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Rachel and I both grew up in Whittier, California, an area about 45 minutes north of where we currently live and one that has seen some fairly dramatic changes over the years. Today for our date day (I took an extra day off this week due to the absolutely crazy schedule our youth ministry team kept last week with the PDYM conference) I decided I wanted to go on a “Whittier Tour” and spend the day driving through our hometown. We spent about 2.5 hours visiting various child-hood and young adult-hood stomping grounds. Not that you care (unless you are familiar with Whittier…) but here were our major stops.
- Granada Middle School: While it’s technically in La Mirada, it was where I spent grades 6-8
- Bretheren Christian School: Rachel’s junior high
- Cal High: My High School. Cal is short for California….such a great school they named our state after it!
- La Serna High: Rachel’s High School
- My childhood home on Chadsey and my teen years apartment on Mulberry.
- Rachel’s childhood homes (4 or 5 different ones!)
- First Family Church: This was the highlight of the day! This is the church where I came to Christ in high school, it’s where Rachel grew up, it’s where we met, married and spent the first 6 years of junior high ministry on staff. The church has gone through some really, really exciting changes in the past few years and it was so fun to tour around with the new Pastor and some of the staff. As luck would have it, while on our tour we ran across Carlos, a lifelong friend who we grew up with who now serves on the church board of elders. If you know anybody in the Whittier/La Habra/La Mirada area looking for a church home First Family is worth a visit.
- Oceanic Arts: My friend Chris Schmaltz’s dad, Leroy, is a legend in the world of Tiki carving and art. He and his partner have owned and operated Oceanic Arts since the late 50′s. Chris and I worked there off and on all through high school and college.
All day long Rachel and I kept talking about our roots, our heritage and how blessed we were to grow up in loving homes, with good friends such fond memories.
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Glad you got to visit Whittier. First Family is doing great with Dave. Haven’t been there in a while, but have a ton of memories there. I haven’t been to Oceanic is forever…wow, that takes me back. My dad works at the Uptown Library and my grandmother still lives in La Mirada, so we make the trek every once in a while. We usually include a visit to Mimo’s Cafe for tacos and hit up Melrose Vintage to say hey to Robert.