Ivey Ranch-Rancho Del Oro, Oceanside, CA

Ivey Ranch-Rancho Del Oro takes the first half of its name from a ranch whose house went up in 1889, land the city bought in 1981 and turned into Ivey Ranch Park on Rancho del Oro Drive. Today that park runs therapeutic and able-bodied riding programs and a summer horse camp, an unusual neighbor for a suburban district in central-eastern Oceanside. Most of Ivey Ranch-Rancho Del Oro was built out as planned tracts from the late twentieth century onward. Streets curve into cul-de-sacs, two-story Mediterranean-style houses with three to five bedrooms are the norm, and townhomes and condos fill in near the main roads. The Missions is one of the named communities, and some backyards hold a pool or a fire pit. Parks are a real strength. Rancho Del Oro Park on Mesa Drive has a huge lawn for soccer and baseball and hosts summer concerts. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, also on Mesa Drive, adds a skate park, an outdoor rink, sports fields and a walking trail. On the western side, the city owns the 465-acre El Corazon property, a former sand pit where park space has been in planning since 2003. Le Rendez-Vous French Bakery on Oceanside Boulevard has been baking croissants, almond croissants and baguettes for about 20 years, and the owner trained in France. Grandma's Restaurant on Ocean Ranch Boulevard has served breakfast and lunch for more than four decades. In the Ocean Ranch business park, the Belching Beaver brewhouse on Rocky Point Drive pours its Peanut Butter Milk Stout and the Phantom Bride collaboration with Deftones. Shopping is spread along Oceanside Boulevard, where Albertsons and Aldi share the corridor with dozens of quick lunch spots, and Vons sits up on College Boulevard. The Sprinter has stations at Rancho Del Oro and College Boulevard, which makes Escondido or the coast an easy ride, and State Route 78 and State Route 76 are both a quick drive. Oceanside Boulevard and College Boulevard are heavily commercial, so the edges of the neighborhood trade quiet for convenience. The interior streets stay calm, but getting out at rush hour takes patience. Few suburbs this size keep a riding program on old ranch land, and here it sits a short drive from the Aldi parking lot.