Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today is our 17th anniversary. It’s the actual day and everything. So after we dropped Lucinda off at Aunt Maggi’s house, we went up to Long Beach.

On the way, we stopped off at Westminster Mall. Cathy used to work at the Republic Federal Savings branch there, so we wanted to see what had moved in to that space. We were surprised to see that the space looked almost unchanged, even though it is now the ‘City Hall at the Mall’ for the city of Westminster. The vault was even still there. It was a fun little trip down Memory Lane.

After the stop at the mall, we went to the old McDonnell Douglas plant down the street so I could recreate the picture from my going-away party there, back in 1984.

When we got to Long Beach, our plan was to have dinner at Hamburger Henry. While this may seem an odd choice, it has great sentimental value for us. Our wedding was in Long Beach, and Cathy spent most of the evening visiting with relatives and friends there. So she never had a chance to eat her dinner. And when it was all over, she was hungry. So we headed out at 1:00AM looking for something to eat. We ended up at Hamburger Henry.

While we were there, we noticed that a lot of the people there were dressed in costumes. Then we realized that it was the Saturday night before Halloween. In all the wedding planning, that had never occurred to us. And we said that maybe we shouldn’t have changed before going there. We would have fit right in, dressed as a bride and groom.

So we got there, but there was something else there. We asked at some of the neighboring stores, and they told us that Hamburger Henry had been gone for something like eight years. The land was just too valuable to use for just selling hamburgers, so the owner had leased it to a developer and the old place was gone.

We ended up having our burgers at another place nearby. It was still a fun evening. And we got to meet a hot-pink dog while we were there.

Today we took Lucinda down to Orange County so she could spend the night at her Aunt Maggi’s house. On the way, we stopped off in Huntington Beach so we could visit my mother’s grave. When I was a kid, my mother used to talk about how she was looking forward to the day when I was grown and would have grandchildren for her to dote on. Sadly, she never got the chance. She died in 1994, five years before Lucinda was born.

I’ve told Lucinda about her, and since we were going to be passing near the cemetery, we stopped off so that she could meet her other grandma. She said that she felt sad that she never met her grandma. I told her about how excited and happy her grandma would have been if she’d had a chance to meet Lucinda.

Today’s ride was a hilly one. Just the way I like it. In my racing days, I liked riding up hills because it gave me a chance to spank the other riders and show them who’s boss. In those days, it was a Point of Honor to be the first to the top of every hill. Now, I’m no longer the fastest hill climber, but I still like riding up hills anyway. So whenever there’s a hilly ride, I go on it.

Today’s ride was just a big loop through La Cañda and Glendale with some big hills both coming and going. We met at the park in Alhambra.

We started out going north, passing the Rose Bowl and JPL before the first hill, up to Verdugo Blvd. Then we went down into Montrose and Glendale. At the bottom of that hill, we took a left and headed up Mountain Ave. This is a nice, steep climb. The top part has been closed to cars for almost a year, but the sign today said it was open again. Still, it was a nice ride, since there isn’t much traffic up there.

Coming down the other side, we took some side streets to get back to Chevy Chase at the top of the hill between La Cañda and Glendale. Then we went up and over again to come down off the hill back in Pasadena and the Rose Bowl. From there, we went south and then turned up Glenoaks, which was another nice climb up, and then we turned and came down San Rafael, passing the old Seismology Lab that Charles Richter set up back in the 1930s.

At the bottom of the hill, we went south a bit and came back into South Pasadena. We stopped for a snack at Busters, right next to the train station. Then it was time for the ride home. We went back up past the Rose Bowl and then took Windsor Road up to Altadena Drive. Then we went across Altadena and down back to Victory Park and we were done.

47 miles
cycling