Tag: san diego

House of England celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday!

The House of England in Balboa Park celebrated the 250th birthday of Jane Austen today!

Dressed in Regency attire, members of the Jane Austen Society of North America San Diego Region assembled outside the House of England cottage and listened to beautiful music performed by Amanda Fagan. Many of the ladies were wearing bonnets!

Jane Austen was a major literary figure who wrote such famous novels as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Songwriter and prolific creator Amanda Fagan (@amandafaganofficial) entertained everyone with original compositions inspired by Jane Austen novels!

I learned that Amanda Fagan is writing a screenplay for a musical based on Austen’s satirical novel Northanger Abbey. I suspect it will include a good deal of humor! See her YouTube page here.

Inside the House of England cottage they were serving Victoria sponge cupcakes and scones with proper British jam and cream, and, of course, a cup of tea. I noticed that a few displays in the cottage pay tribute to Jane Austen and her importance to world literature.

Heading into the cottage…

Back outside. (Did they have smartphones at the turn of the 19th century?)

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Chalk art at Galbani Bella Vita Fest in Little Italy!

Artist team Brianna Cunha.

Check out this collection of photos! My camera was aimed at amazing chalk art at this weekend’s Galbani Bella Vita Fest in Little Italy!

The festival, produced by the ArtWalk San Diego team, is similar to the old Festa events held in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood years ago. In addition to chalk artists decorating several blocks of India Street, there’s plenty of Italian culture, including food, live music and wine tasting.

The public can stroll through the festival for free, which many people were doing this Saturday afternoon!

Dozens of chalk artists have arrived from all over, including from out-of-state. Most are friendly and welcome a few words from admirers.

The event continues Sunday, October 19, 2025 from 11 am to 5 pm. Consequently, many of the artists when I walked by were still at work on their colorful chalk masterpieces!

Here are some of the Italy-themed chalk art creations, most of which are works in progress. I’ve included artist team names in the photo captions…

Artist team Graceful Meadow.
Artist team Cecelia Linayao Fine Art.
Artist team Madonnara.
Artist team The Kim Sisters.
Artist team Kimberly Canilang.
Artist team Shawdell Smith Art.
Artist team Team Arcala.
Artist team MDFerrera Fine Art.
Artist team Tonie Garza.
Artist team Meg Beverly Canilang.
Artist team Gutierrez Family.
Artist team Steele Canyon High School.
Artist team Maddalena & Rogalski.
Artist team Kat Brown.

Look who else was present at the festival. Friendly people representing KPBS!

They told me they could use a little extra help now that federal government funding has ended. Check out their website if you’d like to help.

And a few tables down India Street I found ArtReach! They engage youth with art education and paint beautiful murals all over San Diego. You’ve seen many on my blog.

People passing by had created small works of art at their table, too!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

La Jolla’s historic Post Office and the New Deal.

In ten years the historic post office in the Village of La Jolla will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

It’s very fortunate the 1935 building has been preserved. The result of a Great Depression-era works program, the post office was threatened by a planned U.S. Postal Service downsizing in 2011. The historic building was saved by an outpouring of community activism.

The handsome La Jolla Post Office was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 and remains a beloved landmark in La Jolla at 1140 Wall Street.

The architectural style is considered Mission Revival. You can read about its construction and history on the Living New Deal website here.

It’s interesting to note the building’s plaque states the La Jolla Post Office’s creation was the result of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Living New Deal website, however, states it was the Public Works Administration (PWA). The two were separate programs.

Inside the post office lobby, a beautiful New Deal-era mural was painted by renowned local artist Belle Baranceanu. The art shows a hilly panorama of La Jolla and the Pacific Ocean. If you’d like to see photos of the mural, click here!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Scary signs Halloween approaches San Diego!

Attention! Beware! Halloween is creeping ever closer! It’s steadily drawing nearer, nearer…

Halloween is destined to arrive in San Diego in merely two weeks!

Are you ready to encounter spooky ghosts, crafty witches, thirsty vampires and undead zombies? Have you stocked up on candy?

Looking around, it seems the entire city is preparing for Halloween. Ominous signs are everywhere. You see omens of the approaching day in shop windows, front yards, public spaces…

For the past couple weeks I’ve been photographing Halloween stuff that I’ve encountered.

Can you identify a few of the places where I took these photos?

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Free help to repair your bike in San Diego!

Does your bicycle need repair? Do you live anywhere near City Heights in San Diego? Check out this free, very cool community resource!

Bikes del Pueblo operates on Sundays near the corner of El Cajon Boulevard and 40th Street. You can see them in action in these photographs.

The collective is a bunch of volunteers and neighbors who get together to maintain bicycles and help each other. They provide free educational workshops, and access to tools and bicycle parts. Some of the regular participants have a lot of experience repairing bikes and are happy to help. Bikes del Pueblo welcomes donations–bicycles, parts, and money–to help keep a good thing going.

When I walked by a few weekends ago, they were really busy! Some people were even hanging out at the picnic benches and enjoying the sunny day. What a great resource for a community that can be underserved.

Got a bike? Does it need some work? Check out their website for more info by clicking here!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Aerial Races mural at Air and Space Museum!

Several very cool murals adorn a curved interior wall at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. I particularly like this one. It was painted beneath the older and much larger March of Transportation mural.

I’m not sure if it has an official title–it’s described as a pre-World War I scenic mural…depicting an imaginary airfield in France, about the time of the first great aerial races and daring exhibitions… It was painted in March, 1984 by New Zealand pilot and artist-designer Jon Francis Petrie.

In the mural, words painted on an observation tower indicate: ROUEN Aérodrome La Grande Exposition d’AVIATION 1910.

I’ve tried to search for biographical info on the artist, but to no avail, except that he was born in 1940. Perhaps someone who is knowledgeable can leave a comment.

…

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.

Feel free to share!

A butterfly in the Garden of Transformation!

Liberty Station in Point Loma boasts many great works of public art. The Garden of Transformation, with its colorful, luminous butterfly, is one of my favorites! You can find it in the North Promenade near the Stone Brewing patio.

Sunlight shines through the monarch butterfly’s translucent wings producing a rainbow-like effect. It’s magical.

Garden of Transformation was dedicated almost exactly a year ago, in October 2024. The steel and dichroic laminated acrylic sculpture was created by San Diego artist Kaori Fukuyama. (Perhaps you’ve seen her Wave of Change on the front of the Target store in North Park.)

The small garden where this stunning butterfly lives is an official Monarch Waystation. The space contains milkweeds and other nectar plants. According to a sign near the art, between early spring and fall you might observe adult butterflies, young caterpillars, chrysalis, and other pollinators here.

A native seed library stands nearby.

The artist, in her statement, envisions “this installation as a welcoming space where people from diverse backgrounds can come together to observe monarch butterflies and learn about the conservation of this important species…”

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Memories on the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy.

Today is officially the 250th birthday of the United States Navy. On October 13, 2025, the U.S. Navy was established by the Continental Congress.

Needless to say, the Navy has a very large presence in San Diego, with important bases that include Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Point Loma, Naval Air Station North Island (where naval aviation was born), and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. Over the years, countless sailors trained at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, and have deployed from San Diego’s harbor on ships in both wartime and peacetime. Until 1997, Top Gun pilots trained at Naval Air Station Miramar.

I’ve published a wide variety of blogs concerning the U.S. Navy in San Diego. Given today’s 250th anniversary, I thought this would be a good time to revisit some of those past blog posts.

Click the following links to bring back some U.S. Navy memories…

Creating a plaque: Navy history in San Diego revealed!

History of recruits at Naval Training Center San Diego.

The Ship’s Bell mosaic at Liberty Station.

Inside the Navy’s landlocked USS Recruit training ship!

Nautical History Gallery & Museum opens!

The Naked Warrior stands in Coronado park.

Chow: Feeding a Navy in San Diego.

Coronado’s surprising role in submarine history.

Top Gun fans vs. reality on USS Midway!

Monument to tallest structures ever built in San Diego.

Bronze plaque marks birthplace of naval aviation.

Memories of the Greatest Generation at Liberty Station.

…

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.

Feel free to share!

The room where San Diego’s first waltz was danced.

Have you read Two Years Before the Mast? You might remember how author Richard Henry Dana describes the tiny Mexican town of San Diego which he visited in 1835. He would ride into town for pleasure when not unloading, loading or drying cattle hides at La Playa in Point Loma. His famous work of literature vividly describes a fandango in Old Town at the home of Don Juan Bandini.

Bandini’s casa would eventually become Old Town’s Cosmopolitan Hotel, and the very room where the first waltz was likely danced in California can be visited in the hotel today. That’s the room in the above photograph!

Today I ventured into the Cosmopolitan Hotel and discovered two interesting signs in the historic room. The first explains how an extravagant wood floor was installed by Bandini for dancing. It was probably the first wooden floor in California.

Dana wrote in Two Years Before the Mast:

“A great deal has been said about our friend Don Juan Bandini, and when he did appear, which was toward the close of the evening, he certainly gave us the most graceful dancing that I had ever seen.

His slight and graceful figure was well calculated for dancing, and he moved about with the grace and daintiness of a young fawn. He was loudly and repeatedly applauded, the old men and women jumping out of their seats in admiration, and the young people waving their hats and handkerchiefs.”

More photos of the restored room today…

A second sign explains how in the later 1800’s, after the abandoned Bandini house had been acquired by Albert and Emily Seeley and converted into the Cosmopolitan Hotel, big social parties took place in this room once again. They were the talk of the town!

Would you like to visit the historic room yourself? Look for a friendly tintype photographer outside this door. Then step through!

While you’re at it, you can have an old-fashioned tintype photograph taken as a keepsake. Perhaps pretend you’ve traveled back in time to the mid-1800’s, when this photographic technology was developed!

…

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.

Feel free to share!

Day of the Dead and early San Diego residents.

Another year is passing by. In a couple of weeks, Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) will be observed. Loved ones who’ve passed on from this life will be remembered.

The gravesites at El Campo Santo in Old Town are decorated already. Every early resident of San Diego buried here is remembered with flowers, papel picado, Day of the Dead skulls… Every person here was loved by someone.

This small cemetery is the final resting place of so many different people: the Kumeyaay, Spanish, Mexican, American. Newborn babies, the elderly. The rich, the poor. Public figures, unknown people. The lucky, the unlucky. Victims of old age, disease, accident, violence, injustice.

Mortals all.

Every one was loved by someone.

…

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.

Feel free to share!