Dad? Where are we going? "See that gas station there? When I was a kid I used to stop there on the way home from school and get a drink of water from the drinking fountain."

The car slows down.. "See that little back house over there? That's the house where Mom and I used to live before you were born. Hold on, I'm going to show Tim the apartment we brought you home to .. it's just a short detour."

More often than not, if you are in the car with my Dad, you will learn a little something. If it isn't the dashboard drum beat to an Allman Brothers song it is little tidbits about how he has interacted with the world around you throughout his life. My dad loves to point out all of the locations in San Jose that have played a part in his history. He'll point out the same spots over and over again and tell the same corresponding stories. Some members of our family will lovingly roll their eyes, but not me. I share my Dad's love of nostalgia. I love hearing stories about the past and being reminded of a time before me. (You mean I wasn't always here?) It's important to me to acknowledge this history and I love that my Dad shares it with us. I like picturing his school boy body taking a long drink of cold water on a hot spring day from that gas station fountain... I like knowing which buildings have changed over the years and what ghosts might be hidden within them. I remember my grandma's house on Peachtree Lane and I like to be reminded of a time when kids rode their bikes to the Thrifty's ice cream shop and got a cone for 10 cents. See- that's the thing about nostalgia. If you play it right, everything seems beautiful.

Los Angeles. Los Feliz. The Mustard Seed. The Monterey. It's all beautiful.

We met and lived in Los Angeles until getting married and have too many memories to count there.. (I wrote a farewell to Los Angeles here that shares a little bit about how I felt about leaving.) Before Eloise was born I found myself in LA so frequently sometimes it felt like I had never left ... but since her arrival we hadn't had a chance to pack the bags and head down the 5 and this visit was overdue. Obviously, Eloise is still too little to understand what Tim meant when he said, "There's House of Pies!" but it still felt great to be walking around our old stomping ground with our little baby. Tim and I felt like we were bringing Eloise back to our past to say, "Hey! Look what we made since we've been here last? Didn't we do well? Do you approve?" I think she did.

{Charlotte}