Substantial improvements are being made to Heritage County Park near Old Town San Diego. The grassy upper area will soon feature a new outdoor meeting space/classroom, new walkways, trees and shrubs, and a new event gazebo perfect for weddings. The project is scheduled to be completed this summer.
I took photos over the construction fence a couple days ago. Hundreds of potted plants are in position and ready to be planted.
The historic Victorian-era structures in Heritage County Park will also be improved according to the park’s website.
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Easter Sunday, for many, is a day full of promise, joy, new life.
As I walked through Balboa Park early this afternoon, I could see in many open faces a love of life. Laughter and smiles. Delighting in the sunshine. Soaking in our world’s beauty and the bright colors of spring.
I wandered about without any destination in mind…
A smile and Easter Bunny ears in the Balboa Park Visitors Center.Joyful baile folklórico dancing in the Plaza de Panama.Is there a more wonderful place?Plenty of flowers for a photographic background.The Spring Orchids In The Park Show attracts a big crowd inside the Casa del Prado.A street performer has colorful balloons ready.Mitchell Walker brought three didgeridoos today!Spring has turned the park’s trees bright green.I see golden California poppies along the San Diego Natural History Museum’s new nature trail.Spanish Village is always colorful, no matter the season.Abstract artist Lucas Smith is exhibiting in Gallery 21 through tomorrow.Another weekend in Spanish Village means more live glassblowing!Plenty of color here!The San Diego History Center will soon have the official opening of Taste San Diego: Filipino Culinary Journeys.What spring looks like between Casa de Balboa and the House of Hospitality.A couple of the International Cottages were open on Easter Sunday. This very beautiful pendant is displayed in the House of Korea.Imagination Station is now playing at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater.A prickly pear blooms in the Kate O. Sessions Cactus Garden.Colorful umbrellas provide shade during rehearsal before the Sunday two o’clock organ concert.Talented musicians in a splash of sunshine along El Prado.An artist has captured some of this world’s infinite color.Balboa Park’s thriving rose garden attracts many families on Easter Sunday.
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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.
April 19, 2025 is the 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. A special event celebrating that first victory of patriotic Minutemen over the redcoats of the Kingdom of Great Britain was held today in San Diego!
At Mormon Battalion Historic Site in Old Town, local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution welcomed the public to the colorful and educational event.
DAR and SAR members, who are descended from patriots of the American Revolutionary War, were dressed in colonial garb. Historical information was available at a number of tables.
I was met by many smiles!
Above is the City of San Diego Proclamation concerning the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington Concord.
Whereas, on this day…the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord, igniting a struggle for liberty and self-government that would shape the course of history…
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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.
If you read this in time, you might head down to Balboa Park to enjoy San Diego EarthFest. The big environmental festival is being held on the grass near Park Boulevard and Presidents Way today–Saturday, April 19, 2025–until 5 pm.
Numerous organizations are present, providing education and volunteering opportunities to those who want to help protect our environment.
This the third year of EarthFest, not to be confused with the gigantic EarthFair that filled the entire park years ago. A smaller space, but still numerous participants! Non-profit organizations are joined by food trucks, artists, and vendors. There are several stages offering entertainment and education.
Because it’s mid-afternoon as I type this, I’ll quickly share these photographs. That might give you time to head on down!
“May the Fourth” be with blood donors in San Diego!
The Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park will be hosting a May the 4th Blood Drive, in partnership with the San Diego Blood Bank. The event will take place at the museum from 10 am to 4 pm.
Not only will this event include awesome Star Wars cosplay by local fan groups, but donors will get a free Comic-Con Museum ticket and a coupon for a complimentary Soapy Joe’s car wash!
The San Diego Blood Bank could really use your life-saving donation. You can schedule an appointment here. Walk-ins are also welcome!
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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.
Billowing Bait is a kinetic sculpture on Shelter Island, mounted near the entrance of Nielson Beaumont Marine. I spotted it during a recent walk in Point Loma.
The sculptor is Jon Koehler. His shimmering work of art features over 300 small stainless steel elements that move together but independently with the wind. Created in 2013 according to its webpage (2012 according to the nearby plaque), the sculpture is part of the Port of San Diego Public Art Collection.
The shining sculpture is meant to resemble a school of small bait fish . . . or a billowing spinnaker sail. You can learn more about it here.
If you ever walk past 2420 Shelter Island Drive on a breezy day, pause to watch Billowing Bait come alive!
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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.
In 1531 the Blessed Virgin Mary was said to have appeared miraculously in Mexico. You can read that history here.
Today, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe (a Catholic title of the Virgin Mary) can be seen throughout Mexico, and San Diego, too.
A standard image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, filled with symbolism, hangs in homes and churches. It is painted on murals, on cars and appears in tattoos. The Virgin of Guadalupe seems everywhere.
Not surprisingly, the iconic image also appears on textiles. An important part of the Virgin of Guadalupe story includes her likeness appearing miraculously on the inside of a cloak.
The exhibition features outfits worn by women and men, traditional huipiles (handwoven tunics largely worn by indigenous peoples in Mexico), jackets, shoes and more. Many of the crafted pieces are very colorful, as you can see from my photographs.
Signs throughout the exhibit explain why the Virgin of Guadalupe became a religious and cultural phenomenon–how, in Mexico, invading Catholicism eventually melded with indigenous sensibilities, producing the divine but grounded symbolism one sees in the now beloved image.
The Mingei International Museum has presented many outstanding exhibitions, and this one is right up there. I was surprised to see so many different objects, and such variety. I was excited to see so much life.
Each work seems a miracle of human faith and creativity.
Few people enjoy the scenic view in the above photograph. That’s because the remote Coast View parking lot is seldom visited at Cabrillo National Monument.
The small parking lot can be found at the end of Cabrillo Road, just before the gate to the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. Most park visitors who drive down Cabrillo Road stop at Tidepools Parking and go no farther.
I recently posted a blog about my amazing hike up the Coastal Trail. I began from a spot near Tidepools Parking and walked north to Sea Cove Parking, where the trail ends. I didn’t mention that from the latter parking lot, I continued north a short distance along the side of Cabrillo Road, in order to reach Coast View Parking. That’s where these photographs were taken.
An overlook at the Coast View parking lot not only offers scenic views of the Pacific Ocean and sandstone bluffs, but there are information signs well worth reading.
Here I am carefully walking north along the side of Cabrillo Road…
I’ve arrived at Coast View Parking. There are benches where people can relax and gaze out toward the ocean.
A sign contains a poem…
“…The great rhythms of nature…have here their spacious and primeval liberty…”
Above the parking lot, up atop the Point Loma peninsula, one can see Battery Ashburn…
Embedded in the ridge in front of you was one of San Diego’s most important defenses during World War II. Well-hidden from approaching ships, Battery Ashburn housed two 16-inch guns…
Workers finished building the battery in March of 1944… Vibrations from the blast were so intense that they were rumored to have cracked windows in Hotel del Coronado across the harbor…
Turning east, I lifted my camera and took this photo of historic Battery Ashburn:
I then noticed a truck leaving the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, which handles sewage and gray water created by more then 2.2 million people who live nearby!
A beautiful day at Cabrillo National Monument, and a parking lot that few people visit…
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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.
An extraordinary exhibit concerning the history of baseball’s Negro Leagues officially opens tomorrow, April 15, 2025, in San Diego!
Extensive displays celebrating African-American baseball players who helped lead the way to a more integrated and tolerant society can now be enjoyed on the 8th Floor Reading Room of the Central Library. The exhibit is titled Barrier Breakers.
Visitors to the Central Library are in for a treat. The epic exhibition is brought to our city by the San Diego Padres and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
There are biographies of athletes who competed in the Negro Leagues–complete with stats, accomplishments, photographs and memories. There are stories of how trailblazing players were eventually accepted by Major League Baseball. Different eras are represented, and key moments are remembered.
As one might expect, Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball, has a special place in the exhibit. It’s no coincidence that tomorrow, the day Breaking Barriers opens, is Jackie Robinson Day. Jackie made history by starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Another display celebrates the San Diego Padres’ own trailblazer, hometown hero catcher Johnny Ritchey. He made Pacific Coast League history when he joined the team in 1948. (He had seven hits in his first eleven plate appearances!)
Anyone who is a baseball, sports or history buff needs to check out Barrier Breakers. I just happened to swing by the Central Library today, and was super fortunate to observe a special preview presentation.
If you can’t make it to San Diego’s downtown Central Library, you can view an online virtual exhibit by clicking here.
Just a few photos…
During today’s special presentation, Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, presented The Home Run for Humanity Award to worthy recipients in San Diego. Congrats to all!
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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.
On May 10, 2025, a monument will be unveiled in the northeast corner of Pantoja Park. The bust of William Heath Davis Jr. will debut, commemorating the founder of downtown San Diego!
The public event will take place between 10:30 am and 2 pm. There will be speeches, informational booths, a blessing by Kumeyaay Bird Singers, and Pacific Islander traditions. William Heath Davis “Kanaka Bill” was born in Hawaii.
Many associate Alonzo Horton with the founding of downtown San Diego. Horton’s ultimately successful New Town, however, came after an attempt by William Heath Davisto build a new community closer to San Diego Bay than the original Old Town San Diego… His New Town was located west of today’s Gaslamp Quarter. The venture did not do well due to a lack of fresh water and hostility from the established settlements at Old Town and La Playa…
Pantoja Park, at 500 West G Street, was established in 1850. It was created at the center of William Heath Davis’ 160-acre subdivision and is San Diego’s oldest city park. Originally it was known as New Town Park. Appropriately, it will be home to the soon-to-be-unveiled bust.
The William Heath Davis Monument and the Monument Unveiling Ceremony are the work of the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation and The Kanaka Davis Trust Group.
(I saw a preview of the monument a couple years ago. See that blog post here.)
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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.
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