Mira Costa, Oceanside, CA

MiraCosta College has crowned a hilltop in eastern Oceanside since 1964, and the Mira Costa neighborhood spreads across the slopes and flats around its 121-acre campus, east of El Camino Real. From the higher streets you can see both the ocean and the coastal mountains, a reminder that the beach is only about three miles west. Homes are mostly single-family, with a good share of single-story ranch houses on cul-de-sacs and corner lots along streets like Carriage Circle and Camino Crest Drive. Condo and townhome complexes fill in between, many with their own pools and tennis courts. Around Nicklaus Drive, houses back onto the fairways of a private golf course, which gives that part of the neighborhood a greener, more open look than the blocks near the arterials. The open hilltop around the college makes for an easy walk with long views. Joe Sepulveda Park on Sherbourne Drive is the neighborhood park for a game of catch or a playground stop. For bigger outings, the beach is a short drive down Oceanside Boulevard or Vista Way. Eating out leans casual and local. Anita's on El Camino Real has been serving Mexican food since 1973, and regulars order the chips and salsa with a Cadillac margarita. Dayon Coffee on Vista Way cooks down purple sweet potato into a house syrup for its ube latte, and a chocolate banana latte is the other favorite. The shopping centers along El Camino Real fill in the rest with quick lunches and takeout. Groceries are close by car. WinCo Foods and Target sit just across El Camino Real, and an Albertsons is on Oceanside Boulevard toward Rancho Del Oro. State Route 78 runs along the south side, which makes the drive to Carlsbad, Vista or Interstate 5 simple. Most errands here mean getting in the car, and El Camino Real and Vista Way carry heavy traffic at rush hour. Inside the neighborhood, though, the curving residential streets stay quiet, and from the top of Mira Costa the Pacific still shows up at the end of the street.