Young dancers with the Gift of Dance, a local ballet folklórico school, performed today in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter during the annual Fall Back Festival.
These colorful photographs provide a hint of the dancers’ energy, fluid grace and poise. The dances transmitted pure joy. If you were there, you felt it.
Traditional Mexican dances included La Negra, La Raspa, La Madrugada, Tehuantepec, El Jarabe Tapatio, Los Machettes, and Las Chiapanecas.
Audience members were often clapping along with the music!
I hope you enjoy my photos…
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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 time for Día de los Muertos, visitors to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park can now enjoy an extensive student art exhibit titled Remembrance & Resilience.
Students from schools throughout the San Diego Unified School District have created artworks based on Día de los Muertos imagery. The divided exhibit is located in two different Old Town buildings: the recently vacant Captain Fitch Store and the historic U.S. House.
If you find yourself walking through the State Park, look for the signs. The exhibit will continue through November 2, 2026.
My first few photos come from inside the spacious old Captain Fitch Store. Dozens of displays were created by kids of all ages, from elementary school to high school. They honor memory, identity and tradition.
The next few photos are from the U.S. House. Students from Crawford High School, Logan Memorial, Zamorano Elementary, and Lincoln High School partnered with Sew Loka to create wearable art using reclaimed fabric.
In one room, art glows in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet light!
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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.
I learned during the Adams Avenue Street Fair that a new community garden is coming to Normal Heights!
The community garden will occupy the south end of Ward Canyon Neighborhood Park, north of 40th Street and Madison Avenue, where the fenced Large Dog Park used to be.
As this webpage explains, amenities will include 28 garden plots, 9 waist-level garden boxes, compost and trash areas, a tool shed, running water, ADA compliant graded paths, and a native/pollinator plant garden. The existing pergola and bench will be retained.
I see local schools will be involved, allowing kids to learn about growing food, the environment, and leading a healthy life outdoors.
Very cool!
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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.
During my recent visit to the Lemon Grove Historical Society’s newly renovated headquarters–the Parsonage Museum–I learned something extraordinary. Last year two high school students who attend Canyon Crest Academy, Sarah and William Gao, won a statewide contest for their outstanding video concerning the Lemon Grove Incident.
The contest had the theme Turning Points in History.
Their extremely well done documentary concerns the fight that led up to the landmark court order in 1931 that ended school segregation in Lemon Grove. View their excellent video on YouTube by clicking here.
This is such a great achievement that I thought it deserved additional recognition. Their video concerns history that everyone should know. Let’s run up the views, comments and likes on YouTube and give their video more traction!
The Lemon Grove Incident was the United States’ first successful school desegregation case. It was a pivotal event in our nation’s history. For the longest time I myself hadn’t known that.
Back in 2022 I took photographs of a mural in Lemon Grove that celebrates the Lemon Grove Incident and those who courageously fought for the victory against segregation. My first photograph above shows part of the mural. See the other photos 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.
This very beautiful and inspiring mural debuted in an Escondido alley last April, during Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month. Titled Community Unity, it was created by twelve students from Calvin Christian School.
I saw the mural for the first time today during a long-overdue walk around downtown Escondido!
This webpage describes the public art and its origin.
The mural contains colorful imagery representing Escondido and people in the local community. It was printed on large panels and placed in the alley that runs half a block south of Grand Avenue. Walk west down the alley from Broadway and you’ll come to it. The mural stands as a joyful reminder that unity is possible when all voices are welcomed and celebrated.
When you see the bright artwork, your day will be brightened, too!
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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 you walk along Main Street in Barrio Logan, you might see this inspiring mural. It depicts a heart sprouting butterfly wings.
The mural is painted at The Chrysalis: Monarch Center for the Arts, a 6,000 square foot arts space in Barrio Logan with a dedicated 100-seat theatre, dance studio, visual art classroom, and storefront gallery.
Before the butterfly comes the chrysalis. According to their website: We envision a world where youth and adults use the tools and resources of the arts to help imagine, create, and build the vibrant and successful life they desire and deserve.
The Chrysalis is home to Creative Youth Development and Community Programs. As the beautiful mural suggests, it is a place filled with positivity and hope.
A poster in the window encourages people to “Host your next event in our space!” Why not support people who strive to help youth and the community?
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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.
Seventeen long, narrow mosaic panels were created last year in Encinitas on either side of the El Portal Undercrossing, which allows pedestrians to pass under railroad tracks.
I saw them the other day for the first time!
This excellent article about the project explains how it aims to tell the storied and colorful history of the city and its residents, was a collaborative effort between students from Paul Ecke Central Elementary School and San Dieguito Academy, nonprofit art studio Campana Studios and SDA art teacher Jeremy Wright.
I took a bunch of photos for everyone to enjoy!
The City of Encinitas has completed other public art projects at underpasses, similar to this. In the past I’ve photographed some of that art: here and here and 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.
The rodeo has returned to Lakeside, and this morning the community celebrated their signature event with the 60th Annual Western Days Parade!
It was my very first time watching this parade. I was excited to see how it compared to other parades around San Diego County. And it was really great! The Western Days Parade provides a taste of both the Old West and contemporary life in rural America.
I saw local schools with their marching bands and cheer teams. I saw smiling queens, not only from Lakeside, but from Ramona and Julian, too! I saw floats with happy participants waving to everyone along the sidewalk. There were local community organizations, the usual politicians, law enforcement and young Scouts. And there were vintage cars, firetrucks, gigantic cranes, tractors…
Needless to say, horses and riders, and the nostalgic old-fashioned wagons and carriages were a highlight. It’s Lakeside! A true slice of Americana!
Enjoy these photographs…
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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.
I discovered two very cool murals during my latest walk through Chula Vista!
The first mural promotes Southwestern College and features the stylized head of a Jaguar–the name of Southwestern’s sports teams. A stack of books, a flask, paintbrushes, a drone, and other objects useful in career education also appear in the mural.
The colorful artwork can be spotted on the side of State Farm Insurance at 460 3rd Avenue. Artist signatures and a year indicate the mural was created by Nick McPherson (Nicholas Danger) and Eddy Berducido (@Beavster) in 2024.
The next mural appears to show wolves. The artwork was painted at the north end of a construction fence in front of Chula Vista’s old, closed Vogue Theater.
You might recall other images previously painted on the same fence: the Padres’ Swinging Friar and Chula Vista’s own celebrity superstar Mario Lopez!
I don’t know who painted these two wolves, or when. Within the past year, if I had to guess. Leave a comment if you know more than me!
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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.
Unhoused students at Monarch School in Barrio Logan have written powerful words concerning their life experiences. Their many compositions (each an ode to a common thing) are collected in a series of published books. Several volumes of Odes to Common Things are available at the San Diego Public Library.
Today I noticed that the big video screen near the Central Library’s entrance was cycling through some of these thought-provoking odes. I stood there reading, and lifting my camera to take a few photographs.
The Monarch School serves homeless youth–unhoused kids who live in shelters, motels, single room occupancy housing, double- or tripled-up with other families, at camp sites, in cars, or on the streets. Monarch School is the only comprehensive K-12 school in the U.S. developed specifically to serve unhoused students and their families.
Would you like to read words that might move you–words written from the heart by youth who hope to lead a secure and happy life? Yes? See the availability of the Ode to Common Things books at the San Diego Public Library by clicking here.
Ode to Memories, by Derek. …I carry memories of my life–in my head, my brain, my heart. They can be beautiful. They can be scary…Ode to Cats, by Fabian. …My cats make me feel happy, comfortable…Cats go to heaven…Ode to Basketball, by Deveyon. …It makes me better able to work with new people, to make new friends…basketball is what I have.Ode to Ice Cream, by Jaylen. …What’s good is its coldness, its sweetness, its flavor. It’s as sweet as a championship and as joyful as a party.
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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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 