Holly's Notes and Condition

Andersen's Split Pea Soup and A Good Feeling

April 6th - The drive home from Napa Valley started after a wonderful breakfast and conversation with our friends. We left at 9:40 am. We arrived at Santa Nella, off the 5 Fwy at 12:30 pm and decided to have lunch at Andersen's Split Pea Restaurant, with the huge Dutch Windmill guiding us to them off the freeway. Their Traveler's Special - split pea soup, rolls, rye crisp crackers, a tuna cobb salad and water and iced tea - really hit the spot. (Andersen's Split Pea Soup is also a good childhood memory for both Dave and I.)

As it was Good Friday, there were a lot of families and grandparents enjoying lunch, either just heading off on vacation or just heading back from vacation - Yosemite, Disneyland, Arizona - you can tell by the T-shirts and writing on their cars, for instance "Disneyland - Here We Come!'

A Good Feeling - As we drove the 500 miles south to return home, we passed several trucks that carried products that Dave and his company have helped with their business systems consulting and the software that they developed and market - tour bus makers, food manufacturers and distributors, lamp makers, sporting goods companies, etc.. I really felt good about the fact that he and his company have been so helpful to these companies and that they are still in business - and from a Californian's perspective: that they can still do business in CA!

We made it over the Grapevine into the Santa Clarita Valley before 5 pm - however, as we headed south, we watched the 5 Fwy heading north completely stop, backing up as you begin the descent down into the San Joaquin Valley. We passed Magic Mountain Amusement Park and saw the other side of the freeway was a parking lot - I was very glad we were not heading that direction. We did pretty well with traffic until we hit Pasadena on the 210 Fwy, from Pasadena to San Dimas was a real crawl - it looked like a combination of regular after work traffic, with a heavy influx of vacation traffic - RV's and trucks pulling trailered motorcycles and jet skis. We decided to stop in San Dimas for dinner and then the rest of the drive was uneventful and moved really well. We went past Angel Stadium while a ball game was on and could see that it was a really full house attending the evening game.
We arrived home at 8:15 pm, after driving 1017 miles total on the trip. We unloaded the car, put away some things, called our sons to let them know we arrived home safely, grabbed a quick shower and went to bed - 9:15 pm. My head hit the pillow and I went right to sleep.

Note: from the time I left on vacation 10 days ago - I didn't feel the need to have to take any sleeping medication and I slept well - and that is a very good feeling!

posted by Holly @ 4:01 PM