Burlingame, San Diego, CA

Pink sidewalks are the first thing people notice in Burlingame, a small historic district in San Diego wedged between North Park and South Park. The color was picked when the tract was developed so the area would stand apart, and more than a century later it still does. The district covers only a handful of blocks, roughly from 30th to 32nd Street and from San Marcos Avenue down to Kalmia Street, and the City of San Diego protects it as a historic district. Most homes went up between 1912 and the early 1950s, and no two streets look quite alike. Craftsman bungalows sit beside Tudor and Mission Revival houses, Spanish Colonial and Prairie School designs, a little Art Deco and a few California ranch homes from the later years. Architect William Wheeler, who worked on Balboa Park for the 1915 exposition, designed some of them, and zoo founder Harry Wegeforth once lived in a house here that now carries a city historic plaque. Switzer Canyon runs along the edge of Burlingame, and a trail drops into it from Burlingame Drive for a short scramble through open space. A loop of the district on those smooth, flat sidewalks runs about a mile and a half, and adding the canyon stretches it past two. The Grape Street Dog Park and the rest of Balboa Park sit a few blocks west. The corner of 30th and Juniper is the local hangout. Dark Horse Coffee Roasters shares a storefront at 3004 Juniper with its sister shop, Mutual Friend Ice Cream, which turns out small-batch scoops with rotating seasonal flavors. Next door, Fall Brewing's Golden Rhino Room pours a long draft list in a room with a gold rhino, walnut bar tops and steakhouse booths. More restaurants and bars line 30th Street heading north into North Park. For groceries, Barons Market on University Avenue in North Park is the nearest full supermarket, and downtown is a short drive away. With so few blocks and almost nothing but houses, most errands beyond a coffee mean heading up 30th Street on foot or by car. Come December, though, the porches along those pink sidewalks fill with elaborate holiday displays, and the walk is the point.