planter boxes” near the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge have recently been painted with orange, brown and yellow. Together they spell P A D R E S.Nearby shops, bars and restaurants are welcoming baseball fans.The Gaslamp Quarter has these Capture the Moment banners.Transit buses everywhere root for our Padres!The Donut Bar has these yummy Padres doughnuts!I hope this place has the game on!A television news cameraman stands by near Petco Park.And this cool guy gave me a thumbs up!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The concrete cast of a weird, apparently inhuman footprint is now on display at the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center. Some residents who live in the area claim the cast is “concrete” evidence of the legendary Proctor Valley Monster.
Over the years, there have been various reported sightings of the Proctor Valley Monster along lonely Proctor Valley Road, in the secluded hills and fields east of Chula Vista, west of Jamul.
Certain witnesses have said the monster resembles Bigfoot, standing about seven feet tall and hairy, walking with long strides. Others have claimed the monster is entirely different. There have been accounts that the Proctor Valley Monster appears like a strange, mutilated cow, or a silent female apparition, or an inexplicable, ghostly light…
Articles I’ve found tell a few of these strange stories and provide possible explanations. Here and here and here and here.
According to an August 20, 2003 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, which is also on display, nobody knows how the bizarre footprint cast ended up in the Bonita Museum’s collection. But there the footprint is, for anyone to see, mounted behind glass!
Is the Proctor Valley Monster merely an urban legend? Is the creature simply a product of human imagination, shadowy fear, and perhaps a bit of sly humor?
At the Bonita Museum visitors can also view a copy of the graphic novel Proctor Valley Road. I flipped quickly through it and discovered more than a few terrifying monsters. According to Amazon’s description, the book follows a group of kids down the most haunted, demon-infested stretch of road in America.
Well, San Diego has the Whaley House, commonly described as the most haunted house in America. We have the most haunted stretch of road, too?
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Many beautiful Día de los Muertos altars can now be viewed in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. They were built for Mexico’s traditional Día de los Muertos celebration, which begins in a little over a week. The holiday stretches from November 1st to 2nd.
Several of the beautiful altars you are about to see have been installed in historical buildings that operate in the State Park as free museums. These altars pay tribute to people who lived in early San Diego.
Today I and several other visitors enjoyed an educational tour of four particular altars. Our friendly and knowledgeable guide was Aaron, whom I’d seen a few minutes prior to the tour hammering away in Old Town’s Blacksmith Shop!
Our group began in front of the Robinson-Rose Visitor Information Center, where we learned about the history of Día de los Muertos, its origin, meaning, and the rich symbolism contained in the traditional altars. You can learn all about the Day of the Dead by checking out this Wikipedia page here.
Our group began by looking at a small altar set up on a cart by the Visitor Center’s front door. The touching altar honored and remembered Old Town State Park volunteers who had passed on from this life.
Over 4 million visitors come to this State Park every year, including many school children. Without dedicated volunteers, maintaining the vibrancy of this very special place wouldn’t be possible.
We then proceeded across a corner of Old Town’s grassy plaza to La Casa de Machado y Silvas, which is now the Commercial Restaurant museum. Inside, we learned about this old adobe’s history.
In one room of the historic adobe a large, beautiful altar paid tribute to many notable residents of San Diego in the mid-1800s.
Some photographs in the altar showed relatives of María Antonia and her husband, José Antonio Nicasio Silvas. The newly married couple was gifted this house by María’s father José Manuel Machado, who commanded the military guards at nearby Mission San Diego.
Next came an altar inside La Casa de Machado y Stewart. The images in this altar are of José Manuel Machado and his wife María Serafina Valdez de Machado.
The two raised eleven children. Their daughter, Rosa Machado, married a New Englander named John “Jack” Collins Stewart and thereby inherited this house. Stewart was a shipmate of famous author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., who described a visit to the house in Two Years Before the Mast.
It was interesting to see that the ofrendas (offerings) on the floor in front of this altar include playing cards, a pipe and liquor!
Food and objects that brought pleasure in life are meant to entice souls back to our world–at least during Día de los Muertos.
Our group finally headed to the small historic San Diego Union Building, where an altar remembered two figures in the early history of our city’s major newspaper.
The photos are of Edward “Ned” Bushyhead and José Narciso Briseño. Bushyhead was not only a Cherokee miner and lawman, but he was the newspaper’s first publisher. Briseño, a native of Chile, was the printer.
This altar is quite unusual in that it contains a pile of sorts–small typesetting pieces used to assemble words, that were subsequently printed in columns on sheets of paper using a hand press.
The next two altars that I photographed today were not part of the tour.
The following example on a cart can be found in Wallach & Goldman Square, among many shops. I know nothing specific about it…
And finally, probably the most impressive of all the Old Town altars is the one inside the sala (living room) of La Casa de Estudillo.
The sprawling adobe and its beautiful courtyard, built by Presidio comandante José María Estudillo and his son, lieutenant José Antonio Estudillo, became San Diego’s social and religious center during the Mexican and early American periods.
Most Californio families, like the Estudillos, were Roman Catholic…traveling priests performed weddings, baptisms, and memorial services here in the Sala for the people of San Diego.
I encourage those visiting Old Town San Diego State Historic Park this week to sign up for the daily 3 pm Día de los Muertos altar tour. A limited number of people can participate. The guided tour lasts a little less than an hour.
You can sign up at the counter inside the Robinson-Rose Visitor Information Center!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
First our team eliminated the New York Mets from Major League Baseball’s playoffs, and last night the Pads did the same to the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers!
A new mural has popped up in San Diego, at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Island Avenue, depicting ace pitcher Joe Musgrove, who started the deciding games in the two postseason series so far. His red ears are a bad omen for would-be opponents. The street art states: “It’s Our Time!”
San Diego baseball fans are feeling it!
The cool spray paint art was created by Ground Floor Murals, who’ve produced great Padres murals all over the place! This particular mural was sponsored by the Downtown San Diego Partnership Clean & Safe program, and WestBrew, a brewery lurking behind that wall.
Next conquest . . . the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
This morning a unique ceremony was held in San Diego. The 66th Massing of the Colors and Service of Remembrance honored the flag of our country and those who’ve served to protect it–and the Freedom it represents.
The annual Massing of the Colors is presented by the San Diego Chapter of The Military Order of the World Wars. The organization is made up of officers from the uniformed services, their spouses and descendants.
This year about 25 color guards from all around the city came together for the ceremony at the U.S. Army of the West Mormon Battalion Historic Site, which is located in Old Town. The MCRD Marine Band provided patriotic music.
I watched as the many color guards arrived, streaming in from nearby parking lots and down sidewalks. There were youth belonging to the ROTC and Junior ROTC programs. There were proud Veterans who’d fought for their country. There were descendants of those who’d served.
Before the ceremony began, the color guards paraded single file through the grassy area where the audience would watch, forming a line of flags to one side. Then several color guards brought more flags forward before an Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance, and singing of the National Anthem. Coming to the podium, Anaeya Baez, from Girl Scout Troop 6116, read My Name is Old Glory.
A guest speaker, the Honorable M. Janet Chin, reminded everyone of the sacrifices many have made. She expressed hope that present and future generations will remember that history, and will continue the tradition of service.
The motto of the Military Order of the World Wars is: It is nobler to serve than to be served.
The ceremony ended with Taps, a Benediction, and the Retiring of the Colors.
As you can see in the following photographs, I arrived and took my seat very early…
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Many community volunteers had gathered at Cortez Hill’s Tweet Street linear park to tidy up and beautify a special corner of the neighborhood!
They were assisted by two friendly members of downtown San Diego’s Clean and Safe program.
As I hurried off to a morning appointment, I snapped a couple pics of the work crew getting started. When I walked past again around noon, oh, what a difference! The planted areas were more beautiful than ever!
If you want to join these good people or help them out, check out their Facebook page here!
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Thank you for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often, so you might want to bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and check back from time to time.
You can explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on this website’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There’s a lot of stuff to share and enjoy!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 