Solana Beach, CA

Solana Beach sits on sandstone bluffs along the North County coast of San Diego County, a city of about three and a half square miles between Del Mar to the south and Cardiff-by-the-Sea to the north. San Elijo Lagoon marks its northern edge, Rancho Santa Fe rises inland to the east, and Interstate 5 splits the town into a beach side and a hill side. The town took shape after 1922, when developer Ed Fletcher purchased a 140-acre tract on what locals still called Lockwood Mesa. His crew blasted a cove out of the bluff with a fire hose, and the beach opened on the Fourth of July in 1925. The town did not become a city until 1986, and in 2003 it was the first city in the continental United States to ban smoking on its beaches. Houseberry covers the whole city as a single neighborhood, though the two sides of the freeway feel different. The west side holds the beach, Coast Highway 101 and the Cedros Design District, with its 85 or so galleries, antique dealers, boutiques and cafes. East of the freeway, the land climbs into quieter residential hills and golf course streets. People drive in from around the county for the Belly Up, a Cedros Avenue music club that has booked live acts since 1974 and holds about 600 people. North Coast Repertory Theatre, a nonprofit stage with around 200 seats, runs a full season on Lomas Santa Fe Drive. Along Via de la Valle, across from the Del Mar racetrack, The Fish Market sells chowder and fresh fish at a retail counter, and Pamplemousse Grille serves French-leaning meat and seafood. Annie's Canyon, reached from the Solana Hills trailhead, is a 2.3-mile loop just over the line in Cardiff that squeezes through a sandstone slot canyon with ladders and narrow passages. In summer, free Concerts at the Cove draw crowds to the beach park downtown. The rail line is a big part of daily life. Coaster commuter trains and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner stop at the station on North Cedros, sunk into a trench in the late 1990s so the tracks no longer block Lomas Santa Fe Road. In Solana Beach, a commuter rail platform, a music club with room for 600 and a slot canyon hike all fit inside one small beach town.