Tag: san diego

Cabrillo National Monument celebrates 109 years!

Today–Friday, October 14th, 2022–is the 109th “birthday” of Cabrillo National Monument!

As you can see on the board above, this amazing park situated at the end of Point Loma was established exactly 109 years ago by President Wilson.

I arrived just a few minutes before the Discover Cabrillo National Monument ranger talk, so I quickly headed to the back patio to hear about the many qualities of this special place.

We learned about how the park protects the native flora and fauna. We also learned a little history concerning the 1542 voyage of explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, and the bunkers placed on the coastal bluffs during World War II.

After the talk I walked about, simply to take in the stunning views and fresh ocean air, and to take some photos. As you can see, it was a gray, overcast day.

The 109th anniversary of Cabrillo National Monument wasn’t nearly as big a deal as its centennial nine years ago. I was there for that big occasion, and took many photographs of the historic event which I posted here!

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San Diego gets ready to BEAT LA!

Are you ready? Major League Baseball’s playoffs have returned to San Diego!

Beginning tonight, the San Diego Padres have two consecutive home games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s the 2022 National League Division Series!

Early this afternoon people working the game were streaming in, and super fans were already lining up outside Petco Park. Bars and restaurants in the Gaslamp and East Village were beginning to get busy.

I took a walk with my camera out to take a few photos. I also managed to capture the enthusiasm!

Let’s go Padres!

BEAT LA!!!

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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!

Preparing for Día de los Muertos in Bonita!

Día de los Muertos is just two weeks away!

During my visit yesterday to the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center, I saw how members of the community, including local students, are preparing for the traditional celebration.

Check out the above skeleton, who is using an oar to cross the river from the afterlife. The designs on the boat were painted by Bonita youth!

For Día de los Muertos, the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center will display many handmade skeletons suspended outdoors near this fellow rowing his boat, plus altars (ofrendas) remembering loved ones who’ve passed on. The beautiful altars will be assembled by local artists, including Maricruz Alvarado and Anna Siqueiros. For more information, see the museum’s event calendar here.

I learned the boat in my photographs will probably be filled with marigolds. The bright color and scent of marigolds is said to attract departed souls to Día de los Muertos altars.

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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!

Chula Vista Art Guild Exhibition in Bonita!

Some remarkably good art can be enjoyed right now when you visit the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center!

The Chula Vista Art Guild Exhibition highlights the work of talented local artists, who’ve contributed many pieces in a variety of styles. Much of the artwork depicts the culture and life of San Diego’s South Bay. If you’re anywhere near Bonita between now and October 28, 2022, I recommend a visit! It’s free!

I learned today that the Bonita Museum’s upcoming Blooming Art event, hosted by the Bonita Valley Garden Club on October 21 and 22, will feature colorful flower arrangements inspired by the artwork now on display.

Everyone is welcome to create a floral arrangement for Blooming Art! All you have to do is head down to the museum, select a particular art piece that you’d like to complement with flowers, and let the folks at the museum know! But you have to do it by this Saturday!

Did you know that the Chula Vista Art Guild had a rather auspicious beginning back in 1945?

Alfred R. Mitchell, President of the San Diego Art Guild, co-founder of the San Diego Museum of Art, co-founder of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego, co-founder and president of the La Jolla Art Association, widely known as the “Dean of San Diego County artists,” was also founder of the Chula Vista Art Guild!

Here are just a few of the many great canvases now on display at the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center…

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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!

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Paper theaters open to audiences in La Jolla!

Dozens of theaters have recently opened in La Jolla. Audiences have been gathering to view some of the most unusual theatre productions ever conceived. And it’s free!

Yes, dozens of small paper theaters have been carefully folded open in the Wisteria Cottage Gallery of the La Jolla Historical Society. The exhibition is titled The Smallest Show on Earth: Paper Theaters Explored.

Those who are interested in art, theatre, Victorian Era London (where toy theaters originated) or collectibles will be intrigued by this important collection.

Popular in the 19th century, paper theater kits were sold at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater. The kits included tabletop theaters that one could easily assemble, plus paper doll players and scripts. Tiny dramas could be played out at home. Better yet, original productions could be imagined and performed!

These paper theaters might seem a quaint reminder of a simpler time, a time when there was no television, no radio and no internet. For home entertainment, people had to rely on their own intelligence, creativity and imagination.

This cool exhibition includes many paper theaters from that era long past and the posters that promoted them. You’ll also see new, contemporary creations that were inspired by this very unique do-it-yourself art form!

The Smallest Show on Earth: Paper Theaters Explored continues through January 22, 2023.

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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!

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Oil painted beauty and a La Jolla walk.

Nature’s beauty between La Jolla Cove and Children’s Pool is stunning. Even on a gray Autumn day.

I walked along the ocean in La Jolla this morning and took photographs of rugged rocks, crashing waves, sea birds, and people quietly gazing toward the horizon.

Once in a great while I will experiment with my images and apply “artistic” filters using my graphics editor. I thought I’d try using the GIMP oilify filter for this batch of photographs.

Here they are…

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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!

Kumeyaay remembered in La Jolla park.

May the resiliency of the Kumeyaay forever be remembered.

At the north end of Cuvier Park in La Jolla you will find the above plaque. It’s set beside the sidewalk near the corner of Coast Boulevard and Cuvier Street.

A nearby boulder contains a pair of oval depressions, used long ago by the native Kumeyaay to grind acorns, seeds, roots and other food. The Kumeyaay call these grinding mortars ‘ehmuu, which means bedrock hole.

The boulder with its ancient history was restored to this location last year. It had been removed for a construction project. You can read about the Re-Internment of the Mortar That was Removed by the City by clicking here.

The plaque dedication ceremony included a Kumeyaay blessing and the performance of Bird Singers.

I took these photos during a walk today.

The sun was shining. Ocean waves crashed upon rocks a short distance from the place where I paused.

May the resiliency of the Kumeyaay forever be remembered.

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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!

Tar, varnish and paint on San Diego Bay!

Have you read those classic nautical stories where sailors are tasked with tarring ropes in a ship’s rigging?

Well, if you visited the Maritime Museum of San Diego today, you might have seen this age-old activity in practice. A museum volunteer was tarring the shrouds of Californian, official tall ship of California!

As I walked about the museum’s historic ships, I noticed the forward hatch of the 1904 steam yacht Medea had been recently varnished. And another volunteer was busy applying the second of three coats of paint to the railing of the San Diego harbor’s 1914 Pilot boat!

Even in calm San Diego Bay, the daily weather, salt and sun slowly ravage ships. The sun’s ultraviolet rays eventually break down everything, even tar. To maintain the beautiful vessels of a world-famous maritime museum requires elbow grease!

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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!

Learn about nature at Torrey Pines trailhead!

At Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, several popular trails (including the Beach Trail and Razor Point Trail) can be accessed from a small parking lot south of the Visitor Center.

At the trailhead visitors will see a wooden structure, the words Torrey Pines Docent Society, and many smiling volunteers who are happy to provide information or explain interpretative displays before you begin your hike. The structure is called the Trailhead Information Kiosk, or TIK for short. Docents greeting visitors here are called TIK Talkers!

I remember how, many years ago, this trailhead “kiosk” was nothing more than a portable table and EZ Up canopy. Today’s handsome, sturdy structure is a testament to what volunteer hands can create!

The Trailhead Information Kiosk is a great place to learn about Torrey Pines’ native plants and animals. There are signs detailing what hikers might encounter, photographs of wildlife, and cool models of insects, snakes and other animals.

Before beginning a short hike the other day, I paused at the TIK to absorb a little knowledge.

Reptiles of Torrey Pines

Birds of Torrey Pines

Insects

Flowering Plants of Torrey Pines

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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!

Torrey Pines Lodge prepares for its centennial!

The Torrey Pines Lodge has been welcoming visitors for nearly 100 years. In 2023 the historic adobe building, nestled in the beauty of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, will celebrate its centennial!

When I visited the Torrey Pines Lodge this weekend, several docents told me that plans are now being made for observing its centennial. I hope to attend public celebrations next year!

As I walked through the old building, which today serves as a Visitor Center, I viewed a few displays concerning its history.

I’ve taken photographs for you to enjoy. (If you’d like to see more of the Lodge’s interior, and several of it’s museum-like exhibits, check out an old blog post here.)

The San Diego Union newspaper article, dated January 1, 1923, describes the new Beautiful Adobe Lodge.

Tableware from the days when the Torrey Pines Lodge served as restaurant.

Dinner was one dollar! Motorists on their way through to San Diego or Los Angeles could also purchase Mexican and Indian rugs, blankets, pottery, baskets, etc. at the Lodge.

The Torrey Pines Lodge was dedicated on April 7, 1923.

In the summer of 1922 when construction began on the Torrey Pines Lodge, this area consisted of a treeless and windswept sandstone bluff.

Miss Ellen Browning Scripps, a noted San Diego Philanthropist and the sole contributor to the acquisition of what was called at the time, “The Torrey Pines City Reserve,” donated the funds to build the Torrey Pines Lodge…

…Architect Richard Requa was noted for his pueblo and Mayan style of architecture, and designed many buildings in San Diego’s Balboa Park…

The Lodge was built from sun baked adobe bricks, made on the construction site from local clays. Miss Scripps also brought Hopi Indians from the Southwest to aid in the making of authentic adobe bricks…

The Lodge and its restaurant opened to the public in February of 1923 and was an immediate success, perhaps due to its stunning scenery and location adjacent to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Highway…the main road between Los Angeles and San Diego until the mid-1930’s…

…the Lodge was a favorite day trip…as well as being a popular stop for tour buses of the era. The Model T Fords of the 1920’s found the highway’s steep grade a challenge…

Old photographs shows dining tables on the Lodge’s front terrace.

The beautiful Torrey Pines Lodge in 2022. Some restoration work is visible.

A wooden plaque inside the Lodge.

The Torrey Pines Lodge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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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!