Tag: snapdragon stadium

Ancient bison skull found at San Diego stadium!

Today, down in the San Diego Natural History Museum’s basement Paleo Center, Mary was working on a fossil found in Mission Valley.

Visitors peering through the Paleo Center window could watch her as she removed tiny bits of sandstone from the partial skull (with horn cores and cervical vertebrae) of a Bison Latifrons, found in Ice Age stream deposits, and dating from 100,000 years ago.

She was using a small pneumatic chisel-like instrument to “clean” the fossil. It reminded me of my last dental appointment!

The ancient bison fossil was unearthed in 2020 while workers were excavating the parking lot of the old Qualcomm Stadium, getting ready for San Diego’s new Snapdragon Stadium! The ancient bison would have stood between seven and eight feet at the shoulder! Imagine it roaming eons ago in Mission Valley!

I learned The NAT has numerous unearthed fossils in line waiting to be expertly prepared. Fossils are frequently discovered at different construction sites around the city.

Right now the San Diego Natural History Museum is half open as it undergoes a monumental roof renovation. Fortunately the paleontology center on the lower level of the museum remains open. Follow various signs and you’ll find this Amazement in the Basement!

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Fun stuff at San Diego FC playoff FanFest!

I was in Mission Valley today, so of course I had to ride the trolley over to Snapdragon Stadium. I wanted to check out the free-to-the-public FanFest before San Diego FC’s first ever playoff game!

Can you believe it? San Diego FC’s debut season, and they finished in first place in the MLS Western Conference! Can they make it all the way to the championship?

Fans were just beginning to arrive when I swung by the outdoor event, which was officially called the Ford FanFest. I was pretty early. I’m sure the crowds were much larger after I departed.

What could fans do? Kick soccer balls around. Listen to live music. Have their hair cut. Make fun crafts. Drink beer and visit food trucks. Buy classy San Diego FC merchandise. Admire a row of cool lowriders. Visit a photo booth. Spin prize wheels and check out various sponsors…

Yes, there was plenty to do!

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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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Fun at San Diego FC home game FanFest!

San Diego FC is playing LA Galaxy at Snapdragon Stadium this afternoon. At half-time the score is tied 1-1.

Before the start of every home game, San Diego FC hosts a very popular FanFest on the grass east of the stadium. Today the festival was packed with soccer fans, families and fun!

I walked around FanFest for my first time just for the experience. There are loads of activities. It’s an absolute party! Here are some photos…

Heading toward Snapdragon Stadium from the nearby trolley station.
DIRECTV is a major partner of San Diego Football Club.
Kids kick a soccer ball around on the grass.
This smiling lady was creating soap bubbles earlier!
Fans were posing for photos all over the place.
Big crowd ahead!
Many fans were in line for the team Meet & Greet.
The FanFest includes food trucks and picnic tables.
I think this guy is supposed to be SDFC Forward Hirving “Chucky” Lozano!
Kids find out what it’s like to be a firefighter.
Many fans were getting SDFC haircuts!
These guys will look very stylish.
Dedicated SDFC fans could also have their hair colored.
Chrome and azul are San Diego FC’s team colors.
Just “kicking it” at the pre-game 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.

Feel free to share!

Eat at a farm next to Snapdragon Stadium!

Did you know there’s a farm immediately next to Snapdragon Stadium’s parking lot?

Did you know that on Saturdays this farm is open to the public and offers a café and fresh vegetable stand? (Not to mention tours and fun activities.)

Yes!

The MAKE Farm is a Community-Supported Agricultural (CSA) Program that empowers refugees and immigrant women. So when you eat here, you’re helping other people as well!

MAKE Farm is located immediately south of the large Snapdragon Stadium parking lot, a little east of the Stadium trolley station. According to signs I spotted today, their offerings include Garden Veggie Wraps and Yogurt Parfaits, and you get a free cookie during your visit, too!

Going to a Saturday game at the stadium? Enjoy a unique and healthy lunch in the outdoors here.

I suppose I’ll have to swing by some weekend!

Late last year, before they opened their on-site café, I toured the farm. You can see that blog post by clicking 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.

Feel free to share!

Excitement before Women’s Gold Cup Final!

The Fan Zone outside Snapdragon Stadium was alive with excitement before the start of today’s Women’s Gold Cup Final. The winner of the game would be historic first champion of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup!

Which team would prevail? USA or Brazil?

Soccer fans from around the United States and the world were arriving in droves, streaming in from parking lots and the Stadium trolley station. I saw flag capes, crazy hats, colorful scarfs, enthusiastic fans holding handmade signs, and many smiles. A lot of red, white and blue was visible. Some yellow and green, too!

Inside the Gold Cup Fan Zone, families took part in many activities. Kids dribbled soccer balls, tried to score a goal. Fans posed for pictures with the Gold Cup. San Diego’s own soccer teams–San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC–had booths and greeted everyone.

Fans were pumped!

Who would win?

Who would win? USA!

Guess who scored the winning goal?

Lindsey Horan!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

San Diego Stadium lights become art at Snapdragon!

Some very unusual art is installed in a concourse at Snapdragon Stadium. An array of 24 stadium lights has been mounted to one wall. Color changes at the center of each individual silvery floodlight. Over all are the words: San Diego.

When I attended a recent event at Snapdragon, I asked a knowledgeable employee who was working nearby about this art. I learned the old floodlights are from the demolished San Diego Stadium (aka Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium, SDCCU Stadium), which stood on this same property in Mission Valley from 1967 to 2021.

Cool idea!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Snapdragon mural: Play hard and have fun!

Remember these two things: Play hard and have fun!

These words of wisdom were spoken by San Diego legend and hero, our beloved Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn. They are also painted in a colorful mural at Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley.

Tony Gwynn is one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He won eight Major League Baseball batting titles and was a 15-time All-Star. Perhaps just as importantly, he was honored for his character and humanitarianism with the 1995 Branch Rickey Award, the 1998 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award and the 1999 Roberto Clemente Award, which USA Today called “baseball’s Triple Crown of humanity and kindness.”

Tony liked to smile and laugh. He loved everybody. He played hard and had fun. He was an example for all of us.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Art at the Festival of Science & Engineering!

Could kids find and create art at the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering? Yes!

Today was Expo Day, a free event held at Snapdragon Stadium. Thousands of young people wandered through the stadium’s concourses, viewing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) displays, and partaking in experiments and activities provided by about a hundred exhibitors!

The annual event is absolutely gargantuan and impossible to cover in one blog post. I’ve blogged about Expo Day several times in past years, when this educational extravaganza was held at Petco Park.

Winding through the crowd, I discovered the Art Pavilion and, with permission from various exhibitors, my camera got busy.

Enjoy a few photos of artwork created by students, teachers and artists attending the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering. Read the captions!

Families explore the Art Pavilion during Expo Day 2024, a San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering event at Snapdragon Stadium.

Are those molecules or cool sculptures? Kids get creative with the help of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Two hands, liquid and bending light by artist and educator Sheena Rae Dowling.

This cool STEAM artwork, full of creative ideas, won a blue ribbon!

Demand evidence. Think critically. Erica, a biology student at National University, created this scientific artwork!

The Art Club of Patrick Henry High School created these colorful Science Pyramids: Temples of Truth. If you point your phone at the artwork, you can experience augmented reality bursting from each pyramid!

Beautiful art depicting native flora and fauna presented by the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Space exploration art from a C.A.R.T. student.

Lunna, founder of VAINANA, creates art with bananas to fight hunger and promote food sustainability.

The colorful work of EcoArts Kids. Students create environmental art in afterschool programs at several San Diego elementary schools.

Part of the SoRoART group exhibition of soft robotics by SDSU students. Air periodically inflates these lungs, as if they’re breathing!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

Farm coming to SDSU Mission Valley!

Believe it or not, a farm is being created at SDSU Mission Valley!

The future farm is located between the parking lot of Snapdragon Stadium and the SDSU Mission Valley river park. The above photo shows how produce is now growing a short distance east of the Stadium trolley station, where I made the unexpected discovery this afternoon.

Refugee and immigrant women and youth will be working the farm. They will gain work experience, and the produce they grow will be used at a restaurant in North Park, at 2920 University Avenue.

The undertaking is called Community Supported Agriculture. This farm is the creation of Make Project. As their website explains: The 30th Street farm has moved to a bigger, longer-term location at SDSU Mission Valley.

In 2017 I blogged about the previous farm in North Park here.

(It’s interesting to recall that before Mission Valley was developed–before shopping malls and freeways–this land along the San Diego River supported many farms–primarily dairy farms.)

A huge flock of crows was hovering around the new SDSU Mission Valley farm late this afternoon. Hopefully the coming crops are safe!

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!

History at Mission Valley river park.

History is being made in Mission Valley. Two massive projects are being developed along the San Diego River: SDSU Mission Valley and Riverwalk San Diego.

The river park at SDSU Mission Valley is mostly complete, and large areas are now accessible to the public during its soft opening.

I walked around the river park the other day and found a number of fascinating information signs. One shows birds that might be found along the San Diego River. Another concerns stormwater management and the creation of bioretention basins. The largest such basin is located near the Stadium trolley station.

The signs that interested me most concern the history of Mission Valley and the San Diego River.

I took photos of several signs, which you can enlarge for easier reading…

The Native American Kumeyaay historically used plants along the river for food, tools and construction materials. They sustainably managed the land. Before World War II and the subsequent boom in urban development, Mission Valley was largely farmland. At one point there were 20 dairy farms in Mission Valley. Several Japanese American families operated vegetable farms.

Early 1900s postcards of Mission Valley show large areas of green farmland on either side of the San Diego River.

New plants for the new river park at SDSU Mission Valley.

The San Diego River begins in the Cuyamaca Mountains and flows west to the Pacific Ocean. It is the source of important biodiversity. In 1971, plans to replace the sometimes flooding river with a concrete channel were thwarted by intense public opposition. The vision of a more natural San Diego River, with innovative safeguards against flooding, would eventually prevail.

Photo of damaging flooding in Mission Valley circa 1980, before the adoption in 1982 of FSDRIP–the First San Diego River Improvement Project.

The Kumeyaay were the first people to live in this region. This sign explains they understood the importance of caring for the land, water, flora and fauna that are all a part of this intricate ecological system that relates and sustains all life in balance and harmony. A map of Kumeyaay territory includes San Diego County and the northern portion of Baja California.

A field without farms–playing soccer near Snapdragon Stadium at SDSU Mission Valley.

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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 (formerly known as Twitter)!