As you get to know your new city, you gradually learn all the little things that make it different from, well, just about anywhere else you've been. San Diego is no different.
Being somewhat of a geography hobbyist, I always like to look at maps of cities, and take notice of any naming conventions that make the city easier to navigate. In Seattle, it was very boring, where many streets are numbered in increasing value moving away from downtown, and they are given a prefix (or suffix) telling what area they are in (e.g. NW 61st St., or 15th Ave. NE). This works well where streets are mostly in a grid layout (such as Manhattan), but doesn't work so well where streets rarely go straight for very long (like San Diego). The topography of the city simply doesn't allow it. So instead, they've taken to neighborhood themes for streets, such as presidents, states, birds, gemstones, letters, etc. I thought that was pretty cool. However, I also learned that they have a propensity for continuing a street name if it gets interrupted by some natural obstruction (such as a steep hill or canyon), as in: This would be that street if it were allowed to continue on a straight line. The mildly annoying result of this is that even that you are on, say, State St., and you're looking for an address on State St., you can't necessarily get there by staying on the current road.
They also have a habit of sometimes making a road take a 90-degree turn at a normal four-way intersection: In order to stay on Black Mountain Road, you'll have to go right rather than straight. This, too, is mildly annoying.
However, there is one road that defies all logic, by combining the best of both of these "loose naming conventions", and that road is Carmel Mountain Rd. Let's ignore, for a moment, the fact that Carmel is located several hundred miles to the north, which would be confusing enough on its own. It starts as an exit off of I-5, simply enough, and soon takes a hard right turn at the "intersection" with Camino Real. Fair enough. Then it meanders through some hilly terrain before eventually dead-ending near a canyon. But wait! About five miles, east, the road starts up again and weaves through some more 90-degree turns before eventually intersection with a different road. This is probably best displayed through a map (if you're really interested, you could get an interactive map on Google Maps).
