Page 146 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2024 LIMA

Pendleton, with a preponderance of mili‐ Oceanside Blade-Tribune building now
tary supply stores and an abundance of housing Blade 1936 restaurant. Thanks to
barber shops of many styles. I felt per‐ its architecture, public art, museums, and
fectly safe both day and night and gradu‐ cultural festivals, Oceanside was desig‐
ally developed my favorite routes. nated one of 14 Cultural Districts in Califor‐
The first morning I wandered to the nia. I spotted brilliant murals all over town
gracious Oceanside Library, designed by and lucked upon Artist Alley’s colorful walls
architect Irving Gill in 1934. Gill’s modernist, and storefronts.
art-deco, Arts & Crafts buildings have sim‐ The weather remained dull and drab
ple straight and arching lines in stark white throughout the day, and I opted for indoor
edifices. The architect’s influence domi‐ time, slipping into the California Surf Mu‐
nates Oceanside’s whole multi-block Civic seum, which celebrates the art of surfing,
Center Plaza, a scenic park-like complex in‐ one of Oceanside’s main attributes. Surfers
cluding the library, City Hall, and the bob in the water all along O’Side’s 3.5-mile
Oceanside Museum of Art, designed by Gill coastline, and the city is home to several
in 1934. The starkly simple fire station next surfing competitions. The museum chroni‐
door was also designed by Gill, as was the cles the history of surfing and highlights

146 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2024