Day 41-43: Glendora CA (Eric)

Day 41-43 (July 9-11, 2021): If you have driven from northern or central California into Los Angeles on Interstate 5, then you’re familiar with the Grapevine Pass that takes you over the mountains that border the LA area. It is a crowded freeway that climbs around 1,500 feet at a fairly steep ascent. There are numerous signs that warn of overheating. As we passed the top of this pass, we noticed smoke and flames coming over the top of one of the hills. Traffic slowed and numerous fire trucks showed up in the area. We got the impression that the fire had started recently. We definitely have had enough of fires during this trip. 

Anyway, despite the fire, we made it into town safely and checked into our hotel in Azusa, the town next to Glendora. We met up with my parents at their favorite Chinese restaurant, Town Sent, in the town of Covina for a fabulous meal. It was nice to see them and enjoy some wonderful food after another stressful travel day. 

Bitey settled into his new surroundings as well…

The next day involved a visit to Huntington Gardens in San Marino. If you’ve never been, this place is an amazing collection of art and plants in the midst of beautiful scenery. 

The Chinese garden is particularly impressive…

A view from behind a waterfall…




















We stopped by the scenic Japanese garden next. Jenny and I will always have a soft spot for anything Japanese as we met there…

We finished our visit to a few of the art exhibitions scattered around the gardens. Some of the exhibits do not allow pictures which is probably for the best as some of the modern collections are a little disturbing. I found them kind of interesting, but Jenny and my mom’s reactions were a little mixed…

We were allowed to capture images of the famous “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie”…




We ate lunch at a ramen restaurant after our visit that had fairly good food. 

We finished the day with dinner at my parents’ place where my stepsister and her husband joined us. It was great to spend time in my parents’ beautiful backyard and catch up with my family. The yard was swarming with hummingbirds, and I managed to get some good pictures…

My family…


Sunday 7/11 involved a morning of playing tennis and hanging out in my parents’ pool. The afternoon involved going to see the latest Marvel movie, The Black Widow. It was the first movie we’d been too since the pandemic started. It was a fun movie and a cool thing to do on a hot day. We finished with a wonderful meal at a Japanese restaurant, Little Tokyo, in San Dimas. 

The next day involved a 10+ hour driving day to get to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Our initial plan was to spend two long driving days to go straight home, but we spontaneously decided to spend two nights and visit yet another National Park, White Sands. More on that in the next post…