Burchell Hill, Oakdale, CA

Burchell Hill, Oakdale, holds most of the city's biggest parks and grocery stores, which makes it the part of town people head to for errands and weekend games. W.T. Kerr Community Park alone covers 43 acres off North Stearns Road, with ball diamonds, a playground, horseshoe pits, sand volleyball and picnic tables. Smaller parks fill in around it. L.B. Gilbert Park, at C and D streets, has lighted tennis courts and a softball field. Burchell Park sits at East C Street and Burchell Hill Drive with a playground and a half-court. Valley View Park and Trail adds about 25 acres of paths running down toward the Stanislaus River. Between them the neighborhood covers nearly every sport, from horseshoes and sand volleyball at Kerr to pickup basketball at Burchell and Gilbert. The housing here is mostly single-family houses laid out as subdivision blocks, the ranch-style and newer traditional looks that show up across the city. It spreads out more than downtown does, and driving is the default for getting anywhere. For lunch, Mr. Pickle's on East F Street slices its meats by hand and builds the sandwiches on Dutch crunch rolls, and Scotty's Donuts opens well before sunrise on weekends. Groceries mean Raley's or SUPER Grocery Depot, both inside the neighborhood, so the weekly shop rarely requires leaving it. Highways 108 and 120 cross in town, which puts Modesto about fifteen miles away and the mountains in the other direction. The bus system is StanRTA, but most people here plan around a car. The Stanislaus River is the local playground for boaters and anglers, and Valley View is the closest public path toward it from this side of town. The commercial blocks lean toward drive-throughs and strip centers, so you get what you need quickly and not much atmosphere with it. Most weekends in Burchell Hill are organized around a field, a court or the river trail, and the shops are close enough to fit in around that.