Fun art in San Diego’s Bay Park neighborhood celebrates elements of the American Southwest.
During a recent walk, I spotted the above bull sculpture, a saguaro cactus and other works of street art in front of San Diego Charter’s building on Morena Boulevard.
A coyote howling to the moon in Bay Park? Yes! Courtesy of artist Beth Emmerich.
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If you’ve driven down Encinitas Boulevard under Interstate 5 you’ve seen this wonderful, very colorful public art. Four long mosaic strips depicting local plants and animals have added life to the freeway undercrossing for about a year now.
In 2021 the City of Encinitas chose this design by Minneapolis-based artists Amy Baur and Brian Boldon.
The three foot tall strips feature glazed ceramic surfaces that shine in the sunlight and resemble stained glass. Here’s an article concerning the installation. The artist has stated: “Imagery from Encinitas’ environment — birds, plants, water, coastal and mountain flora and fauna — are layered with geometric shapes reflecting concrete patterns above and below the artwork.”
During my last walk in Encinitas, I took photographs of the beautiful artwork. What birds and plants do you recognize?
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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)!
Look what I spotted while walking home from Balboa Park this afternoon! A red-tailed hawk was perched in a palm tree next to the Sixth Avenue sidewalk, at the west edge of the park.
The bird, perhaps ten feet above my camera, was unfazed by my presence.
A young person staring at a phone walked directly under the hawk without noticing it. What other wonders in this world go unseen?
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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)!
I took this photo yesterday during a walk through downtown Chula Vista. The lemon tree mural on Third Avenue has been completed!
I saw the artists working on the mural during the Lemon Festival last month and shared photographs of them smiling. See those photos and learn more about the awesome artists 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 X (formerly known as Twitter)!
You can learn how to dance the cha-cha-cha on a San Diego street corner.
It’s true!
At the corner of Civita Boulevard and Via Alta in Mission Valley, a step-by-step cha-cha-cha guide is embedded in the sidewalk!
(I gave the dance steps a try and almost tripped over my own two feet. Passing motorists probably had a good laugh.)
I happened to spy this fun public art as I walked through the Civita urban village this afternoon. I was heading toward Civita’s newly opened Creekside Park. Photos are coming up of the beautiful new park!
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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)!
North Park in San Diego is a place where you can find all sorts of colorful signs and street art. I took these fun photographs several days ago during a walk up 30th Street, from University Avenue to El Cajon Boulevard.
It had been a long time since I passed this way. All of the sights you see here were new to my camera.
Enjoy!
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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)!
A little San Diego drizzle on an early September morning couldn’t stop 16 stickball teams from battling for The Jillie Championship Trophy!
Three days of competition during Labor Day weekend, on three asphalt “fields” in Little Italy, will determine the ultimate champion. Teams have traveled to San Diego from New York, Florida and Puerto Rico to have their name engraved as winners on The Jillie!
I walked down to Little Italy this morning to view several hard-fought games. Batters were concentrating, smashing the ball, sprinting, or sadly fouling or striking out. Fielders were making great catches and throws, occasionally flubbing or misfiring. Taunts and encouragement filled the air as a brotherhood of stickball players shook hands, win or lose.
Head down to Little Italy in downtown San Diego all this Labor Day weekend to watch the action for yourself! You’ll find the main field of battle in front of the San Diego Firehouse Museum at the intersection of Columbia Street and Cedar Street.
Enjoy these photographs…
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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)!
A mysterious little garden can be found on the south side of San Diego’s Grantville neighborhood. It occupies a sliver of land at the corner of Fairmount Avenue and Alvarado Canyon Road–between a chain link fence and the channel that contains Alvarado Creek. Some homeless people appear to live nearby.
When was this small garden created? By whom? Why?
It appears this unusual garden, containing many cheerful flowers and plants, and a saintly statue, and a happy scarecrow, might memorialize a loved one.
Here are some photos that I took late yesterday as I walked down the sidewalk…
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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)!
Big news! After several years’ absence, the big Labor Day weekend stickball tournament is returning to the streets of Little Italy!
This will be the 25th Annual Labor Day Stickball Tournament, and will run all this long weekend, September 2 – 4. It appears there will be 17 or 18 teams competing, according to the San Diego Stickball Facebook page.
Come on down to Little Italy and look for the action! These tournaments are very entertaining to watch! And the players mean business!
The event has a fundraiser here to pay for the necessary permits, and to help a special family. This year’s theme is called “Fallen Heroes Stickball Tournament.” A few family members of a hero lost in battle will Honor him by participating in this year’s event.
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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!
Jack Gechter stands next to Historic Route California US 101 sign at South Bay Historical Society booth during Chula Vista Lemon Festival.
A very cool project is now being undertaken by the South Bay Historical Society. I learned about it last Saturday as I explored the Lemon Festival in Chula Vista.
A number of Historic Route California US 101 signs (like the one you see above) have been created, to be installed in National City, Chula Vista and San Ysidro along those streets where the legendary highway used to run.
Old timers might recall how US 101 ran north from near the US/Mexico Border in San Ysidro, along Beyer Blvd toward Chula Vista, along National Avenue (now Broadway in Chula Vista and National City Blvd in National City) to 8th Street, then along 8th Street west to Harbor Drive, before heading up through downtown San Diego and eventually into North County. Old U.S. Route 101 during its history saw various realignments, before being entirely replaced south of Los Angeles by Interstate 5 in 1964.
Here’s a great article detailing where the historic highway ran through San Diego and the South Bay cities. You’ll see current photographs of those places where it ran. Here’s another article with a map depicting an earlier US 101 Route, running up today’s National City Blvd to Main Street.
Many similar Historic Route US 101 signs have already been installed in San Diego County, particularly through the coastal cities of North County.
Once these new signs are installed, they will add a fine, nostalgic touch to those South Bay communities that the old highway once connected to the rest of California. And they will resurrect many fond memories.
Historic 101 Route Sign in San Ysidro, California. Image courtesy Jack Gechter.
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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!
Cool San Diego Sights! 