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