Winter Travels

My husband and I recently took a quick trip south to visit long-time friends from years ago, when we lived in Southern California. We traveled over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday during a break in the winter rains that swept through Northern and Southern California in January. Fall is our favorite time to travel, with fewer crowds and crisp, beautiful days. But, traveling in  winter also has its benefits and pleasures (except for the threat of snow)!

At the base of the Grapevine

We left the San Francisco Bay Area early on Friday afternoon, and headed south listening to The Sins of the Fathers (part of the gritty Matthew Scudder series, written by Lawrence Block). We enjoyed the wide vistas along Interstate 5 and monitored a weather app for signs of snow on the Grapevine. We spent the first night at Days Inn at the base of the Grapevine near Lebec.

Distant hills through a frame of leafless trees

Pastoral scene

The next day the golden hills and bare branches were beautiful. There was a dusting of snow on the mountain tops, but the freeway over the Grapevine was clear and dry. We ate breakfast and spent a little time exploring the "new" outlet mall and eating places of Tejon Ranch, then crossed over the Grapevine into the sprawling LA basin and heavy traffic.

Snow on the hills of the Grapevine

Chinatown

Decorations for the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival

We checked into our hotel in Tustin, and then enjoyed a wonderful family-style dinner with our friends and their extended family, with lots of conversation to catch up on each other's lives. On Sunday our group made an excursion to Chinatown to feast on Dim Sum at Ocean Seafood, and purchase decorations for the Lunar New Year (Year of the Rat). On the way home, we stopped at Portos Bakery in Buena Park for coffee and Cuban pastries (sweet and savory). We drove by our old home in Garden Grove, where we spent many happy years living in a roomy, ranch-style house, complete with an apricot tree, a Japanese-inspired garden, and fantastic soil that could grow anything.

Shopping in LA's Chinatown

Porto's Bakery in Buena Park

Our old home in Garden Grove

On Monday, my husband and I said our goodbyes and headed north. We stopped in San Marino for a quick tour of The Huntington library and several of its gardens. We only stayed a couple of hours (you could spend days), but we each felt satisfied with our time in the beautiful surroundings. We spent the night in Lebec again, and enjoyed our view of the mountains, and the black cows standing in contrast against the golden fields and foggy hills.

The Fern House at The Huntington

Vines in Winter

The weather was cold on our final day of driving, but we were snug in our car enjoying the audio book, Eight Million Ways to Die, another Matthew Scudder story. It was interesting to see the farms and ranches along Interstate 5, with many almond orchards alongside fallow land from the drought a few years back (see Living with Drought). We stopped for an early supper and a quick stretch at Pea Soup Andersen's. By the time we arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, clouds had moved in and a heavy rain had started. We were happy to return to our cozy home, and glad that we didn't have to worry about driving in snow over the Grapevine!

Beautiful hills of the Tejon Ranch

A quick bite at Pea Soup Andersen's