I took these this morning during a walk through the Gaslamp Quarter–mostly up Fifth Avenue. The Gaslamp trolley station was decorated, as were many restaurants, bars, hotels and store windows.
This year there are even inflatables and Christmas trees on patios and sidewalks. Some businesses are going all out!
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A week ago, members of the Lemon Grove volunteer group Revitalize Broadway planted an extensive pollinator garden next to the Lemon Grove Depot trolley station, in what is called Promenade Park. I first read about the project here. I saw the garden today!
Keep in mind the new plants are very small now, but they’ll grow and eventually fill out the garden spaces.
Several informative plaques among the new plantings explain the benefits of native plants, and how they attract a variety of local wildlife, including beneficial insects like butterflies and bees.
If you’d like to learn more about the Revitalize Broadway group and their positive community efforts, click here. Do you live in Lemon Grove? Why not join these good people?
What did I see today?
One plaque describes the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.
Another plaque explains the migration of monarch butterflies and how certain plants provide food sources for declining butterfly populations. Pictured are Yarrow, California Lilac, Pozo Blue Sage, Pacific Aster and Narrow Leaved Milkweed.
Another part of the new garden is slightly depressed and resembles a dry creek. It’s called a rain garden.
Designed to be environmentally friendly, it will help valuable rain water permeate the ground and act as a natural filter.
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If you’d like to see San Diego through my lens, find the “Follow” box in the sidebar to receive new posts in your email, or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing Cool San Diego Sights on a phone, you can open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
The new Navy SEAL Museum San Diego is almost ready to open! Opening day is Saturday, October 4, 2025. That’s less than three weeks away!
This afternoon, walking past downtown’s One America Plaza building, I noticed the black marble pedestal that will support a Navy SEAL frogman statue has been installed outside. You can see it in my first two photographs. The nearby America Plaza trolley station is in the background.
I also observed new graphics have appeared near the museum’s front entrance!
Abandon Self – Embrace Team… The Deed is All – Not the Glory… Be Someone Special… The Only Easy Day was Yesterday
Responsibility – Service – Commitment – Discipline
Travelers at the Old Town Transit Center might find themselves walking through an underground passageway. The tunnel safely crosses beneath the San Diego Trolley and train tracks. In this shadowy place curious eyes will encounter public art titled Archaic Passage.
Not in a hurry to catch your bus or other transportation? There are plaques on either end of the passageway that you can read. They provide information about this unique art…
“ARCHAIC PASSAGE”
COMMISSIONED BY SAN DIEGO METROPOLITAN TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT BOARD JUNE 1996
DESIGNED BY SAN DIEGO ARTIST PAUL HOBSON, “ARCHAIC PASSAGE” CELEBRATES THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF OLD TOWN, FROM NATIVE AMERICAN TO CONTEMPORARY TIMES. ART MATERIALS USED–CARRIZO CANE, WOOD, STUCCO, ADOBE, BRICK, CLAY ROOF AND DECORATIVE TILES–REPRESENT BUILDING MATERIALS USED TO BUILD OLD TOWN. EACH GEOLOGICAL STRATA-LIKE WAVE REFLECTS A SIGNIFICANT ARCHITECTURAL STYLE.
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Did you know there’s a farm immediately next to Snapdragon Stadium’s parking lot?
Did you know that on Saturdays this farm is open to the public and offers a café and fresh vegetable stand? (Not to mention tours and fun activities.)
Yes!
The MAKE Farm is a Community-Supported Agricultural (CSA) Program that empowers refugees and immigrant women. So when you eat here, you’re helping other people as well!
MAKE Farm is located immediately south of the large Snapdragon Stadium parking lot, a little east of the Stadium trolley station. According to signs I spotted today, their offerings include Garden Veggie Wraps and Yogurt Parfaits, and you get a free cookie during your visit, too!
Going to a Saturday game at the stadium? Enjoy a unique and healthy lunch in the outdoors here.
I suppose I’ll have to swing by some weekend!
Late last year, before they opened their on-site café, I toured the farm. You can see that blog post by clicking 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.
San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) workers were testing a new development at the Gaslamp Quarter trolley station this morning. They were setting up that large umbrella in my photo!
I learned that during upcoming Comic-Cons and other similar events near the San Diego Convention Center, temporary umbrellas will be installed at the station platform to provide shade. One of the umbrellas, I was told, will shade a spot for police canines. Dogs can overheat in San Diego’s summer sunshine!
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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 met Dan Beaman today. He was with his bicycle at the Old Town Trolley station. His bike had an Iowa state flag, so I had to approach him and satisfy my curiosity!
I learned that Dan is biking all the way across the United States, starting in San Diego and ending in Daytona Beach. The ride begins in several days and should take about two months. He’s on a continuing quest for the best cookie in America! See his website and follow his progress by clicking here.
He had his traveling stuff in tow, including a tent. He told me he plans to ride a bit over 50 miles per day, and it’s mostly for the adventure of it. Taking a south route across the continent, he’s eager to see the Alamo, New Orleans and other fun places. He likes it warm and flat, so once he crosses our local mountains, he should really like the desert in Imperial Valley east of San Diego!
Gorgeous glass mosaics depicting sea life were recently installed at the E Street trolley station in Chula Vista. The artwork was created by Rainforest Art Project (@rainforestartproject). The mosaics are meant to inspire people traveling through San Diego’s South Bay. Eyes are encouraged to look out at the world with a sense of wonder.
The mosaics are part of the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Color the Corridor project. You might recall that a long mural has been painted on a wall just north of the same trolley station. See my blog post concerning that by clicking here.
A short video concerning these new sea life mosaics can be viewed here.
Many of the glass mosaics aren’t readily visible to passengers waiting for a trolley on the E Street station platform. As you can see from my next photograph, most of the fish, whales, birds and turtles overlook Interstate 5 below.
Hopefully drivers whizzing down the busy freeway or heading up the nearby off-ramp observe this incredible public art!
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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 holiday season wouldn’t be the same without a new San Diego tradition: the Holly Jolly Trolley!
Excited people gathered this morning for a festive ride aboard the original, now vintage 1001 car of the San Diego Trolley.
Today only, the Holly Jolly Trolley travels in a loop through downtown San Diego. Before and after the trip, passengers meet Santa, enjoy hot cocoa, get a trolley Christmas tree ornament, take photographs at a special booth and more at the Gaslamp trolley station.
This year–the event’s Second Annual–seats were quickly sold out, but that didn’t prevent me from walking around the Gaslamp station and seeing the fun!
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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.
An eye-catching display concerning the U.S. Navy SEALs was recently installed at the America Plaza trolley station in downtown San Diego. Informative signs and historic artifacts behind panes of glass can be observed from a passenger platform.
Next year, the new 10,000 square foot Navy SEAL Museum San Diego will open at the One America Plaza building. It will occupy the two-story space that rises behind stairs on the west side of the trolley tracks–it’s where the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art once had a gallery at 1001 Kettner Boulevard. (The windows of the future museum are now covered with Navy SEAL graphics.)
I was extremely fortunate to enjoy a tour of the museum’s interior construction this afternoon and look forward to blogging about the museum as time rolls on! I can assure you, from what I saw and was told, it’s going to be amazing!
Meanwhile, passengers waiting for the trolley at America Plaza can view the life-size “Gill-man” and the shining BUD/S Bell. The significance of both are explained by nearby signs.
(Sorry, but I had trouble photographing the Creature From the Black Lagoon-like “Gill-man” through the reflecting glass. Head over to the trolley station to see it yourself!)
So you want to be a Frogman? Photographs of Navy SEAL recruits with “Gill-man.” They meet the amphibious creature at the beginning of their Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Training and during their successful graduation. The life-size creature was a gift from Class 63 who procured it from a store in Tijuana, Mexico!The Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training Bell is a large brass bell positioned in the center of the training area. Trainees ring the bell three times if they wish to quit. I learned about 20-25% of Navy Seal recruits complete the physically demanding training. Success requires sheer determination.
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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! 