Another cool walk in Ocean Beach!

I headed to Ocean Beach today. Wandering along and around Newport Avenue, and near the beach, I took these cool photographs. Every walk in OB is an adventure–there’s always more to discover!

How to describe laid-back Ocean Beach? Counterculture meets the beach? A funky hippie paradise? A place where locals, professionals and tourists mingle with skaters, surfers, and stoners playing guitar on the boardwalk near the pier? You never quite know what you’ll encounter!

Some of the best weird sights are in shop windows. There’s a ton of colorful street art, too, which I’ve covered many times over the years. (I did happen upon one awesome mural which I’ll share in my next blog post.)

Anyway, these photos are from today’s sunny walk. They were taken before and after a lunchtime pollo asado burrito…

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Sweetwater Park native garden teaches ethnobotany.

Chula Vista’s new Sweetwater Park on San Diego Bay is a place where our natural environment is protected and celebrated. Visitors can enjoy long walking trails that wind among native plants.

In the Council Ring near the restrooms and parking lot, an easy circular path features many such plants, and two informative signs explain how these plants were an important part of Kumeyaay culture.

Ethnobotany is explained as the study of how different cultures use plants native to their environments. This includes plants that provide food, medicine, shelter, soaps, fibers, dyes, waxes and more. The Kumeyaay people, who have lived in the San Diego region for thousands of years, have a deep ethnobotanical knowledge and connection to their surrounding environment.

Visitors are invited to look for certain plants, such as Sugar Bush, California Buckwheat, Mulefat and Bladderpod. Did you know that tea made from Singlewhorl Burrobush has been used to control dandruff? Or that boiled root of Lanceleaf Liveforever has been used to treat asthma?

Pause at these signs during your visit to Sweetwater Park and learn more about the history of our region, and the native inhabitants the natural environment has supported.

Look for other signs around the park identifying plants, too!

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Two fun sights in the Gaslamp Quarter!

Walking this morning through downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, I photographed these two fun sights!

First is the F Street entrance sign for the old Horton Plaza parking structure. A playful jester welcomes motorists to what used to be a unique and very popular shopping mall!

Next, a sidewalk vent structure was painted to appear like Star War’s R2-D2!

You can spot this fun street art in front of Kutthroat Downtown barber shop at 437 Market Street.

Love endures at old Oceanside cemetery.

Beloved Wife and Mother

Beloved Husband and Father

In Loving Memory

Gone, But Not Forgotten

In Memory, From Daughters & Sons

Our Little Angel

Her Love Lingers

These are a few of the loving inscriptions on stone that linger in Oceanside’s old Oceanview Cemetery.

During a recent walk down South Coast Highway, I redirected my feet and wandered through the 3-acre resting place, originally called the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, established in 1895.

As a blogger who’s always searching for interesting sights, I was wondering if some “famous” person might be buried here.

Shame on me for thinking that way. I had missed the central message of a cemetery. It’s that we all might be mortal, but loves lives on.

Are you curious about the history of this old cemetery? A State of California resource document includes:

From its inception in 1895 until about 1950, when Eternal Hills Memorial Park opened in Oceanside, Oceanview was the primary non-denominational cemetery in Oceanside. During its heyday in the 1920s, 30s and 40s there were well over 1000 burials at Oceanview… over 1100 obituaries have been compiled, by the Oceanside Historical Society, of people interred at Oceanview… Oceanview contains the remains of veterans involved in every war or conflict from the Civil War to World War II, inclusive. Those interred at Oceanview range in age from just a few hours old to Agapita Soliz whose family claimed she was 110 years old at the time of her death in 1941. Many of Oceanside’s pioneers and merchants, dating back to the 1880s, are interred at Oceanview.

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Two murals celebrate Normal Heights!

Yesterday I photographed two murals on Adams Avenue that celebrate San Diego’s historic Normal Heights neighborhood.

The first one is painted on the side of Dino’s Barber Shop at 3184 Adams Avenue. The mural features an old streetcar, colorful shops and the Normal Heights landmark sign.

The fun, nostalgic art was created by muralist Caroline Birch.

Can you spot two barber poles in my first photo?

A short walk away, a bit north on 32nd Street, you can find another very cool Normal Heights mural.

This one was painted by Hanna Daly of Hanna’s Murals back in 2022.

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Colorful burro on a North Park sidewalk!

I think this is a burro. It has long ears. This particular critter, whatever it might be, is also extremely colorful! Perhaps it’s a huge piñata.

I spotted the painted metal sculpture as I walked down Adams Avenue in North Park, just east of 30th Street. It stands on the sidewalk in front of El Zarape Mexican Eatery.

I like this fun burro so much, I took several photos!

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Many birds of the San Diego River.

Walking down one of the dirt paths off the main trail at the SDSU Mission Valley River Park, you might encounter this sign. It features birds you could see along the San Diego River.

Birds described in words and photos include California Scrub-jay, California Quail, Anna’s Hummingbird, Great Blue Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Great Horned Owl and American Coot.

Of course, it’s possible to sight egrets, cormorants, different types of ducks, gulls, blackbirds, swallows and many, many different species. The San Diego River, stretching from the mountains of East County to the Pacific Ocean, supports enormous biodiversity. The river is also part of the Pacific Flyway, a major route of migratory birds.

The sign includes a paragraph about the Bird Songs of the indigenous Kumeyaay people. It concerns the bird-inspired singing and dancing in traditional Kumeyaay ceremonies and celebration.

How about my recent walk through the river park? I spotted small sparrows flitting about near the path, saw soaring crows and seagulls, and heard the calls of various birds in the trees beyond the fence that protects the river habitat from human intrusion.

If you love to walk, head down to the river park. There is sunshine, fresh air, people playing sports on the wide grass areas, easy access by trolley, and, best of all, it’s beautiful. (Bonus: look for the mile markers on the main walkway that were designed by James Hubbell!)

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Dolphin mosaics at La Jolla Shores beach restrooms.

I really love these dolphin mosaics at the Kellogg Park North Comfort Station in La Jolla Shores. They’re so lively and colorful!

I had to take some photos during my latest walk along the beach there.

A circular plaque in the structure, to the right of the showers, recalls how construction of the comfort station and its restrooms was primarily funded by the John G. Watson Foundation and supported by Friends of La Jolla Shores.

“Oceans of Thanks” is a phrase used by the Walter Munk Foundation for the Oceans to express gratitude to supporters, donors, and the community, particularly during annual celebrations like Walter Munk Day.

Walter Munk was a world-renowned oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He was often called the Einstein of the Oceans. The efforts of his wife Mary Coakley Munk were instrumental in creating the new comfort station.

The Kellogg Park North Comfort Station and its mosaics were dedicated on October 30, 2014.

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Paragliders over Scripps Institution of Oceanography!

Paragliders that launch from the Torrey Pines Gliderport can often be seen soaring above the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla!

I photographed several serenely gliding paragliders during my latest walk through the Scripps campus. It was a beautiful sight.

The paragliders are often observed from an ocean overlook near the Ted and Jean Scripps Marine Conservation and Technology Facility. That’s the building in the above photograph.

You can also watch paragliders from the upper portion of the Scripps Coastal Meander trail, whose trailhead is near the same building. To see what I’m talking about, check out this past blog post.

Enjoy a few photographs and imagine yourself looking up toward clouds and blue sky. In the next photo we can see Scripps Pier and the area of La Jolla Cove across the water beyond it…

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Changes coming to downtown’s Wells Fargo Plaza!

Today during a walk through downtown San Diego I noticed workers removing the individual letters spelling WELLS FARGO from the front of Wells Fargo Plaza! It was down to WE. That piqued my curiosity!

Security guards behind the front counter told me the building is undergoing a renovation. On display inside the Wells Fargo building’s lobby, several renderings visualize proposed changes coming to the 24-story office tower. Each shows an outdoor restaurant concept at the main entrance.

I was asked not to photograph the renderings. They do look interesting.

I found this article. It explains that the Conrad Prebys Foundation purchased the building in 2025 as the cornerstone of the foundation’s efforts to reimagine and enliven the city’s downtown business corridor as a vibrant civic and cultural center.

As a downtown resident, I’ll have to keep my eyes wide open during walks to see exactly what the future brings! If I happen to note anything interesting, I’ll post an update.

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