ChrisTurk

I mean, there are places to park to get to the somewhat scrubby beach, and a bike path on the shore side of the street. And I know I saw some surfers out there in the water, but it seems so residential that I have my doubts about it for a vacation spot. It is pretty though. And there is the SF zoo, but I'm not a fan of keeping animals in cages for the sake of our own amusement. I'd rather eat them.

Industrial space and dirt. That pretty much sums up the feel of the place. We got lost looking for our hotel, traveled too far south, and ended up here. We're traumatized such a hideously empty place exists so close to a beautiful place like The Strand.

The view of the ocean is pretty as long as you don't look inland or particularly close to the shore. Yuck. Recommended only for people you don't like.

Unlike the other side of the river, there's plenty of parking for the beach and there were actual shops here and there as well. The marina is BUSY too. It actually seems like a place people have fun with their boats, rather than a place to simply keep them in the water. The houses here are fancier looking, though, which suggests property prices are much higher. Our hotel was down here and we're glad it was. Nice place to be.

It really is. There's so many great little places in Melbourne that it's an amazing place to just wander about and explore. It's a shame gas (petrol) prices are completely nuts.

But back to the street. It meanders along the coast of what looks like a man-made lake with a decent sized island in the middle and a huge expanse of, well, empty land with a few trees on the other side. Looks like a good place for a picnic.

Okay, it's an avenue not a street, but it's still Batman.

It starts out a little industrially and turns bucolic as it winds its way along the canal (river?). It's a short drive, but nice. Cooler than much of the rest of the city, it seemed. It led us by the Olympic park, which looked to be a disappointment, so we didn't bother stopping. We did however turn around and drive back up Batman. So pretty, but not really much of a caped crusader, though, so it's more Bruce Wayne than Batman.

Then another and another and another. Apparently this place is ringed by a half dozen or so hospitals and medical centers and tons of people on staff take their lunch in the park. If you had to be sick somewhere, this is a nice place to do it. We were driving around looking for the Olympic park when we stumbled on this place. Definitely a gem.

That pretty much sums it up. From a visitor's perspective, there really wasn't much to do. But at least around the two esplanades (east and west) it seemed like a decent place to live. They were right around the three or four parks I saw. If you've read some of my other reviews, you'll know I have a thing for parks and green space in cities. These parks aren't as epic or as lovely as others in the area (the (Royal?) Botanical Gardens, for instance), but it's never a bad thing to live by a park.

Here's what I was thinking when I turned onto this street:

Blah blah blah, residential properties, blah blah blah, couple shops, blah blah blah, pretty light traffic, blah blah blah, it's really nice out and I wish we'd rented a convertible, blah blah blah, driving on the wrong side of the road, blah blah blah.

Oh my god, look at the size of that park! Let's find a place to stop and wander around.


The tree-lined paths were a bit weird, though, as there were no other trees really anywhere but on the paths. Still, a freaking awesome place in the middle of the city. It's a bit like finding Central Park in Manhattan when you didn't know it was there.

I recommend this for retirees as anyone else would spoil the quiet.

What more is there to say? It's utterly gorgeous and surprisingly empty of people. If you haven't been down this street and have any good sense, drop what you're doing right now and go. Park. Enjoy an early lunch or something. Go walk the paths for a few hours, you'll be a better person for it.

I recommend this for everyone but young couples. The rest of us don't need to see you get so excited at the wonderfulness of it all that you have to find a clump of bushes for some "privacy." Damn, I'm starting to sound like a retiree.

Take one part peaceful residential area, one part industrial area, then layer them up with a big ol' smear of traffic in the middle and you have this place. I couldn't believe how busy it was. It looked positively bucolic to the south and, well, industrial to the north. I guess I'm used to the gradual transitions from residential to industrial, but there was a good sized park and even a "cricket field" (whatever that's for. Catching crickets, I suppose) to break up the dichotomy. The traffic alone, though, would keep me from living here if I could even get a visa for that.

Recommended for retirees who have already lost their hearing (it was quiet when I was there, but you can never tell about those industrial areas) and who never go anywhere.

Maybe if you're looking to pick up a sugar daddy (or mommy, I won't discriminate) it's a good place to hang out, but though it's not a private beach, it was nearly empty except for the wealthy dog walkers who live across the street or just around the corner. There's nearly no parking and there's a marina at the southeast end. It is very pretty, though.

To punish the rich people and abscond with their peace and quiet, I heartily recommend this for families with kids.

A winding road through hills covered in California scrub (sage?) with few houses and glimpses of the ocean here and there. Shame it had to end and shame we had to share it with anyone (just a few, though). It was early morning on a weekend as the sun was rising, before everyone decided to turn San Diego's streets into a parking lot. Not as good as a trip all the way up the PCH in a convertible, but great fun nonetheless. It's too much fun to ruin it with old people and children so this is for singles and couples only.

One is too many, if you get stuck behind it in traffic in a convertible. The existence of public transportation is nice, but sucking hot exhaust on a hot day is unpleasant no matter what. We were almost tempted to put the roof up and crank on the air conditioner. Almost, but not quite.

Looks like it has a few decent decent restaurants and shops. They certainly seemed pretty busy from our spot in the street, but that might just have been the day we were there. Everything seemed kind of busy then.

I hereby decide that Retirees are to blame for the traffic problems that day and recommend the street for everyone but them.

It's a couple of one-way streets with a really wide median (like a narrow strip of drab and empty park) and does a weird jag in the middle where right around Polk it sort of stops being "Normal" for a bit and then rejoins "Normal," which for some reason is coming from the west. There's gotta be a short stretch of perfectly straight, well-maintained road with light traffic and a few small houses with nice yards named "Odd" somewhere around here.

The proximity to one of the better bits of University Ave makes up somewhat for the street's strangeness in organization.

The place to go if you, say, slice your shin open on a bit of beach crud and need stitches. The nurses were busy, and the doctors not so friendly. We waited a while to get service, even though newly arrived patients in the ER cringed at the blood caked on and oozing through my friend's jeans. But it all got taken care of eventually.

Fortunately it wasn't tough to find the place as it's pretty much the tallest building in the area. But aren't hospitals always that way.

It's a quiet street, at least the north end of it was. Quiet, though, was a bad sign for us. We turned around when we realized we'd gotten off the 8 at the wrong place and turned down the wrong street. There's an apartment complex and then a whole lot of nothing, or at least that's what it seemed to be when we made our odd detour. Being near the university it was probably home to a lot of students.

Not that that's a bad thing. They tend to gather places where there's fun to be had, and this isn't really an exception. Bars and clubs and coffee house-type hangouts abound. Perhaps there's an overabundance, but there certainly are a lot of students. Good pace to stop for a bite if you're headed to the beach or for a drink on the way back.

The view over the little lakey type marina thing was a bit lame compared to the view of the ocean on the west side. It's not as much fun to watch rich people sail boats as it is to see the ocean (particularly for an AZ native). We did get to see a few boats pass as we went over the bridge to the marina's entrance. And we did wonder what would happen to us in an earth quake if we got stuck on the bridge. That was kind of fun, but driving in traffic on this street? Not so much. I'd hate to live here, just for the traffic.

It's a bit busy because it's one of the main thoroughfares (if you can call a four-lane street a "thoroughfare," though everything does seem connected to it) in the area. The mall at the east-ish end (Midway Towne Center, with the pretentious "e" on the end of "Town") isn't half bad for shopping, and the beach at the other end is nice as well, but I do worry about the Ocean Beach "Athletic Area." I mean, all they seem to have is a half-dozen baseball diamonds. How athletic is it if they only cater to the one sport.

The beach. The reason, I think, San Diego exists. This one's unimaginatively called "Ocean Beach" but it's still pretty nice: well kept, with green space as well as sand. But there's a break water that extends west from the north end of the beach. As such swimming there is more like going into a lake than taking a dip in the ocean.

Other than the beach, which is only really at the southwest end, there's a bunch of expensive-looking houses. Some might be nice to live in, being so close to the beach and all, but others just seem McMansion sized.