We transition from So. Cal to No. Cal

The remodeled house on Andasol Avenue in Encino

Before we left Los Angeles early Saturday I made a quick side trip back to Encino to see if I could find the house we lived in back in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

If you recall, I thought we had found the old neighborhood but found it completely different from when we lived there. After checking Map Quest I realized that there are three separate neighborhoods that contain an Andasol Street so we went back to check out the one we missed.

Yahtzee!  The third time was the charm and you could clearly see that the old neighborhood was still intact, even if a few of the houses had been significantly changed, including our house.



A snowy Grapevine

The lots are still small and some of the houses look pretty much as they did way back when, but the house we lived in had been significantly improved as you can see by this photo.

Satisfied that we had finally found the right place we headed back to the freeway to start our journey north to my Cousin Cynthia’s house in Danville, California.

On Friday night I became a little concerned when the news was reporting that I-5 was closed at the summit due to a number of accidents and ice and snow conditions. By morning, however, the accidents and snow were all cleared and we were able to take the shortest route north.

Without the Grapevine route it would have added at least an hour to the trip to Cynthia’s house. But the roads were clean and green and the trip went pretty much without incident.



Eating a chilly lunch at a rest stop on I-5

We hit very little traffic until we came into the more populated East Bay region and at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon we found ourselves in bumper-to-bumper traffic again, but only for a short distance.

We arrived at Cynthia’s new digs about 3 p.m. and got the car unpacked. Cynthia arrived home from a memorial service a short time later and we spent the evening catching up and eating a wonderful meal cooked by my cousin. We also were happy to have the chance to meet Ed, Cynthia’s friend.

Tired from our long trip we hit the hay and enjoyed a good, long night’s sleep.

On Sunday morning, my cousin located the Detroit Red Wings versus the L.A. Kings hockey game and I got to watch the whole exciting game (Wings won with 4 seconds left) while Joan got ready for our adventure to visit our son William in Santa Cruz.

Traffic coming into Danville

We headed over the hill to Santa Cruz and arrived at William’s house about 1:30 p.m. We took him grocery shopping and then drove down to Capitola where we walked around and watched the beach until it was dinner time.

We ate at a Greek restaurant on the beach and then  we took William home and headed back to cousin Cynthia’s home.