Our nation’s oldest active pilot boat is back in action on San Diego Bay!
Pilot belongs to the Maritime Museum of San Diego and provides harbor tours. For about half a year Pilot has been out of service. Until several days ago.
Its engine has been completely replaced. Newly painted, the historically important boat is again providing tours!
Like all members of the museum, I get a couple of free tickets for the Pilot every year. I took advantage of the opportunity today!
This might be my favorite harbor tour. Not only is the pilot boat a lot of fun to ride on a sunny day, but Kiki, the usual tour guide, is the best! She’s super knowledgeable and funny and quickly has everyone smiling.
Read about Pilot and its history by clicking here. You’ll learn how it was launched in 1914 and was in regular service, helping large ships to safely enter and leave San Diego Bay, until 1996.
History buffs will be interested to learn that Pilot was built at a location not far from the present museum. It was also used by the military during World War II to serve as a patrol boat.
I took a few photos during our pleasant tour of the bay…
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California pioneer M. C. Close and his mermaid Trixie. La Jolla. February 29th, 1910.
Do you love viewing or collecting old postcards?
Postcards are experiences frozen in time. Images and a few words are meant to be shared and remembered.
Postcards that were printed long ago can also be windows into history.
I saw an old postcard of the San Diego Zoo the other day. I then wondered how many cards depicting San Diego and its attractions are in the public domain.
Upon visiting Wikimedia Commons, I discovered quite a few!
Here’s a diverse selection of old postcards that you might enjoy looking at. In several instances the image information wasn’t very detailed, so I did a little extra research. Postcard dates were taken from Wikimedia Commons, or in one case inferred: the Spreckels Organ Pavilion showing a wicker electriquette cart. Read the captions.
Anyone who has memories or additional information, please feel free to leave a comment!
San Diego Zoo. Entrance to the zoo. 1961.El Toreador Motel, San Ysidro. Date uncertain. El Toreador opened in October 1948.U. S. Grant Hotel, San Diego. Date uncertain.Fifth Avenue Auto Wash at Fifth and Kalmia. Circa 1920-1929.Fred Vinyard Overhead Garage Doors, 3600 block of Pacific Highway, opposite Consolidated Aircraft. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945.Japanese Tea House, Panama-California Exposition, San Diego, 1915.Little Chapel of the Roses, Chula Vista. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945.Pickwick Hotel in downtown San Diego. Between circa 1930 and 1945. Today the 1927 building is home to The Sofia Hotel.Panoramic view of San Diego, circa 1900-1909. The foreground appears to be Bankers Hill.Hotel Del Coronado. Circa 1900-1909.Steaming through San Diego County, California. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945. Santa Fe train passes through orange groves.Mission San Diego. Founded by Padre Junipero Serra. Circa 1900-1909.Caves of La Jolla. Circa 1900-1909.The Barcelona Hotel and Apartments in Bankers Hill. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945.Tropic Motel, 2611 San Diego Avenue (off U.S. 101), in Old Town San Diego. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945.Ferry Boat Ramona. San Diego. Circa 1910.Twin Inns, Carlsbad. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945.State Normal School, San Diego, 1905. State sponsored teacher training college in University Heights. Demolished in 1955.Carnegie Library, San Diego, 1905. Opened in 1902 at Eighth and E Streets. It was demolished in 1952.Amusement Center, Mission Beach, San Diego. Between circa 1930 and circa 1945. Today this is Belmont Park with its Giant Dipper Roller Coaster.Point Loma Homestead. 1906. Lomaland of the Theosophical Society, established in 1900.Postcard of The San Diegan at San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot train station in August 1973.Tugging A Sailing Boat to Sea. San Diego. Circa 1910.The Open Air Organ, Balboa Park, San Diego. The Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Circa 1915.Bath House. San Diego. Circa 1910. Los Baños pool and public baths opened downtown in 1897 near the foot of D Street (Broadway).Portion of Business District, San Diego. Image predates 1920.
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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!
To see a list of Irving Gill’s other works in San Diego and Southern California, visit his Wikipedia page here.
The Buel-Town Building, 1898.
With its arched corner entrance, bay window, and corbelled brick cornice, this building reflects the originality of the architects Hebbard and Gill. Gill, the principal designer, had a preference for natural forms, over the highly ornate European styles common of his era. This is evident in this structure, which was one of his earliest works. After serving tenants such as the Western Metal Company and Buel-Town Chemicals, the building was converted for use as The Old Spaghetti Factory Restaurant in 1974.
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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!
Those who ride the Coronado ferryboat Cabrillo might notice a mysterious display at the concession counter near the center of the ship.
Displayed in one case is a single gold coin that was found on the beach in Coronado. The rare coin is believed to have been stolen from a pirate’s chest. Greedy passengers on the ferry might wish to avoid this gold, however, because it is said to be cursed.
Another display case features a very weird volleyball. The ball was found floating in San Diego Bay by Cabrillo crew members in 2001. A strangely smeared hand print, that resembles a face, suggests the ball was cast away by an unknown someone out at sea. At least, that’s one plausible theory.
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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!
Do you love the movies Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick? Here’s an incredible opportunity for fans that will take place this May in San Diego!
Sign up for Top Gun Days San Diego 2023 and you’ll meet a veteran Blue Angel pilot, who flew the F-18 during scenes in Top Gun: Maverick. You’ll meet a TOPGUN graduate and former instructor, who played a vital role in making Top Gun. You’ll rub shoulders with other pilots from the movies, and get the inside scoop on the filming of these two epic blockbusters!
The three day Top Gun Days San Diego event ends at the USS Midway Museum, then Kansas City Barbeque, the nearby restaurant where the “sleazy bar” scene in the original Top Gun was filmed!
How cool is this?
I ran into the group while they toured the USS Midway last year, and it was apparent everyone was having a great time!
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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!
An exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum explains how San Diego County is the richest region in California for precious gems.
Gemstones that can be found in the mountains of San Diego County include tourmaline, garnet, topaz, beryl and spodumene. We are world-renowned for our tourmaline!
The exhibit demonstrates how these precious gems form inside pegmatites–a rock formation that can occur as magma cools. Large gem bearing pegmatites are found in San Diego’s North County, near Palomar Mountain.
Tourmaline has been mined in San Diego County since the 1890s. The Himalaya Mine alone has extracted about 250,000 pounds of mineral specimens.
I remember as a boy heading with my family up to the Stewart Lithia mine in Pala. For a fee, we spent an hour on hands and knees sifting through the mine tailings, searching for gems. We were delighted to find a handful of small pink, green and watermelon tourmalines! We also found a fair amount of lepidolite (a source of lithium). It was a lot of fun!
I see the Himalaya Mine has a Facebook page. Check it out 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!
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!
There’s a small building in Solana Beach’s historical downtown that appears very unusual. The wood structure seems quaintly out of place, as if it belongs in a rural setting. I stumbled upon this building while walking down Acacia Avenue, about a block south of Plaza Street.
According to a plaque, the building that today houses Sindi’s Snack Shack began in 1931 as a detached garage for the Witmer family’s residence and drug store.
I found this page on the Solana Beach Civic and Historical Society’s website with an old photo of the Witmer drug store’s storefront on Highway 101.
Witmer’s Sandwiches, Fountain and Sundries sold patent medicines and odds and ends, plus featured a soda fountain.
There’s also a description of their garage’s history. From the early 1980s up until the COVID-19 pandemic, it was home to a breakfast spot called Hideaway Cafe.
Here’s the original Witmer garage as it is today:
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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!
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!
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.
Cool San Diego Sights! 