Silver Lake to Angelino Heights, Part 1

Having a spontaneous nature is a good thing, in my opinion. When my son called this past Sunday morning, (while I was busy unpacking boxes from a very recent move) and invited me to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch… in the next county… it took me all of 2 seconds to say yes! Luckily traffic wasn’t bad and I arrived calm and hungry. I’ll write an “Eat Here” article on our lunch locale one day soon, but today’s story and photos will feature the first part of our tour, post-lunch, in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles.

Driving along Glendale Boulevard, heading towards downtown Los Angeles, we turned right on Baxter Street, one of my favorite streets in L.A. It was featured in a recent list of steepest streets with its 32 degree gradient! My connection to this street started many decades ago, when I was in my late teens, living in La Crescenta. I spontaneously decided I wanted a kitten. My life wouldn’t be complete without a kitten! In those days, we checked ads in the newspapers, so that’s what I did. I wasn’t exactly a patient person at that age, and was becoming very frustrated because it was obviously not kitten season. No ads anywhere for kittens. I don’t recall how many days or weeks passed, but I eventually found a litter up for adoption in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. That was quite a few miles from where I lived, but it didn’t matter. My new kitten was waiting for me! I hopped in my candy apple red 1971 VW Super Bug and headed to find Baxter Street.You need to realize I hadn’t been driving a stick shift all that long. My dad had taught me, and I was quite comfortable with it on regular roads, but when I started up the Baxter Street hill, I felt a wee bit of panic creep in!

At the top of the hill all I could see was sky… where’d the street go?!! I crept forward, the sky receded, the street became more flat… and then, that’s when that wee bit of panic smacked me in the face… I saw the downhill, straight down, like a ski slope, heading directly into a lake!I searched for house numbers while keeping my foot firmly on the brake pedal. Eternity passed and finally, second house down on the right, there was my destination. I chose the little black kitten with white on his chest and nose, and named him… yup, Baxter! He was special. I’d go camping and hiking, he’d follow along behind me, like a puppy. People stared in amazement at my little Baxter. Some time later, when I had the urge for a puppy, and adopted a German Shepard/Great Dane mix, my Baxter quickly let it be known that he was boss.

Getting back to the present, my son and I took a short driving tour of Silver Lake and then headed over past Echo Park to Angelino Heights. My next article/s will feature our walking tour of Angelino Heights, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, filled with some really great Victorian-era homes. Once we returned to my truck and went our separate ways, I swung back around to the Mattachine Steps in Silver Lake.

I simply couldn’t resist climbing them, don’t ask me why! The gallery below is some Silver Lake, some Echo Park; click on any picture to open the gallery and view full size. As you can probably tell, I was super happy my son had called me and we went on this great reminisce-filled adventure!! And, by the way, Happy Six Month Anniversary to SueBee and Kat, the blog! ~SueBee (photos by SueBee)