During my last couple walks in National City, I noticed many electrical boxes have been beautifully painted with native flora and fauna. It’s almost as if wildlife has joined me on the sidewalk!
These photos were taken on National City Boulevard, a little south of 8th Street. I’ve observed boxes like these elsewhere in National City.
It appears many of these electrical boxes were painted last year by artist Laura Green (@lauragreenstudio). It’s part of the National City Utility Box Project.
Some of the boxes also specify the names or species of the painted subject.
What a great way to beautify an urban environment! One can learn to recognize our wild neighbors, too!
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The newly opened Sweetwater Park on Chula Vista’s bayfront has a very unique architectural feature.
At one end of the public restrooms a sheltering roof contains an oculus. What’s an oculus? It’s a circular opening that allows natural sunlight to shine through.
During the day, the oculus casts a circle of light on bands in the concrete underfoot. You can see those curving bands in the above photograph.
By observing the light’s movement along the bands, Earth’s rotation can be tracked, as the sun “rises” in the east and “sets” in the west. Depending on the season of year, and the angle of the sun’s path through the sky, the projected light will follow a particular band.
On the wall is an explanation…
The Theory of the Seasons.
The Earth’s rotation axis is tilted by 23.5 degrees with respect to the ecliptic and is always pointed to the celestial poles as the Earth moves around the Sun. Sometimes the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun and the Sun’s rays hit the Northern Hemisphere at a shallow angle.
The Summer Solstice marks the beginning of Summer and is the longest day of the year, just as the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of Winter and is the shortest day of the year.
The Equinoxes; Equi meaning Equal, and Nox meaning Night, telling you that the day and the night are of equal length. This occurs when the Sun is directly over the Equator, in between the two Tropics and occurs around March 21st and September 23rd marking the beginning of Spring and Autumn.
If this sounds like a whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo, fortunately there’s an illustration to help one visualize the concept…
Now consider my next photograph.
On June 21, as the summer begins, the sun will be at its highest in San Diego, here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Because of this, the sun’s light projected through the oculus will come from a high angle, and follow the lower band as Earth turns and the day progresses.
It just so happened that I visited Sweetwater Park on June 18. I arrived at the oculus a little after noon.
You can see the circle of light is almost atop the June 21 band, and is now to the right of the central drain, past the 12 PM mark.
The light would continue to move right along the same band as the sun descends in the sky toward the horizon.
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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.
A few weeks ago, during another walk through National City’s historic Heritage Square, I noticed a plaque in front of the Elizur Steele House. Years ago I blogged about the house, which according to information I’d found was then commonly called the Steele-Blossom House. My blog post concerning the handsome old Victorian house and other nearby structures can be found by clicking here.
I don’t know when this plaque appeared, but it contains additional information and historical photos. I’ll share it…
The Elizur Steele, Crandall-Ennis House (1879) is a Queen Anne style home and was one of the first three homes to be build in National City by Elizur Steele. Elizur and his brother John built 12 homes in the city as well as the once popular and glamorous Royal Hotel, which sat at the corner of 8th St. and National City Blvd.
According to information I once found, the house was moved to its present location in Heritage Square in 1976.
Elizur Steele was the real estate agent of Frank Kimball, who built nearby Brick Row in 1887. To learn more about Heritage Square, visit my old blog post here.
Does the Elizur Steele House appear familiar? It is used in National City’s official logo!
If you’re knowledgeable about the history of National City and have memories or more details concerning this house (or Heritage Square), please leave a comment below!
My most recent photographs, from early 2025…
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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.
Members of the South Bay community gathered today in Chula Vista’s Bayfront Park for a great annual event. Today was South Bay Earth Day!
Organizations who are working toward a healthy natural environment provided information and opportunities to people who share their values. I walked about and learned a lot.
Yes–there was music and food trucks and fun activities, too. It was another wonderful day on beautiful San Diego Bay.
The City of Chula Vista had a big presence at South Bay Earth Day, including their Office of Sustainability.Learning about recycling and its benefits.A smile at The Water Conservation Garden table. I was just there yesterday! The garden is truly amazing! (My first blog post concerning that visit is here.)The Master Gardener Association of San Diego County had this plant display. Native plants in your landscaping conserves water.The Earth Discovery Institute had a display about Monarch butterflies. They were handing out seed packets for growing milkweed. Milkweed is the only food source for monarch caterpillars.Youth 4 a Sustainable Future includes 15 local schools. They are part of South Bay Sustainable Communities Network. They educate about sustainability, do community cleanups, distribute rescued food, host nature hikes…The Living Coast Discovery Center was showing this rosy boa snake.One of the creative activities at the event was making tie-dye shirts.Event visitors could also put together a small potted plant. Most appeared to be succulents.Handy members of San Diego Fixit Clinic were repairing assorted broken things–instead of sending them to the landfill.Republic Services was showcasing their electric garbage truck.A happy greeting from the San Diego Bird Alliance (used to be Audubon Society). These good people are busy protecting birds.Birds make us better!These smiles were at the Cabrillo National Monument table. (I recently walked down to their tidepools via the new Oceanside Trail. See those photos here.)If you’d like to volunteer at Cabrillo National Monument, there’s their email address!Here’s another smile! It’s at the Cabrillo National Monument Foundation table. They are a philanthropic partner of the National Park Service and help provide funds for the needs of Cabrillo National Monument. Their efforts include educational programs, conservation and community engagement.Stewie the green sea turtle was representing U.S. Navy Environmental. Check out his webpage 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.
Hey families in the South Bay, check this out! The City of Chula Vista has a Junior Park Ranger program for kids ages 5 to 15!
I learned about the program today during South Bay Earth Day. A friendly City of Chula Vista park ranger was educating those passing by about this cool opportunity.
Take the kids down to Rice Canyon Park (on North Rancho Del Rey Parkway) every fourth weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and meet park rangers between 9 am and 12 pm.
Kids who are with a guardian get to see native animal specimens from the Natural History Museum and learn how to protect local wildlife. They can also learn about native plants, then take a self-led hike through Rice Canyon Preserve and have fun identifying them!
Kids who fill out an activity book will become a Junior Park Ranger. How cool is that!
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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 new Sweetwater Park in Chula Vista opened early this month. Many people have already explored its nature trails. I did so, too, a few days ago.
One trail runs the length of the park on its west side, nearest San Diego Bay. It offers benches and blinds from which one can view bird activity in a wide expanse of native coastal vegetation.
I took photographs as I veered off the bikeway at the south end of Sweetwater Park and started up this main trail. It’s an easy level walk. This is what you might see should you walk as far as the gate restricting access to Gunpowder Point Drive.
(If you choose, you can continue up the trail, which curves around the Sun Outdoors RV resort. Then, using your wits, taking a dirt road and path, you’ll end up at E Street at Bay Boulevard, near Interstate 5.)
Continuing north. I’ll take the short branching path on the left that passes a bench, then return to the main trail…
Gazing to the south, one can see Marine Group Boat Works and their immense boat-lifting Travelift. It was a bit foggy this day…
I believe these are bush sunflower…
Another side trail and bench…
A short trail leads west to this rusty blind with a bench…
Looking north, you can see the Living Coast Discovery Center and the adjacent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services building. Way in the distance I see Point Loma, the Coronado Bridge and downtown San Diego…
Heading back up the main trail…
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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 new 39-acre Sweetwater Park opened earlier this month in Chula Vista. It’s located on the edge of San Diego Bay, adjacent to Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. It you’ve had a chance to visit the public park and walk its nature trails, you’ve no doubt seen a towering 25-foot tall sculpture that looks exactly like a wishbone!
The steel sculpture, created by artist Roberto Salas, is titled Rigors of Flight.
Why the wishbone shape? The wishbone is a forked bone found in most birds. It strengthens the bird’s skeleton, helping it to withstand the rigors of flight. Birds are plentiful in the park!
I walked through Sweetwater Park yesterday and approached the sculpture. I took 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.
This cool street art painted on a long wall is visible from Highland Avenue at the Vision Culture Foundation in National City. When I recently walked by they appeared to be closed. I paused to take these photographs from the sidewalk just outside their gate entrance.
Here’s the Vision Culture Foundation website. The organization focuses on creative arts, and their center strives to empower and uplift youth and the community. They are a safe space that nurtures goals and dreams.
Check it out!
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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.
Sweetwater Park will be opening later this year beside San Diego Bay in Chula Vista. Everyone will be able to enjoy recreation, nature trails, a big playground and more in the 21-acre public park.
Sweetwater Park will stretch from Bayside Park (to be redeveloped into Harbor Park) and the new Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, north to Sweetwater Marsh and the Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay RV resort.
Back in October, I walked up the footpath that was already open along the east side of the park (which I now see is called Sweetwater Bicycle Path & Promenade). The park itself was fenced off at the time, and it still is today. But changes have occurred!
You can see how Sweetwater Park appeared late last year by checking out my old blog post here. Since then a number of new structures have been built, including landmark signs at either end, a tall, quite strange wishbone-shaped sculpture near the center of the park, and the big, awesome-looking playground!
Here I am walking south to north yesterday…
I took the following photographs over the construction fence…
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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! 