My third job when I moved to California in 1973 was at the Encina Power Plant in Carlsbad. I tell you, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven being able to live a couple months in a mom & pop motel on the PCH north of the plant. A year later, I started up a new boiler system at Camp Pendleton Hospital. I really enjoyed those San Diego jobs, going down to Leucadia and other beach towns. The last time I was down that way I was absolutely shocked to see how LA and SD had grown together into a giant megalopolis. There used to be countryside between the two fifty years ago. Not any more.
I was stationed there in the early 1980s and it has changed quite a bit since then. But Oceanside Beach with the long boardwalk is still pretty much the same. Also, Old Town in San Diego is still some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever had. Not in the actual park (which is a tourist trap) but in the neighborhoods just outside.
Imagine what it would be like without Camp Pendleton to prevent merging. Moved away from the area in 1990.
The massive buildup of the area betweein the 405 and 15 really shocks me from satellite pictures.