Five years ago I explored the San Diego River Garden in Mission Valley. Read about my visit here.
The community park, full of native vegetation and art, was developed by the San Diego River Park Foundation. It’s no longer listed on the foundation’s website. For all intents and purposes, it appears to have been abandoned.
I noticed, about a week ago, that people can still enter the old River Garden and walk about on its trails. So that’s what I did.
As you can see, the human-made parts of the park are fading away. Signs, planters and art are weathered and are slowly disintegrating.
While works of the human hand gradually pass away, the forces of nature persist. Plants, trees and natural life grow, renew, overtake.
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The Holiday Season is upon us and the Village of Carlsbad is ready!
I rode the Coaster train north to Carlsbad a few days ago for a pleasant walk, and this is what I found!
Festive decorations everywhere one turns: at storefronts, in windows, on street banners and signs. I saw Christmas trees, Santa, elves at the North Pole, candy canes, wreaths, Frosty, snowflakes, poinsettias, Rudolph, gingerbread houses…
A free Musical Kickoff to the Holidays will take place this Friday, December 5th, from 4 to 7:30 pm. It will be at the Carlsbad fountain parking lot at 2898 State Street.
You can expect middle and high school student musicians, hot cocoa and more!
A smiling Steven Blake was playing Happy Holidays music at the Carlsbad Village fountain! (His Instagram is @deverb.band.)
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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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Super excited WWE wrestling fans gathered in downtown San Diego this morning before the start of 2025 Survivor Series: WarGames!
It seemed everyone I saw was either holding a sign, sporting a championship belt, or wearing a shirt that roots for their favorite WWE superstar! Most of the shirts commemorated John Cena’s farewell tour. He’ll be facing Dominik Mysterio in a highly anticipated match.
Savvy fans waited at the entrance to the Omni Hotel to see wrestlers jumping into cars or vans, to be transported to Petco Park.
I lingered for a while and briefly glimpsed CM Punk, and Jimmy and Jey Uso. Drew McIntyre was the one wrestler who didn’t dash into a vehicle. He greeted all the fans, took selfies with everyone, and was one very cool dude!
I then walked around Petco Park and through the Gaslamp Quarter again to take in the all the excitement.
Enjoy some photos!
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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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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?
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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.
Hard to believe it’s almost October. Major League Baseball Postseason 2025 begins tomorrow!
The San Diego Padres will be playing in Chicago against the Cubs in their MLB Wild Card Series matchup. Our hometown team ended up with another 90 win season. Let’s go Pads!
I walked around the Gaslamp Quarter, Petco Park and East Village this afternoon, and found indications that small businesses, restaurants and many others in downtown are rooting for the Padres!
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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.
Last weekend the annual Harvest Festival at the Balboa Park Club featured folk dance and dancing workshops. Sadly, few people arrived for an event that has greatly faded in popularity over the years. I’m told young people are no longer taught folk dancing in school, as they once were years ago.
Shortly after entering the Balboa Park Club building, I discovered historical art painted on old signs, from the days when folk dancing brought both young and old together for a fun social gathering.
I learned that the wonderful graphics in my first photos were painted to promote the now defunct Kayso Folk Dance Club, which thrived in San Diego back in the 70’s and 80s. A gentleman named Kayso, originally from Armenia, painted the costumed dancing figures himself. The images might have become a bit worn over the years, but they still have great personality!
I also love the following old sign, which I learned is from the 1950s. It promotes the Cabrillo International Folk Dance Club, which is still alive and well!
The International Dance Association of San Diego County has a website here that lists dance clubs currently operating in Balboa Park and elsewhere around the city. You’ll find many opportunities to learn different dances, and to dance at every level of experience!
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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.
Walking around downtown San Diego, I’ve noticed more and more signs that Comic-Con 2025 is fast approaching. Less than two weeks to go!
First, a bunch of banners promoting shows on STARZ have been hung at the Gaslamp Quarter trolley station and along Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade. Shows include Spartacus and Outlander: Blood of My Blood.
On July 18, the week before Comic-Con, they will be offering over 70 original and rare animation cels for purchase! Art includes that of Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. and Chuck Jones.
The Chuck Jones Gallery in Seaport Village will present The Art Side of Comic-Con 2025. Appearing artists include Fabio Napoleoni and Ben Olson.
American Comedy Co. San Diego will present Comic-Con related shows, including Natasha Leggero w/Moshe Kasher & Dana Gould, and Doctor Z & Friends.
The Music Box will host some Comic-Con related parties, including Mosh Eisley (The Best Party in the Galaxy), and One More Time (A Tribute To Daft Punk) the Comic Tron Comic Con After Party.
The recently installed electronic kiosks around downtown San Diego list Comic-Con as an upcoming event, but sadly provide very little elaboration.
The Pac-Man Cafe Pop-Up appears at 323 Seventh Avenue during Comic-Con! Free arcade games and merch giveaway included!
Excited yet?
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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.
Parking Lot C in Old Town San Diego will soon attract bees, butterflies, birds and other beneficial insects. That’s because the bed of soil along the Twiggs Street sidewalk is newly planted with native vegetation suited to pollinators!
Three other beds at this parking lot will be planted, too, according to a sign that I saw while walking today. Not only will this newly created habitat benefit pollinators, but it will add natural beauty, help stabilize soil, save water and provide educational opportunities.
If you’d like to learn more, check out this webpage. It concerns the Old Town San Diego Chamber of Commerce’s Pollinator Pathways project. You’ll find there are various ways for you to help out!
(As you can see, I took these photos very early this morning before many cars arrived at the parking lot.)
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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 San Dieguito River Park’s long Coast to Crest Trail runs through San Pasqual Valley, southeast of Escondido and northwest of Ramona. Much of the San Pasqual Valley is part of an agricultural preserve owned by the City of San Diego, where active farming can be observed.
The San Pasqual Valley Agricultural Preserve Trail is a segment of the Coast to Crest Trail that passes swaths of this farmland.
Yesterday I hiked perhaps a mile of this fascinating trail. As I walked east past an informative sign that I photographed, I observed farm workers planting a new crop to my left, and trees and vegetation along Lake Hodges/San Dieguito River to my right.
You can find a trail map in .pdf form here. You might have to rotate the map clockwise to orient yourself. The trail segment is almost 9 miles, and I explored only the west part of it, starting from the vicinity of Mule Hill. The sign that I photographed is where the wedge-like black arrow is on the map.
Here I am approaching the sign…
The San Dieguito River Park’s information includes:
The San Pasqual Valley Agricultural Preserve Trail runs through what once was called the valley of eagles. The In-ke-pah tribe called this valley Mo-culoch-culoch, which means “one stone on top of another.” In the late 18th century, the Spanish Franciscans renamed the valley for Saint Pascal.
The City of San Diego leases the land for farming, a use that helps the city maintain water supplies and protect water quality while preserving the rural character of the valley and continuing the tradition of agriculture in the San Pasqual Valley.
San Diego County maintains the second highest number of farms in all counties in the United States. It also leads the nation in the production value of nursery crops, floriculture and sod.
To read the above sign, enlarge my photograph.
Now I’m continuing my walk past it, getting my first glimpse of farmland ahead. The weather was pleasantly overcast on this early June morning. I saw several mountain bikers during my walk…
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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.
Ingram Plaza is a special place at Liberty Station in Point Loma. It can be found very easily by looking for the large American flag. Like all of Liberty Station, Ingram Plaza used to be part of Naval Training San Diego, which closed in 1997.
Words that wandering visitors can read describe the history and significance of the place.
A plaque can be found beside an anchor, steps away from the plaza. It reads:
INGRAM PLAZA
THIS PLAZA IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF OSMOND K. INGRAM, GUNNER’S MATE FIRST CLASS UNITED STATES NAVY, WHO SACRIFICED HIS LIFE IN AN EFFORT TO SAVE HIS SHIP AND SHIPMATES DURING AN ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE U.S.S. CASSIN AND A GERMAN SUBMARINE ON OCTOBER 15, 1917. “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.”
After pausing at the anchor to read its plaque, I walked into the plaza’s center near the flagpole, where there are beds of roses. (I took these photos in spring.)
A nearby sign…
This plaza served as a “detention camp” when the base first opened to isolate new recruits…to make sure any contagious disease…did not circulate among the entire base. During this time, they were transformed into trainees with new haircuts, clothing and initial instruction…
Among the roses is a time capsule with a plaque…
To commemorate the Centennial of Liberty Station and the former Naval Training Center, a time capsule was buried here on October 29, 2023, to be opened in 25 years.
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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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