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This has been a more laid back day than the previous days. We’ve seen most of what I wanted to show Colette about SoCal and it was good day (Saturday) to spend some time at home with Dan and Ann and Cody and Eden.

Ann made us pumpkin pancakes in the morning which were delicious.

Then we just goofed around until around lunch time, when we all went to a market called, “Whole Foods” which Dan told us is a 100% employee-owner enterprise. It was a huge place and I commented that if we lived around there, it would take us about six months to sample all the good stuff they had there.

After lunch, Ann took off with Cody and Eden and Dan remained with us and I asked him if he’d give Colette a tour of the Costco, which was just beside the Wholefood Market and he did.

For someone from New Zealand, with only 4.1 million people, Costco just has to be seen. So, it was interesting to take a walk throught the place.

We dropped Dan off at the house and Colette and I took off to San Clemente again. I thought that since We’d only seen it by night, it would be good to see it by day as well since it is such a pretty place. We drove down and had a nice walk around on a rainy afternoon and then a coffee.

After that, we returned to Dan’s place and spent the balance of the day with them. There were some grand kids there that needed some tickling 🙂

That evening, Ann’s parents, Sally and Bernie, came over which was an excellent surprise. Sally brought a pumpkin pie which we all enjoyed.

Then, off to bed to sleep and prepare for the long journey up the westcoast.

Love to my sweet family and thanks for your love and hospitality.

Dennis

Today, I wanted to take Colette up to the Long Beach area and show her where I grew up.

First step was an American breakfast so we retraced our steps down to Dana Point because there’s an excellent diner there, the Harbor House Cafe.

It’s a fun place. An older place, well kept right on the main highway north through Dana Point. Inside are the classic booths and on all the wallls and ceilings, Movie posters. One thing here is that the portions they serve you seem pretty huge by New Zealand standards.

After breakfast, we drove north up the coast highway. This took us up through Laguna Beach where we’ve been previously and then further on towards Long Beach, which was all new coastline for Colette. I really love the SoCal coastline so it’s always a pleasure to drive this section for me.

When we got to Long Beach, I went first to my uncle’s house in Lakewood because it was the first place my mother and I ever lived in California.

After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon tracing forward in time looking at houses and schools and with me recounting histories and stories. Colette was a patient and interested listener.

Once we’d done most of the houses and history, we went to my University, The California State University at Long Beach (CSULB). We parked across the street and bought some stuff for lunch at a Ralph’s Market and carried it over to the campus and sat out on a bench near the library and ate it.

Lots of memories for me on this campus. We walked around for a couple of hours and then took off back to Irvine and Dan’s place.

Dan’s Band, “Bunch of Guys” was playing that night in San Clemente. Colette and I hung out at the house for several hours and then took off to where he was playing, “The Shore”, to have a meal and a listen.

We got home about 10:30 pm that evening after another excellent day.

dennis

On day 2 in the Irvine area, we drove down to Laguna Beach and walked around the town. Beautiful, as always.

Then we drove down the coast to Dana Point and drove around there. It’s changed so much that I had a problem finding a place I’ve loved down by the breakwater. In fact, I never did find it. Later, I mentioned it to Dan and he said it is still there so I guess I just missed it.

After Dana Point, we drove up Del Obispo into San Juan Capistrno and I showed Colette where the condo was that I owned from 1980 to 1990. Then we walked over and took the mission tour which I’ve loved and done over and over again through the years. THe mission has the oldest standing building in California and there’s a lot of great history and pretty places there.

We’d agreed to meet Dan at Mugs Away, a bar off Crown Valley where Ann, his wife works sometimes and she was there today. It was fun. A funky little bar mostly patronized by regulars, I think. Lots of memorabilia tacked onto the walls. Dan arrived and Ann made us all Chicken Sandwiches (yum) and we sat and talked and enjoyed the place.

When Colette and I left, we still had some time and I suggested that we drive over the Ortega Highway and take in the view down over Lake Elsinore. She thought it was a good idea so we were off. It’s a drive I’ve done many times over the years and I always enjoyed it.

Of course, I had to retell the story of why I had an involvement with San Juan Capistrano and this area in the first place.

And, the reason was because of the Nichols Institute for Endocrinology which I’d been working at in the San Pedro area at the end of the 1970’s. They’d decided to shift everything down to San Juan Capistrano (SJC) and wanted all of the employees to come along. Orange County was then, and still is today, a much nicer place to live than the Long Bearch / San Pedro area and so they were doing those of us who came along a big favor in terms of the environment we would be living in and the world our kids would experience growing up.

I was one of the ones who thought it was a great idea (most did) and I ended up buying my first property in SJC. We moved and our lives were forever changed for the better.

Nichols Institute located itself then (and still) about ten miles outside of SJC along the Ortega Highway. So, as Colette and I were driving over the Ortega, I was teling her this story.

Working at Nichols Institute forever changed my life in many positive ways. SJC was one. Another was that they gave me my start in computers there. I’d been a research chemist helping to develop new laboratory assays but my interests had been strongly towards computers and when I asked to take over running their data reduction system, they agreed which was a major turning point for me.

At the end of the drive over the mountains, just as you are about the go down the backside into Lake Elsinore, there’s a Cafe (The Lookout Roadhouse, 32107 Ortega Highway, 92530 – 951-678-9010 – 33-39-15N, 117-23-41W) that overlooks the view there and we stopped in for a cup of Java. The lady that owns and runs the place made me a fresh pot of coffee and came and talked to us for a bit. Said she’s been there for 40 years and loves it. Another fun and funky place.

We drove back across the mountains and cut back up to Irvine. Both Dan and Ann were working and the kids were at Ann’s parents place so were were ‘home alone’ . Kind of fun. We were going to go to the restaurant where Dan was working (I’ve been there and the food’s great) but we decided to go out locally for Mexican Food so we went over to the local Super Mex place and tried Colette out on some authentic Mexican Food. Nice. I think she liked it!

Home and some reading and the day was one.

Another nice one.

We didn’t actually get to Irvine until the afternoon on Wednesday. We decided to see more of Los Angeles before we headed south.

We drove across the city up La Cieniga until we hit Wilshire Blvd. At that point, we stopped in a coffee shop and had a cup and listened and looked at the world around us.

Wilshire Bvld, AKA the Miracle Mile. A place where high finance gurus and movie moguls and many wanna-bes hang out. I found it all fascinating to watch and to listen as deals were being sought and attitudes revealed. Money, arrogance, desire and poverty all swirled aroiund us like the creme in my coffee.

We took a 20 minute walk through a Beverely Hills residential neighborhood to see what that was like.

Then we back tracked a mile or so and parked just by Rodeo Drive and went for an hour’s walk there. Interesting indeed, but less so for me that actually listening in on the coffee shop conversations. But, I wouldn’t have missed it.

Then we took Sanata Monica Blvd east thinking we’d pass through the classic on Hollywood and Vine area but my map reading ws off and I think we by passed it.

We did get to see lots of the underbelly of Los Angeles, though. After going east, Santa Monica Blvd carried us quite close to the LA downdown and we went down into the belly of that beast and all throught the jewelery / Gold district and then out to the south into the “old downtown”.

Further on, we can to a major Salvation Army Mission area and the number of walking wounded we saw camped on both sides of the street for two blocks was astounding.

We continued a bit more but then I began to worry that with me driving blindly, we might find ourselves in south-central LA and that’s not a good place to be at any time, IMHO, so I cut east into the Little Japan area and then thrashed until I came up with a freeway. I knew that once I was on one, I could fake my way to Orange County easily.

An hour or so later, after a fast rip across the LA basin, we were driving into Invine and into an entirely different world.

Entirely too much happened at my son’s house to try to recount. Suffice to say, it was all lovely. Colette was introduced, hugs were passed about and we all talked for hours. Cody and Eden, my two grandchildren were and are just wonderful. I always enjoy them so.

In line with mentioning things I’m learning along the way, I had a discussion with my son, Dan, Wednesday evening that opened my eyes a bit.

I was holding forth about the fact that I really don’t ‘get’ relationships in which people fight like dogs and cats all the time and yet stay together.

Dan said that he thinks that folks like that love each other so deeply that they can afford to fight and fully express themsleves and still know that they can depend on their other half to still be there. Whereas, he said, people that don’t argue with passion – perhaps they are really indifferent to each other and just don’t know it.

I’m still thinking about that one.

dennis

We arrived about 9:30 in the morning after an overnight flight from Sydney. All uneventful. I read about half of Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol. I recommend it highly.

We picked up our rental car and went to the Days Inn where we were booked but they weren’t resdy for us so we decided to drive to the beach. We took Manchester west until it hit the coast a bit south of Marina del Rey. From there, we worked north to Venice Beach and then we parked for a look around. We liked it and rented two bikes and took a ride all up through Venice Beach to the Santa Monica Pier and back again. What a fun, insane and interesting area.

We came back and checked into our room and I called my friend, Charles, whom I’ve known since University days. He came and took us to a Brazilian restaurant which had great food and, best of all, it was quiet so we could talk easily.

Charles has been involved with politics for many years so talking with him is always a pleasure. He said several things which gave me pause for thought.

He said that the first thing to realize, if you are a liberal, is that the other side are not doing what they are doing from greed. They are genuinely doing it because they believe it the rights of the individual.

He also said that one of the reasons why many poorer folks in the USA vote for the Republicans is that Americans, unlike many other peoples, vote based on their asperations rather than on some pragmatic equation resuting from their actual circumstances. So, they vote for the interests of the rich because they hope to be rich someday.

And he said that the way change comes, politically, is not the way most of us would hope it would come. But it comes. Decades ago, civil rights and women’s liberation and the pill and all of that were on the edge as subjects. Now, we largely take them for granted.

So, today’s discussions and complaints by the Occupy Wall Street movement people in which they question why there is such a huge disparity between the richest and poorest of us may become part of ever man’s consciousness and thus part of the national thinking about what’s fair and right – rather than a strange idea – as it seems to currently be percieved to be.

A lot more was discussed as it always is when old friends get together. I’ve known Charles for nearly 40 years now.

Today, we’re going to drive north up the 405 and cross over on the 2 into the Beverley Hills area for a look around. Then we’ll continue through West Hollywood, north of downtown L.A., proper, and then swing around and begin heading south to my son, Dan’s, place in Irvine down in Orange County.

It’s November but the weather’s very comfortable here in Southern California. 22C/72F and sunny and dry. Perfect.

dennis