Highway 101-Carlsbad

 As we head south on 101 from Oceanside, the next city is Carlsbad, where you can find beautiful beaches, three lagoons and of course, shopping.  There is a spa at Alt Karlsbad, which gave Carlsbad its name.  The historic landmark is where water was found in 1882 that had similar qualities to the water found at a famous European spa called Karlsbad in Bohemia(Karlovy Vary in Czech Republic today).

Carlsbad Village is within walking distance from Highway 101 and is home to many restaurants, cafes and antique shopping.  The Ocean House is on the corner of 101 and Carlsbad Village Drive and is a Victorian mansion that was built in 1887 by the owner of the Carlsbad Land and Water Company.







On the east side of Interstate 5 is Legoland and The Flower Fields of Carlsbad California, where flower lovers can walk nearly 50 acres of flowering giant tecolote  ranunculus.

One of the lagoons that we pass along the way is Agua Hedlonda and near the lagoon is Encina natural gas electrical generation facility.  The power plant sits on the east side and the Pacific Ocean is on the west.  When Carlsbad Blvd/101 meets Palomar Airport Road, the expressway will come to its end.  Historically, this was the point where the South Carlsbad Freeway connected to the Carlsbad Bypass, which today is Palomar Airport Road and Interstate 5.  Carlsbad Blvd narrows to one northbound lane as it passes under Palomar Airport Road.  This unusual configuration is a product of this interchange being the former southern terminus of the U.S. 101 bypass of Carlsbad north of here.

The next segment of Historic 101 is probably the longest and most well-preserved segment of original concrete expressway in Carlsbad.  A former exit ramp from 101 to Surfside Lane has been removed from service, leaving the old ramp visible to northbound travelers.  The original expressway concrete resumes between Breakwater Road and Island Way.  The palm trees and turf were not part of old highway landscaping.  This kind of landscaping was added when the adjacent residential development  was constructed.

101/Carlsbad Blvd becomes an expressway between Avenida Encinas and Poinsettia Lane.  there is older bridge railing and earlier standard guardrail in this area.  Another lagoon and creek is passed in this area and that is San Marcos Creek and Batiquitos Lagoon.

Carlsbad is an affluent seaside resort city that occupies a 7 mile stretch of Pacific coastline in North San Diego County.  The city is located 87 miles south of Los Angeles and 35 miles north of downtown San Diego.  Carlsbad is referred to as "The Village by the Sea" by locals.

The history of Carlsbad began with the Luiseno people who located one of their villages, Palamai, near what is today the Agua Hedionda Lagoon.  In the 1880's, a sailor named John Frazier dug a well in the area and began offering his water at the train station and soon the whistle-stop became know as Frazier's Station.  A test done on a second fresh-water well discovered the water to be chemically similar to that found in some of the most renowned spas in the world, and the town was named after the famed Spa in the Bohemian town of Karlsbad.

The Carlsbad Land and Mineral Water Company was formed by a German-born merchant from the Midwest named Gerhard Schutte along with Samuel Church Smith, D.D. Wadsworth and Henry Nelson.  The name of the town followed soon after, as well as a major marketing campaign to attract visitors.  The area experienced a period of growth, with homes and businesses sprouting up in the 1880's.  Agricultural development of citrus fruits, avocados and olives soon changed the landscape  by the end of 1887, land prices fell throughout San Diego County.  However , the community survived on the back of its fertile agricultural lands.  Carlsbad was incorporated in 1952 to avoid annexation by its neighbor, Oceanside.