Fallbrook, CA

Fallbrook is a large unincorporated town in the hills of northern San Diego County, pressed right up against the eastern fence line of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Interstate 15 and Highway 76 run along its eastern side, and the town spreads west from them over ridges and canyons planted thick with groves. Avocados are the town's calling card. Fallbrook calls itself the world's avocado capital, and every April the Avocado Festival takes over Main Avenue with a guacamole contest, a little footrace called the Avo 500, two music stages and crowds in the tens of thousands. The name traces to the Reche family, early settlers who named the place after their old homestead in Pennsylvania. Before that it was part of Rancho Monserate, granted to Ysidro Alvarado in 1846. Homes vary with the terrain. Older houses gather near the village center, and the rest scatter across hillside parcels where avocado trees often outnumber neighbors. Farming still shows up in flower fields and citrus as well. Land conservation is a big part of local life. The Fallbrook Land Conservancy owns Monserate Mountain Preserve on the far side of the interstate, where a steep trail of about 1.6 miles gains well over a thousand feet to a summit with views to the Pacific. Rock Mountain, on the north side above the river valley, is a shorter climb with some scrambling over boulders. Downtown has its own culture scene. The Fallbrook Art Center rotates exhibits of painting, glass and jewelry, the Gem and Mineral Museum shows fossils and minerals, and an old railroad caboose marks Railroad Heritage Park. For a slow weekend meal, The Veranda at Grand Tradition Estate serves brunch and a midday menu from Thursday to Sunday on a covered patio looking over a lake and gardens. Commutes are the hard part. Oceanside, Escondido and the job centers along the coast are all a drive away on two-lane roads before the freeway even starts. What Fallbrook offers back is a town still organized around its groves, where the main street shuts down one Sunday each spring to celebrate a fruit.