33◦ 47’ 13” N, 117◦ 54’ 12” W.

AKA The Crystal Cathedral

(Crystal Cathedral Ministries
12141 Lewis Street
Garden Grove, CA 92840)

http://www.crystalcathedral.org/

On the South side of Chapman Ave., just West of Lewis St. in Garden Grove…way back in ….oh, I think it was 1969, there was a street called Jetty Circle. On that street, in a second story apartment, lived an 11 year-old named Tracie Douglas who attended 6^th grade at Lampson elementary. But this isn’t so much an introduction to the girl (yours truly), as it is to where she lived.

Today, you can find Jetty Drive on the East side of Chapman---and I really can’t tell you if that was there when I was, because I had no reason to explore neighborhoods across Chapman. It probably was there. At any rate, it is now, and since it appears to be placed just across from where my old street had been—it’s probably safe to say my street was the continuation and end of that street. At any rate, Jetty Drive has no real significance here, accept as a means to pinpoint the street upon which, for my 6^th grade year, I lived.

In that year, (the year after Los Angeles and before San Clemente), the prominent features were the apartment complex’s pool, the winding paths through the complex that I roller-skated on, and the concrete ravine right behind our apartment, that had to be the reason for the seasonal multitude of baby toads that were a challenge not to step on.

A very short walk or bicycle ride from my apartment on Jetty Cr., East, could get you to the Garden Grove Community Drive-in Church without having to cross any streets---in fact, cutting through the walnut orchard was the fastest route. But on bike, it was preferred to take the sidewalks around to the driveway off Lewis (it’s only driveway then). It was the oddest church I’d ever seen; a tall square skyscraper of dark glass topped by a cross (called the “Tower of Hope”) with speakers on posts in the parking lot and the surface of the parking lot being a series of troughs and crests designed to aim cars up at a non-existent movie screen. I found it fun to cut through the lot on my way to see friends near my school (on Lampson), especially if they were with me and had not practiced riding with no hands over the troughs and crests as I had. Yes, I confess, there’s always been a bit of a competitive show-off in me.

Reverend Robert Schuler was a recognizable name even then, because one of my friend’s Mom’s watched him weekly on television’s “The Hour of Power”. I always worried if I rode through the parking lot on a Sunday that I’d get caught by a television camera playing in my non-churchy clothes, looking all sacrilegious, so I never did.

My other connection at that time was that my Dad’s good friend, John Plumer Ludlum, a local Tustin artist, had painted a large magnificent (from what I hear, and what I’ve seen of his other pieces [http://www.harborgallery.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=7086 ]) painting with fluorescent paints, valued at thousands of dollars, which he’d called “The Nativity”, and had donated to the church. It had to live in storage for lack of any place to display it. Unfortunately I never saw the painting before it succumbed to water damage.

About 10 or 11 years later I brushed up with the Garden Grove Community Church again when the lady who entered my life as my supervisor when I became a switchboard operator at Santa Ana Tustin Community Hospital soon became a friend. The first time I went to visit her at her home I was surprised to discover she lived across the street from where I had, in that neighborhood on the East side of Chapman that I’d never explored, and was a devoted member of the church’s congregation. And then again, too, shortly before I departed the employ of Huntington Beach Public Library, an Administrator retired to go work for a fund raising division of the Crystal Cathedral. There are a few buildings I have multiple links to like this. Considering the stature of this building and it’s founder I suppose it’s no surprise I’d know many Orange Countians who attend or are involved with it. I probably know more than I realize.

OK, all of that just to say that a couple of weeks ago my friend, Tanya, and I visited the Garden Grove Community church (--turned “Crystal Cathedral” in 1980 when Philip Johnson and John Burgee erected the “crystal” structure). Although I’d driven by the church many many times since living there, and had even visited it for a service once or twice and to see “The Glory of Christmas”, I was still a little surprised at the number of buildings there, the memorial grounds, statuary, memorial wall, fountains, and just it’s over-all gradual transformation from drive-in, to Crystal Cathedral grounds. The church’s many structures having multiplied like so many Monopoly pieces, take up a much larger footprint, and I believe my old apartment was right about where the Robert Schuler Center now stands—a much better, and more attractive use of the land.

Below are the photos I took while Tanya and I were there. For more photos, try the Crystal Cathedral’s own photo gallery at http://www.crystalcathedral.org/visitors/gallery/index.htm.

Solano Beach Trip Concluded

This is another home decorating shop. I love the high ceiling-warehousie feel of these places.

There were two entrances to this shop, it's the same shop as the above shop. I'd say they tore down a wall and made two shops into one but the loft part in back with stairs only on the left doesn't look like that, unless they reworked the entire thing taking out a second set of steps. No, it probably really was some sort of warhouse at some point.

On the other hand, this dress shop doesn't seem to have any stairs going up to *it's* loft. Maybe that other place WAS two shops made into one.
You might have to click on this picture for the enlarged version to see this, but notice the race horse on the table. Solano Beach is probably less than 10 minutes away from the Del Mar race track.


I love the material on these chairs!

I might personally ditch the red pillows, but they *do* ad pazazz I suppose.

And the last shot is yet another of my cool chairs. A long time (41 years???!) friend of mine who lives in Washington (state), Cindy, used to make birdhouses. I took this picture for her because the day we were here was her birthday and I thought she might also love that these cool chairs were arranged to watch the large birdhouse out the window.

Part IV Solano Beach

For as long as it's taking me to post these pictures you'd think it was more than just a 4 hour little jaunt!

OK, here's that restaurant I keep talking about. I didn't catch the name of it mostly because I hadn't known until Don turned in that we were looking for food.








Tune in tomorrow for, hopefully, the conclusion.

Part III of Solano Beach Trip

OK, last we left off, we were just leaving the shop I want to move into. So, here, just outside the shop, you can see a few shoppers are beginning to populate the street.


And here's the shot without the shoppers blocking your view of the Shopping Plaza. (Sorry we didn't enter anything that side of the street. You'll have to go and tell me what I missed.

I love this long lumpy grass. I seem to recall someone calling it "Japanese grass" but I have no idea who it was, or how likely they were to be calling it the right name.


Another intriguing place that we didn't enter.

Same place, different angle.

I took this one because a friend who loves Audrey Hepburn.

This was outside of a shop.

Same shop, closer to the entrance.
And this is on the other side of the shop entrance.

And a wee bit farther on, looking back at the shop.
And on the other side of the parking lot entrance.

A clothing store.

Across the street from the clothing store.

Artistic (art deco?) lamp post.
And just North of the lamp post is the restaurant whose name I can't recall, but the ambiance was cool, and the food was good.
BUT, I'll have to do those pictures in the next post, because loading this last picture seemed to be quite a strain on something. It took a long time to pull out of whatever hung it up. So I'd better stop here for now.

Thanks for visiting.

Solano Beach (32◦ 5’ 47” N, 117◦ 15’ 19” W)

So we disembarked from our train and followed Jake to the great place to park he'd told us about. It's a bit of a jaunt, but it sure came in handy that Don had already arranged to park there, when on Friday night the train station lot was full.
Don then took me on a stroll through two or three blocks of the Cedros Design District (http://www.cedrosdesigndistrict.net/) where we window shopped until we were hungry. I'm afraid I don't recall the name of the restaurant we ate in, but maybe the pictures will help you find it once you're in the area...if you go. The ambiance alone is worth the stop. It has an Art Deco meets New Orleans feel, with musical instruments decorating a loft on one side and musician statues decorating the one across from it. Above the door, on another loft is a statue of a trumpeter which enjoys silouette lighting from the window beyond. The threshold of a central glass door is composed of glass brick. Very cool.
All in all we were probably only in town about 2 hours, and arrived back home by about 1:00 pm, leaving Don time to prepare for Monday, his first day at Buble-Bee Tuna.

(Facing South/East) When we first arrived in the Design District the street looked fairly deserted.


(Facing North/West.)

Cedros Gardens (a nursery).

Still Cedros Gardens.

Seaside Gardens (also a nursery).

"Out of the Blue" clothing and gifts.

The next 10 or so images are of a cool shop that I'd like to move into.





That's a large mirror, not a door we're looking at here.




They have an abundance of cool looking LARGE books here.


Please forgive the make-shift model in the goofy garden hat--she's all we could get on a moment's notice. This is a size comparison so you can get an idea of how large this book is.

I'm afraid it's getting late and I'm going have to continue the Solano Beach photo tour on yet another posting.

Good night for now.