A long trip back home to La Crescenta

Me at the old house in La Crescenta

Who says you can’t go home again? Today I did just that. After a 6 hour and 30 minute ride from Tuscon we landed in front of 2410 Cinco Casitas Lane in La Crescenta, California. The place I grew up as a boy.

The footprint of the home is barely recognizable, but you can still see the outline of the old house, but someone made some major improvements to it, including adding a second floor to the back part of the house.

The old garage is gone, in its place is a swimming pool and parking spot and the old gravel driveway that ran behind the house is now a brick driveway with a two-car garage. It appears that the living room and kitchen are still in the same place and the one thing that has not changed is the beautiful brick fireplace in the living room. We peeked through the windows, which made Joan nervous that we might get arrested.



Joan at St. Luke's of the Mountains

No one was home and it was probably a good thing, because I’d rather remember the place as it was in all its wooden charm.

We also stopped at my friend Drew’s house on Ocean View Boulevard so I could show Joan how I used to hike through Picken’s Canyon to get to his house instead of riding all the way down Briggs Avenue, Foothill Boulevard and then up Ocean View Boulevard. It was much quicker, but a little more dangerous to cut through the wash.

Then I drove Joan to Two Strike Park where the little saplings that were planted when the park was constructed in 1958 are now giant trees, which made me feel suddenly quite old. We drove by Monte Vista Elementary School, Rosemont Junior High School, St. Luke’s of the Mountains Church and Crescenta Valley High School.

I also drove Joan down to Glendale to show her the apartment where my Mom, brother and I lived in the mid-1950s until we moved up the hill to La Crescenta.  I showed her another of my Elementary schools, John Marshall in Glendale.

A hazy day for a view on Angeles Crest Highway

After the touring of the homes we drove back up to Montrose where we walked downtown and then had dinner at an old family favorite – El Charros, which hasn’t been remodeled since the days when we went there. The old owners are gone, but the food was still good.

We also took a side trip up Angeles Crest Highway, but it was so hazy in the valley that you couldn’t see very far. On a clear day from the highway you can sometimes see the ocean. But not today. It was the spot where we used to take our high school dates to watch the submarine races. With the bad view I didn’t subject Joan to any more of the twisting and winding roadway than necessary.

Sadly we passed by the apartment where my paternal grandmother died and also the nursing home where my stepfather Ray died many years ago.

Tomorrow we plan on visiting the home on Dundee where my grandparents once lived and that left a mark on my memory and those of my older cousins.  If time allows we will also visit Grandma’s grave at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Some notes from today’s drive: Yesterday I filled up in Arizona for $3.11 a gallon. The closer we got to California the higher the price of gas. The last gas station in Arizona (where we topped off again) was $3.49 a gallon. By the time we got to beautiful downtown Burbank the price of regular unleaded gasoline was $4.07 a gallon. Yikes!

Joan in the dated interior of El Charro

While driving through the desert we watched as a couple helicopters were working on some high tension power lines. It was hard not to be distracted, but I let Joan do most of the watching while I drove.

When we left Tucson it was 47 degrees and it topped off about 73 somewhere around Indio. The closer we got to Los Angeles the temperatures dropped again into the low 60s.

We listened to the XM Radio Classics station and they played a 1952 Radio version of the Victor Hugo classic Les Miserables. Unlike the current movie, radio program wrapped up the story in less than an hour.

And just to prove we are in the land of fruit and nuts we passed a roadway sign advertising that this section of freeway was cleaned by Adopt-A-Highway volunteers from “Atheists United.”

To see more of today’s photos scroll down.

Starting Mileage: 38,697

Time out: 7:29 a.m. (Mountain time)

Ending Mileage: (at 2410 Cinco Casitas Lane) 39, 206

Time in: (at 2410 Cinco Casitas Lane) 2:09 p.m. (Pacific Time)