Tag: southern california

A spirit soars forever in Carlsbad.

In Carlsbad, there’s a special place where a spirit soars forever. That place is known as Dave’s Beach.

Hobbyists who fly radio-controlled gliders, or sailplanes, love to launch their small model aircraft from atop the bluffs at Dave’s Beach. Their gliders dance in the blue sky.

The upsloping ocean wind carries these surprisingly fast RC gliders aloft for sustained, acrobatic flights above the beach. Today, as I took these photographs, I saw as many as four zipping through the air at the same time.

I learned some of the hobbyists using Dave’s Beach as an RC glider port also launch their gliders at the Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla, where similar wind conditions prevail.

In Loving Memory of Our Friend

DAVE KELLOGG

Whose spirit will soar on here forever

April 5, 1948 – October 18, 2006

The above memorial plaque explains why this spot is now called Dave’s Beach. Dave Kellogg loved to fly gliders from atop the bluffs here many years ago.

If you’d like to visit Dave’s Beach, you can find it right next to the intersection of Carlsbad Boulevard and Solamar Drive.

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Woodies park in Carlsbad’s art alley!

Venture into Carlsbad’s art alley and you’ll find several woodies parked along one wall!

These cool classic vehicles with wood side panels are lined up opposite the Alley Art Wall, which you can learn about here. The woodies are pictured with surfboards at the beach.

You can find the alley near Village Kabob, at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Tyler Street.

The art panels are signed C. Serna, 2016.

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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 Twitter!

Hidden paradise above a Del Mar beach!

Those who visit Dog Beach (also known as North Beach) in Del Mar might wonder about some wooden stairs. They climb up the sandstone bluffs to the north. I ascended them the other day and discovered a hidden paradise!

A sign near the foot of the steps indicates the area above is the James G. Scripps Bluff Preserve. Those who explore the preserve are asked to stay on the paths and carry out trash.

During my adventure, I noticed some of the bottom steps are broken, so one must take care not to stumble.

Here’s a series of photographs that I took as I ascended into the preserve. One can gaze south down upon Dog Beach and east to the Del Mar Racetrack and beyond.

Once I reached the top of the main path, an amazing field of early March flowers and wide views of the Pacific Ocean awaited me.

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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 Twitter!

Old building from New Deal in La Mesa.

When I took a walk through La Mesa a couple weeks ago, I noticed a historical plaque on the above building.

With walls that are partly made of stone, this little old building is located directly adjacent to the larger, more modern Adult Enrichment Center, which is operated by the City of La Mesa.

BUILT BY UNITED STATES WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION 1937

According to an online timeline, two New Deal WPA projects in La Mesa include this 1937 Senior Clubhouse.

I spoke to a city employee inside the Adult Enrichment Center, and she indicated there are plans to move this building, stones and all, to MacArthur Park.

The old clubhouse is beautiful in a rustic way. To me, it appears like a visitor center or ranger station you’d find nestled in the forest of a National Park.

I assume that small stone structure across a walkway was built back in 1937, too.

Anyone who knows more, or has memories to share, please leave a comment!

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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 Twitter!

Site of first house built in Solana Beach.

The very first house built in Solana Beach was located on today’s Highway 101. That’s what a sign that I saw during a recent walk attests.

Perhaps driving along you’ve seen the above Plaza 101 sign, about a block south of Lomas Santa Fe Drive. It features the following plaque:

When I do some quick research, however, I find the first house in the area might have actually sat on Pepper Tree Lane, now called Del Mar Downs Road. Built in 1887, the Stevens House was moved to La Colonia Park and now houses the museum of the Solana Beach Civic and Historical Society. (It’s a museum that I have not yet visited.)

I believe the plaque refers to the Estes Home at 155 S. Highway 101. The Solana Beach Civic And Historical Society website explains: When Colonel Ed Fletcher bought Solana Beach in 1922, there were only two houses, George Jones’s house on Barbara Street (later occupied by Herschell Larrick Sr. and his family) and this Highway 101 house of Jones’s sister, Lucy Estes and her husband, N. H. Estes, and their son, Herb. The Estes family was originally from San Francisco. They built this first home in Solana Beach on the narrow dirt road highway 101 and put in a well.

You can see photos of the Estes home here.

During walks on and around old Highway 101, Solana Beach’s first commercial center, I’ve discovered a number of historical buildings. You can see those photographs here and here and here!

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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 Twitter!

Nature’s Light sculpture by the San Dieguito River.

A very beautiful sculpture stands by the San Dieguito River. I discovered it as I walked near the San Dieguito Lagoon along the Coast to Crest Trail.

The rock and tile sculpture is titled Nature’s Light. It was created in 2018 by artists Rude Calderón and Roberto Delgado as a tribute to the founders of the San Dieguito River Park, whose bright vision became a reality.

If you’d like to see this public art for yourself, you can find it about a quarter mile east of the San Dieguito River Park Lagoon Ranger Station, which is located in Del Mar off of San Andres Drive and Via de la Valle .

Enjoy these photos and imagine nature’s surrounding majesty.

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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 Twitter!

Tribute to coastal advocate at San Dieguito Lagoon.

As I walked along the Coast to Crest Trail a couple days ago, a bit south of the San Andres Drive trailhead, I came upon a sign that pays tribute to Peter Douglas. He was an important coastal advocate who worked to protect the nearby San Dieguito Lagoon.

I learned that I was walking beside the Peter Douglas Wetlands.

As you gaze at the beauty of the San Dieguito Lagoon, watch birds flying, diving and foraging in the wetlands and wildlife scampering among the scrub and chaparral, you can appreciate the vision that led to the conservation and restoration of this scenic and biologically diverse open space, known as the Peter Douglas Wetlands.

Peter Douglas (1942-2012), one of California’s most visionary and inspirational environmental advocates, led a successful grass roots effort in 1972 that resulted in the creation of the California Coastal Commission…

The support and passion of Peter Douglas significantly influenced the ability…to realize (a) collective dream of preserving these wetlands in perpetuity…

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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 Twitter!

The history of four buildings in Lakeside.

In 2021, the Maine Avenue Revitalization Association in Lakeside provided notable buildings with informative plaques. The plaques explain the history of each building, from the time they were built to the present.

During my recent walk down Maine Avenue in Lakeside, I photographed four of these buildings.

Please enjoy the following windows into the past of a rural town in San Diego’s East County…

PARK MARKET/PAYTON’S HARDWARE STORE

This was the site of Ferguson’s Park Store in 1923. It contained a soda fountain, picnic supplies, and a few groceries… …The Depression caused the store to close in 1931… The building burned to the ground in 1997. The store was rebuilt and reopened in 1999.

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LEO’S PHARMACY

Built in 1923 by Lakeside Development Company. This building was home to Otto Marack’s Grocery Store… …in 1960 it became Leo’s Pharmacy…

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BARKER & SONS

…in 1929…Heller started building this large, one story Spanish styled stucco commercial structure and the house behind it (now the Chamber of Commerce) for the store’s family… …it evolved into one of the first Safeway stores in the county…

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9825 MAINE AVENUE

Formally known as the Tumbleweed Cafe in the 1950’s and then later as a bar…As the Tumbleweed Bar, the Rattlesnake Round-up was held…Later it was Payton’s Lawnmower Shop.

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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 Twitter!

Online exhibit: the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House.

Warner’s Ranch — West Elevation of Ranch House. 1960. Historic American Buildings Survey. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Anyone interested in the history of San Diego and the surrounding region should visit the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House near Warner Springs. If you can’t, there’s an online exhibit filled with photographs and detailed information concerning this National Historic Landmark, including its construction in 1857, its fascinating history and restoration.

I subscribe to the Save Our Heritage Organisation email list. Their most recent newsletter is how I learned about this.

To view the excellent online exhibit concerning the Warner-Carrillo Ranch House, click here.

I visited the old ranch house in 2021 and took some photos, which you can see here.

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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 Twitter!

Lakeside’s beautiful Lindo Lake east basin!

Lindo Lake in Lakeside is a beautiful, peaceful retreat in San Diego’s East County.

Recently the lake has become even more beautiful!

A year ago when I took a walk at Lindo Lake County Park, the east basin was fenced off and closed to the public. That’s because numerous major improvements were then being made.

Today the paths around the large east basin are wide open!

Improvements include new plants and trees, wide ADA accessible pathways, scenic viewing platforms and a couple of bird-watching stations with blinds facing the water.

If I lived nearby, I’d be walking here often. There are native flowers, birds, shady trees, sunshine and the tranquil, shining water. Nearby mountains rise into blue sky.

Even on this winter’s day the lake was filled with life. (I’ll be blogging about the many birds coming up!)

I took the following photographs as I walked around Lindo Lake’s newly improved east basin…

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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 Twitter!