As you enter Oxnard from the south on Interstate Highway 101 between Los Angeles and the California border to the north, a wooden carved sign pops out near a shopping center. The sign says, "City of Oxnard". IT includes a circle with a white carved seagull, blue ocean waves, and all is encased in the letter "O" which makes up the first letter of the word Oxnard.

Such welcoming signs are prominent along the Central California Coast where Oxnard is located.

For years travelers have enjoyed the fresh colorful signs that pass the time and bring awareness to Central Coast cities and communities ranging from the sign at Camarillo to the signs at Santa Maria, Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, Shell Beach, Atascadero, and Paso Robles, to name some cities.

Most the signs are set off the road near shopping centers or on hills in a field. Some offer ocean themes, some have food themes, some show buildings, and some simply offer the name of the city and a "welcome to". Central California's folksy approach to travel may one day be replaced by Los Angeles style monster billboards with smoke coming out for cars or other such eye-catching diversions from the road. Hopefully those days won't come too soon.

While traffic comes to a stop in Oxnard on weekends as vacationers try to pass through to other destinations, or wait to get off the road, watching the signs and other roadside shops, landmarks and stuff makes for a more interesting sit in traffic. But as fate would have it, by the time we reach this Oxnard sign in the picture above, we hope to get a full on view, and suddenly the traffic picks up speed.

Why to stay in Oxnard? Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach is one good reason. Strawberry Festival and Salsa Festival are two others.