Vista is located approximately eight miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and approximately 40 miles north of San Diego in North San Diego County. Vista is bisected by six-lane State Highway 78 that connects Interstate 5 seven miles to the west and Interstate 15 twelve miles to the east. It is home to about 94,000 individuals in 28,887 households with a median household income of $60,531 . That number sounds big but in reality the town is a bedroom community composed of lots and lots of twisting hillside roads with countless homes hidden behind greenery. Many with ocean views! Every house in town has views of the surrounding hills.

The City of Vista (www.cityofvista.com) was incorporated January 28, 1963 as a general law city government and changed to a charter government on June 5, 2007. The city began construction of a new City Hall complex at the beginning of September and it will continue until 2009. The city encompasses 19 square miles of gently rolling to steep terrain ranging from 300' to 1500' above sea level. (That's more of an elevation change than across all of Iowa!) Our City Manager, Mayor and City Council work well together. The city council has many advisory commissions that encourage citizen involvement. The city enjoys a climate called the "Climatic Wonderland of the US" by the US Weather Bureau with an average temperature of 74. The city has six times the national average for public parks including the 40-acre Brengle Terrace Park, home of the largest 4th of July fireworks display in the county. The 557-acre Guajome County Regional Park straddles our city boundary with Oceanside to the northwest and there are numerous neighborhood parks are scattered throughout the city. There are two golf courses in town, Shadowridge Country Club (www.shadowridgecc.com) and Vista Valley Country Club (www.vistavalley.com), and, another 40 courses within one hour. Of course, we have a Vista Tennis Club (www.tennisclubofvista.com), too. Vista has an active Chamber of Commerce (www.vistachamber.org) located in the historic 1914 AT&SF train station. The hills pose a problem for civic leaders that would like more 'downtown shopping'. There just aren't that many flat, straight stretches of land for one. Consequently, a majority of the shops in town are mom-and-pop owned rather than national chain branches. (I like that in spite of what others may say.) Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and others are here for those who like 'big box' shopping. We have all the major chain supermarkets plus a great selection of specialty and ethnic food stores including the supermarket-size Frazier Farms Natural Grocery.

The 600+ acre business park (not a shopping area) has over 650 employers with over 18,000 employees. High tech? You bet! This area was master-planned and developed specifically for commerce, business and industry. General aviation is served through Palomar Airport (6 miles), Oceanside Airport (8 miles) and Fallbrook Airpark (11 miles). The nearest Amtrak station is 10 miles away in Oceanside. San Diego International Airport is the primary major airport but John Wayne Orange County Airport, Ontario International and Long Beach Airport are less than 90 minutes away and have some very reasonable fares because they are lesser known.

The Vista Unified School District (www.vusd.k12.ca.us) has 28,000 students in 13 elementary schools, 2 magnet elementary schools, 5 middle schools, 1 magnet middle school (undergoing updating), 2 traditional high schools, 2 charter high schools and three alternative high schools. The land has been broken for a double-magnet high school and may be open in late 2008. VUSD has an excellent Adult Education program with many classes specifically targeted at 55+ citizens, and, a very comprehensive ROP center with skills training in several fields.Vista High and Rancho Buena Vista High are traditional powerhouses in San Diego County sports. Football spoken here! Famed skateboarder Tony Hawk attended RBV. There are also several private K-12 schools including Tri-City Christian, St Francis, Faith Lutheran, and Vista Christian.

National University (www.nu.edu), with the 3rd largest graduate program in the US, is located here along with BIOLA University (www.biola.edu). Palomar College (www.palomar.edu), MiraCosta College (www.miracosta.edu) and Cal State Univ at San Marcos (www.csusm.edu) are within 10 minutes. San Diego State Univ, Univ of San Diego, UC San Diego, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, Univ of Redlands, Univ of Phoenix, Alliant Int'l Univ, Pt Loma Nazerene College, Miramar College, Mesa College, Grossmont College, Cal Western School of Law and Thos Jefferson School of Law are within an hour. Maric College located here offers career training in medical-assisting fields. The Gemological Institute of America is just 10 minutes away. Our Vista Library is very modern, well-stocked and has over 20 public-use computers.

For entertainment, Vista has The Wave waterpark for kids of all ages in a newly redeveloped 37-acre area with a 16 screen Krikorian Premier Theatre complex that includes 20 food spots from quality sit-down to dripping ice cream on the run. Live stage performances are seen at the highly-regarded Moonlight Amphitheatre, Avo Playhouse and Broadway Theatre. Other venues include the huge Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, the Vista Entertainment Center and two historic Spanish land grant-era adobes. There's also the McClellan Senior Center, the annual Scottish Highland Games and many civic, service and social clubs including such diverse groups like the National Watch and Clock Collectors Assn of America. Did I mention the Farmer's Market held every Saturday morning in the City Hall parking lot? In the know locals gather at Pepper Tree Frosty for the best shakes in town. That's where you'll frequently find classic cars and hot rods parked for weekend shows.

There's Pop Warner football,  Little League baseball, Pony League baseball, soccer leagues, softball leagues, rocking-chair softball leagues, basketball leagues, volleyball leagues, horseshoe events and enough pizza joints to hold them all. Also, there are several piano, ballet, tap and clogging studios in addition to three music stores. The Rancho Buena Vista Little League team placed 3rd in the 2005 Little League World Series! Construction is set to begin on a new 30 acre sports park that will house baseball, soccer, volleyball and other sports fields.

Services? Vista has over 75 places of worship to serve the spiritual needs of the community. The 400-bed Tri-City Medical Center (www.tricitymed.org) on the western city border with Oceanside covers hospital needs. The San Diego Blood Bank (www.sandiegobloodbank.org) has a satellite location here, too. The Vista Fire Dept, 100% professionally staffed, has an excellent response time average. The San Diego Sheriff's Dept provides contract law enforcement services with a regional headquarters here. The North San Diego County Superior Courts are located in a modern 5-story building beside the Vista Detention Center. That's a fancy name for The Jail. All the major banks are here along with a number of local independent banks, S&Ls and credit unions. Vista is home to the world-famous Cal-A-Vie Spa. (Oprah has been here!!!)

The North County Times (www.nctimes.com) is the local 7-day newspaper. The San Diego Union-Tribune (www.uniontrib.com) is our regional paper. You can get the LA or NY Times, too, but they don't cover Vista very well. The San Diego Reader provides an alternative newspaper experience and there's a folksy Vista News published infrequently.

History? The famous El Camino Real that linked the California missions passed through Vista! The National Historical Landmark 2,200+ acre Rancho Guajome Adobe was the home of the US Indian Agent Jean Baptiste Charbonneau for years. Don't recognize his name? He's the baby in the papoose on the back of his mother, Sacajawea, the scout for the Lewis & Clark expedition on the one-dollar coin. He is the only child to ever appear on US currency. The Mormon Battalion camped here in 1847 on the north end of town three days before they entered San Diego. After the battalion disbanded in San Diego, about 50 members spent the winter at the long-abandoned Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, the largest in the mission chain, 7 miles to the northwest of Vista before heading home. During this time they rebuilt it, planted gardens and saved it from probable disintegration. Kit Carson, General Stephen Kearny, and President Ulysses S Grant all passed through here. The Rancho Buena Vista Adobe, like the Rancho Guajome, was a Spanish landgrant estate long before California was a state. Gosh, the stagecoachs didn't pass through here until 1852. Our Vista Historical Society (www.geocities.com/VistaHistoricalSociety) building is just packed with history!

Vista officially got its name in 1882 when farmer John Frazier applied for a post office. The name he picked first was too close to a name already in use so he borrowed part of the name from another nearby land grant, Rancho Buena Vista. That means "good view". Thank goodness he didn't choose the name from yet another Vista area landgrant, Rancho Agua Hedionda. That means "stinky water"! The Delpy family, immigrants from France, opened the first winery in Southern California here in the 1890s. Many in town still know where Delpy Corners is located. A few streets in town follow where their ranch pathways once ran. One of the longest residential streets is Alta Vista Drive. It originally was a single lane dirt path winding up and down the hills through several of the avocado, orange and lemon groves.

The Santa Fe Railroad laid track through Vista in 1887 and a land and water company was organized in 1912 by A W Martin. He built the Vista Inn across the dirt road (the historic El Camino Real, now Santa Fe Avenue) from the train depot that was finished in 1914. The rail line, recently replaced and expanded to two sets of tracks, will begin trolley service operated by the North County Transit District (www.gonctd.com) between Oceanside and Escondido in 2008 with several stops in Vista. NCTD already operates the public transportation bus system throughout the area.



Electricity came to Vista in 1916 and the Vista Irrigation District (www.vid-h20.org) brought in 'imported' water beginning in 1926.

Other than the freeways, the major roads in Vista are Santa Fe Avenue that runs the entire north-south length of town, and, Vista Way that traverses the city east-west. Parts of Santa Fe are the original El Camino Real and parts of Vista Way are the original land grant paths from San Diego inland to San Bernardino and on to Nevada and Utah.

Besides the ocean (10 minutes away) with several well-known surfing spots, Palomar Mountain with the world famous 200-inch Hale telescope (and snow in the winter) is 50 minutes away. The Anza-Borrego Desert and other locations offer severe, desolate isolation, or, raucous dune-buggy riding depending upon where you go. Those are 1-2 hours away. The Del Mar Racetrack is 25 minutes, SeaWorld 45 minutes, Disneyland 70 minutes, Knott's Berry Farm 65 minutes, Universal Studios 90 minutes and Magic Mountain 2 hours away. There are four Indian gaming casinos within 45 minutes. The sovereign nation of Mexico is 15 minutes on the other side of San Diego. Snow? It snowed last in Vista in 1968.

From the hills of Vista we see the hills inside the 200 square mile Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base and hear their big guns and bombs during practice. Semper Fi!
We respectfully offer a tip of the hat to the service men and women of the past and present who sacrifice much, and sometimes all, to keep our nation free. The VFW and American Legion both have halls here.

Although the above paints a pretty rosy picture, Vista still has some challenges to overcome. But, we are working on them and we will keep working on them to make Vista even better.

Ralph Vaughan