Downtown San Diego is about to become even more fun! That’s because Downtown Skate will soon be returning to the the Marriot Marquis San Diego Marina hotel!
As you can see from these photos taken today, workers have been busy setting up the outdoor roller skating rink on the Marina Terrace!
If this seems familiar, perhaps you recall how Downtown Skate popped up in the same place during the holiday season. I visited back then and took these photographs.
This time Downtown Skate will be operating from June 27 to July 9, 2025. You can find the hours and other information on the event website here.
Like last time there will be food and snacks available, and DJs playing music to skate by!
Have fun in the summer sunshine beside San Diego Bay!
Check out these two cool boardsports murals in San Diego’s North County!
(What are boardsports? Outdoor activities–such as surfing and skateboarding–that use a board as the primary equipment.)
My first few photos show the large mural painted on the front of Status Skateshop in Carlsbad. The artwork was created by Nicholas Danger (@nicholasdanger) in 2022. Yes, skateboarding culture can be a bit wild and crazy!
If you’d like to see a little more of Nicholas Danger, you might enjoy this blog post from almost five years ago.
Next, in Oceanside there’s a collage-like mural that includes both surfing and skateboarding imagery. View it on the side of a building at South Coast Highway and Washington Avenue.
Businesses that make this building home include The James Brand and Insight Tattoo.
I don’t know who created this very colorful mural. If you have any info, please leave a comment…
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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.
Looking for some holiday season fun in downtown San Diego?
Look what I discovered today during my walk along San Diego’s sunny Embarcadero. The first ever Downtown Skate roller skating rink at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina!
The 6000 square foot rink has a beautiful view of the Marriott Marina and sailboats passing on San Diego Bay, and features festive decorations that light up in the evening after dark. There are also tasty treats to enjoy like hot chocolate (and that yummy chocolate chip cookie that I devoured)!
Some of the folks working at Downtown Skate smiled for my camera.
Would you love to “roller dance” under bright, sparkling lights?
Looks like loads of fun!
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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.
Are you a lover of sports or history? Planning a visit to Balboa Park? If you’ve answered Yes and Yes, make sure you head over to the free San Diego History Center in Balboa Park!
Their current Inside/Out exhibit is titled Summer of Sports. A large display case contains fascinating sports artifacts and ephemera from the San Diego History Center Collections.
The Olympic Games return this summer, and the display takes this into account. But it mostly focuses on local sports and San Diego history.
There’s also a great video that you can watch concerning San Diego’s own skateboarding legend Tony Hawk!
The Inside/Out display case contains all sorts of San Diego sports pins and patches. Do you recognize some of these?
Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer was a Hall of Fame player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In her later life she resided in San Diego.
The next photo is from an old ZLAC program. ZLAC was founded in San Diego in 1892 and is the oldest continuously operating women’s rowing club in the world.
One part of this historical sports exhibit concerns Palisade Gardens, a skating rink that opened in 1946 on University Avenue in North Park. It was the first post-World War II commercial structure completed in San Diego. It closed in July 1985.
The steel and leather roller skates are circa 1930s.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
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 have no idea what this seat carved from a tree trunk at Lindo Lake County Park in Lakeside is called. Or whether it even has a name. So, for the fun of it, I’ll refer to it as the Leaf Throne!
Sit in this high chair near the southwest corner of Lindo Lake and you’ll have a perfect view of action at the Lakeside Skatepark!
Who created this? Apparently it was carved from a dead tree.
Very cool!
The mighty Leaf Throne commands this view:
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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!
Very few know of this “hidden” public artwork in Point Loma. It can be found on a building’s rooftop at Liberty Station.
In the next photograph you can see green stairs climbing the side of the New Americans Museum. During all of my visits to Liberty Station, I’ve never seen a single person going up them. I myself had thought these stairs to the building’s roof were out of bounds to the public.
Not so!
Head on up, push open the swinging gate, and take a look!
The unique rooftop artwork is composed of colorfully painted skateboards. Appropriately titled Rolling It Forward, the installation was created in 2018 by local artist Jeremy Nuttall of Poway, California. The sculpture, according to a sign represents a boat and rolling waves made entirely of community-painted skateboard decks. It builds on the concept of “pay it forward,” and it required the support and involvement of the community…
The skateboards that compose Rolling It Forward have become weathered by several seasons of rain and sunshine. They are cracked and faded. They are rolling forward through time.
But the creative, often crazy images endure!
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Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
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Today I headed to Chicano Park to look for a recently painted mural. A friend that I know from work told me about it. Searching among the dozens and dozens of colorful murals in Chicano Park, I’m afraid I couldn’t find it! But I’ll ask her about it again and make another attempt in the near future. (UPDATE! Turns out she was mistaken.)
As I walked at the southwest end of Chicano Park, I circled around the popular skatepark which is located under the Coronado Bay Bridge. The Chicano Park Skatepark was created in 2015 with a little help from San Diego skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and his foundation.
And check out what I spotted! Four cool skateboarding murals that I’d never seen before!
The small murals face the various quarter pipes, ledges and rails where youthful skaters were riding back and forth and performing tricks.
I saw an Aztec performing a handplant, and indigenous peoples Día de los Muertos skeletons skating up and down the bridge’s concrete pillars, too!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Two colorful murals decorate the south end of the new 2100 Kettner office building in Little Italy!
One, facing the railroad tracks, encourages everyone to KEEP GOING. Perhaps it should have been written in reverse, because drivers motoring down one-way Hawthorn Street will only see it in their rear view mirrors!
Fortunately, those same drivers by looking to their right will clearly see a playful image of a young skateboarder chillin’ and eating a slice of pizza. The cool street art is by Bumblebee, a well known Los Angeles based artist!
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This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a phone or small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
This afternoon I checked out CicloSDias San Diego!
During this popular annual event, several streets are closed to cars in North Park, Normal Heights, Kensington and City Heights so that bicyclists, skaters, scooters and walkers can explore these neighborhoods and enjoy a fun day without dodging automobiles.
The main purpose of CicloSDias, which is supported by a variety of organizations, is to promote bicycling as an urban transportation alternative.
Lots of families were out for a Sunday ride, and some of the participants wore costumes. (Yes, it’s almost Halloween!) There were easily thousands of people participating in or watching the colorful activity.
Bands were playing along the streets, people were proudly showing off their decorated and custom bikes, and hundreds of bicycles were parked in front of sidewalk cafes.
I walked north up 30th Street from El Cajon Boulevard, where some people were playing bike polo, then turned east at Adams Avenue. After passing the Kensington landmark sign, I headed back west.
Here come the photos!
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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!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Cool San Diego Sights! 