This week I really needed to keep distracted. Mother's day was approaching, and that was a special day for Claudia. I always bought her lots of presents and did something nice to cheer her up...now that's she's passed away the week seemed, well, sad. So I made sure that I kept very busy at work and at home, and I traveled hard on the weekend. It was easy to keep busy at the office, as we have a massive project in the works which requires my extreme attention. There are so many details to plan, so much to coordinate that it boggles the mind. However, everything is coming together as planned...
On Wednesday, I stopped by the Huntington Library on the way home. This is one of the best times of the year to visit this special place, as the roses are fully in bloom, yet it's not so hot as to be miserable. The Huntington is one of my favorite places and it's very special to me. I try and visit the gardens at least twice a month, and it's a great way to relax and allow the stress of the week to dissipate. More pictures are here.
Do you have any special memories of places you've visited earlier in your life? Do you desire to visit them again, just to see if you memories match reality or to find out what's changed in the years since?
I certainly have fond memories of many locations around the state. Places that I visited with my parents as a child, by myself on one of my many drives or with my own family in years past. Some of my very fondest memories are of the places that Claudia and I visited together before she passed away.
On Saturday, totally by chance, I found myself confronting things from the past, some special places that I had some fondness for long ago.
I set aside Saturday for a long drive. I left my apartment in Hollywood around 7am and traveled along the 10 freeway until I reached the 30 freeway, which leads through Highland (a town in San Bernardino which seems to consist mainly of a cement factory and a quarry) up to the San Bernardino mountains. My destination was Big Bear Lake.
As I traveled along route 30, something tickled my brain. Something seemed familiar about the place, something about the 5th street off ramp...I slammed on the brakes and took a brief detour in the past.
A few miles down 5th street and I ran into the Santa Ana River Bridge, a very special place from my past. My parents, sister and I visited the Santa Ana river many times as we were growing up, and this bridge stands out in my memory with extreme fondness. You see, we used to swim in the cold waters of this little river, and play in the shadow of the old bridge, running and jumping among the rocks. I stood there today and remembered those good old days as a child, carefree and happy to get wet and covered in sand. More pictures are here.
After drifting along memory lane for about thirty minutes, I jumped back on route 30 and proceeded up to Big Bear Lake. This body of water is about 7,000 feet above sea level, and I remember it well from many visits as a child. What I primarily remember is getting car sick - the road up to Big Bear is quite a wild ride, especially for a small child in the back of a car. I used to get so very sick...More pictures are here.
Now I drove around the lake, through Big Bear City and down the back side of the mountain. This brought me through the desert, around Mount San Gorgonio and south to Mount San Jacinto.
My next stop was a little mountain town on the slopes of San Jacinto named Idyllwild. My parents and I visited this place several times when I was growing up, and I fondly remembered rafting on a small lake, hiking on a trail and having a great time. I found the lake, barely changed and hiked for a few minutes, drifting through the past memories of good times. More pictures are here.
On Sunday I went to the Renaissance Faire again, this time with a friend. More pictures are here.
As a technical aside, I finally bit the bullet and installed Service Pack 2 for Windows XP on my home computer. I had dreaded doing this and put it off for months. Rumor was that this huge release often caused incredible damage to computers, rendering useless for days with obscure issues. Fortunately, the install went fine and my computer rebooted without issue. This is an extremely important change to Windows XP, as it improves the security of the system immensely.
I love to watch movies, and try to view three or four each week on the DVD or VHS player. I rarely go to the movies since I am so incredibly busy all of the time, but this week I made an exception. I wanted to see the movie adaptation of one of my favorite books: The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. It was a complete waste of time, one of the worst films I have seen in a long time.
Next week: Saturday is going to be subway day. Every once in a while I like to jump on the LA Subway and go wherever it takes me. This time I think I'll go to Universal Studios (I have a couple of months left on my year long pass) and perhaps walk Hollywood Blvd. Sunday I am visiting Santa Barbara - the beach, botanical garden, zoo and natural history museum (especially the live butterfly exhibit).
Sites to check out:
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.