Tag: travel

Colorful new mural at Oceanside Transit Center!

This very colorful new mural was painted a couple months ago on the north side of the Oceanside Transit Center parking structure. It celebrates Oceanside–its Spanish mission and fishing history, and the nearby Pacific Ocean!

Jonny Pucci created the striking mural. See his Instagram page here.

According to this article, the work is part of MainStreet Oceanside’s Art that Excites program, which aims to install up to 10 murals in public spaces throughout downtown Oceanside.

I love how so many Southern California cities and communities continue to enliven neighborhoods and destinations with public art. No matter where I walk, I always seem to encounter something new. That was certainly the case yesterday!

Next time I walk in Oceanside, I have no doubt I’ll stumble upon more cool sights like this. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more outdoor art that I also discovered yesterday–in Escondido!

Enjoy a few more photos of the Oceanside Transit Center parking garage mural…

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Inside the Navy’s landlocked USS Recruit training ship!

The USS Recruit has been humorously called the USS Neversail. Embedded in concrete at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, the landlocked dummy training ship was an official U.S. Navy vessel commissioned in 1949 (and re-commissioned in 1982) that never set sail!

After Naval Training Center San Diego finally closed in 1997 and Liberty Station was developed on the Navy’s old property, the USS Recruit remained in place, slowly deteriorating. Then about ten years ago, the sheet-metal-over-wood-framing mock destroyer received a new paint job.

Last year the USS Recruit finally opened as a ship museum, allowing visitors to enter a large ground-level room inside the training ship. The walls of the museum are filled with historical photographs and video of past service members recalling their unique experiences aboard ship.

I ventured into the free ship museum a couple weekends ago for my first time. I was told that the one room open to the public used to be filled with telephones. Young sailors could use the phones to call home.

Here are a few photos…

Sailors standing on the deck of the USS Recruit circa 1995.

Old photos show construction of the largely wooden USS Recruit in 1949.

USS Recruit commissioning day, July 27, 1949.

One open door allows visitors to peer into an adjacent room.

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Fun holiday decorations inside House of USA!

Check out all these fun holiday decorations! They fill the House of USA cottage in San Diego’s Balboa Park!

The cottage is typically full of artifacts and images that celebrate American history and culture. When you place Santa Claus in the company of George Washington, visitors to the cottage might blink with surprise!

Are you ready for December Nights in 2024? San Diego’s epic holiday event in Balboa Park is coming up in less than two weeks–on December 6 and 7!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Christmas at Fiesta de Reyes in Old Town.

Fiesta de Reyes in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park appears to be ready for Christmas!

The Mexican restaurant and its colorful shops have been decorated with bright wreaths, poinsettias, Christmas trees, a Nativity scene, and a larger-than-life display up on one stage depicting the three wise men.

As you can see from my photographs taken this morning, many of the holiday decorations have a festive Mexican flavor!

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Holiday season appears in downtown San Diego!

With less than a week to go until Thanksgiving, signs of the Holiday Season have begun to appear around downtown San Diego!

Several hotels and destinations have already put up Christmas trees. Banners and other fun, festive decorations are springing up on street lamps and inside windows. I took these photographs this morning during a long meandering walk through the city.

I was told by downtown workers that the decorating should begin in earnest on Monday. I have no doubt I’ll be seeing many more Christmas trees, Santas, reindeer and winter wonderlands in the next few days!

Season’s Greetings on B Street.

The Westgate Hotel has a Christmas tree in their elegant lobby. Giant nutcrackers and more should be going up early this week.

The Westin San Diego Bayview has a couple of beautiful Christmas trees up, including this one.

Poinsettias have been planted in front of The Guild Hotel on Broadway.

You can watch the annual Parade of Lights on San Diego Bay on both December 8th and 15th. Why not do it from the Maritime Museum of San Diego?

Seaport Village is ready for the holidays!

Frosty the Snowman on a window of the Seaport Village Carousel.

Surfin’ Santa will visit Seaport Village next Saturday!

Seaport Village boasts the biggest Christmas tree ornaments I’ve ever seen!

A very large Christmas tree in the courtyard at The Headquarters!

Twenty tons of snow will be arriving at The Headquarters on Saturday, December 14th. Santa will be available, too!

Kansas City Barbeque (of Top Gun movie fame) is once again providing a free Thanksgiving dinner to Active Duty Military! They’ve been doing it for over 40 years!

The Grinch welcomes customers to Cali Cream Homemade Ice Cream in the Gaslamp Quarter! (I see Santa, too!)

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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.

Thank you for sharing!

Creative Halloween pumpkins at Hard Rock Hotel!

The Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter has an awesome Halloween display inside their lobby!

The hotel’s different departments have each “carved” a pumpkin. Their creative efforts fill a large table, and guests are invited to vote for their favorite. The winning department receives a trophy!

I checked out all the great pumpkins this morning. Some are really scary. Some are pure fun. (I like the pumpkin with a spa facial.)

Here come the photos…

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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.

Famous architect Irving Gill’s final design.

Irving Gill was an American architect who did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture.

I’ve posted many photos of Irving Gill buildings, including Granger Hall in National City, the Old Spaghetti Factory’s home in the Gaslamp Quarter, the original Fire Station, City Hall and Library in Oceanside, the First Church of Christ, Scientist building in Bankers Hill, the George Marston House in Balboa Park, the Old Scripps Building in La Jolla, and others. You might recall he also designed San Diego’s famous 1910 Broadway Fountain.

When I visited Oceanside a little over a month ago, I photographed Irving Gill’s final project: the 1936 Blade Tribune building. Let me share those photos now!

If you’d like to read a great article concerning the history of the now defunct Oceanside Blade-Tribune newspaper, click here.

The 1936 Irving Gill building you see in these photos, at 401 Seagaze Drive, was built to accommodate a newly created Oceanside Daily Blade Tribune and News. The unique building with an Art Deco façade was restored in 2019 and today is home to the Blade 1936 Italian restaurant!

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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.

Find the world-famous art in this photograph.

In this photograph and the next two, you can see art created by and artist who has been called “one of his era’s greatest sculptors.” Can you find it?

These photos were taken a couple days ago behind the old luggage terminal of Santa Fe Depot, in downtown San Diego. The historic terminal, needed back in the days when train travel was a very common mode of transportation, would become the downtown home of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. A year or so ago the museum moved entirely up to their beautiful La Jolla location.

What you see here is the patio between the old luggage terminal and a Santa Fe Depot trolley platform.

What are those metal cubes?

Those six large cubes, together weighing 156 tons, is an art installation commissioned by MCASD in 2004 titled Santa Fe Depot. The artist is Richard Serra.

Richard Serra was a giant in the art world. He died earlier this year, March 26, 2024, at the age of 85.

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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.

Old Town gets ready for Día de Los Muertos.

Día de Los Muertos is about a month away, but Old Town San Diego is already preparing for the big event!

For 2024, Día de Los Muertos will be as big as ever, spilling from Old Town San Diego State Historic Park down San Diego Avenue. For three days the public is invited to the free celebration!

On Friday, November 1, there will be a fun family screening of The Book of Life. The movie will be shown in the grassy plaza at the center of Old Town State Park.

That Saturday and Sunday, the Día de Los Muertos Festival will take over Old Town. In addition to entertainment, there will be tours of more than 40 unique Day of the Dead altars, and anyone can join the annual candlelit procession from Immaculate Conception Church down San Diego Avenue to El Campo Santo Cemetery.

Learn more about everything here.

During a morning walk today, I saw a beautiful altar set up already at Casa de Freds restaurant, and one being prepared in the park next to the Whaley House Museum. Many fancy Catrinas are already set up at Fiesta de Reyes. Calaveras, marigolds and sugar skulls are appearing all over!

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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.

Visit San Diego’s great outdoors for FREE!

A library card is more valuable than you might realize! You can use your San Diego Public Library card to check out a free vehicle day-use pass for over 200 California State Parks!

I noticed this valuable information last weekend during my visit to the Rancho Bernardo Library. To receive a free pass, head over to your nearest San Diego Public Library branch and speak to the library staff.

The free pass will admit you into so many amazing State Parks, including beautiful Torrey Pines State Nature Preserve, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Silver Strand State Beach…

You don’t have a library card? Get one at your local library! Then grab a free State Parks pass!

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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.