North Broadway, Escondido, CA

Up where Broadway leaves the valley floor and starts climbing toward the hills, North Broadway is a small residential slice of Escondido between I-15 and Conway Drive, just north of El Norte Parkway. It is about half a square mile, mostly houses, and quieter than the busy commercial blocks to the south. North Broadway homes are a mix of small ranch houses, bungalows and Mission Revival styles. Streets rise and dip with the terrain, and the higher ones look back across the valley. Rod McLeod Park is the neighborhood's own open space. It covers 18 acres on a rise above town with views over downtown and the countryside, and leashed dogs are welcome. Up Broadway in East Grove, Jesmond Dene Park adds hiking trails, a playground and picnic areas, and Reidy Creek runs an 18-hole executive golf course with a disc golf layout on the same ground. Keep driving north on Broadway and you reach the Cougar Pass Road edge of Daley Ranch. The shopping center at Broadway and El Norte handles most quick meals, from takeout counters to a sit-down breakfast. A short way north at Country Club Lane, Good Source Coffee pours seasonal lattes with pastries, and Chicken Lisa's, in the same strip, is known for charbroiled chicken with crackling skin and crispy carnitas, with a beer-and-sports bar attached. Daily errands center on the Vons in the El Norte center. Breeze routes 358 and 359 stop at Broadway and El Norte, and the El Norte Parkway interchange puts I-15 on the neighborhood's western doorstep. In North Broadway, everything commercial sits at one corner. Beyond it the streets are all homes, so nearly every trip for something other than groceries or frozen yogurt starts in the car. From the top of Rod McLeod Park on a clear afternoon, you can trace Broadway from your own street all the way down to the downtown rooftops.