Why I Love Living in the Highlands

By JOYCE SIMMONS Special to the Palisadian-Post It’s late afternoon on a spring day. I’m heading home with my teenage son on PCH and the traffic is slow, almost a crawl. It seems every day the roads are more crowded than they were the day before. The fog has rolled in, covering the sun and sky, and has made everything, including me, a sad color of gray. As I make a right onto Sunset, I notice the usual chaos of this area. The cars are coming from every direction and are heading straight for me. It reminds me of high school, sitting behind the wheel of a simulated car during driver’s ed. I get flashbacks to those silly films where you are driving along and then all of a sudden, cars, people and stuff are coming out of nowhere flying towards you. ??At last I make my left onto Palisades Drive and head home. Up the hill I drive and with each bend of the road, I climb higher and higher. I can see the sun breaking through the overcast sky as I move up the canyon. Everything becomes bright, colorful and peaceful; my mood lifts like the fog. I watch the external temperature gauge in my car go up and up as I get closer to the top. I’m reminded how much I love driving home every day and leaving the craziness of the world behind at the bottom of the hill. I make a right onto my street and smile. Yeah! I’m home. My husband, Greg, and I moved here to the Highlands with our son, Daniel, and our dog, Dylan, in April 2002. It had been our dream to live here ever since we moved to Pacific Palisades in July of 1994. Our first home was in the Alphabet Streets, where we lived for seven years. When it was time for a bigger place, we remembered the beautiful homes and spectacular views we had seen when we first moved to our new town. The Highlands was the only place we considered in our new house hunt. ??It’s impossible to live up here and not be moved by the surroundings. During the day, the quality of the light is incredible, but some of my favorite times of the year are on warm summer nights. You can sit outside and see thousand of stars above you in the night sky and listen to the sound of crickets everywhere. In the late spring, or early summer at dusk, we can look out from our backyard and see the fog come creeping up from the coast below. It looks like a beautiful white blanket rolling up the canyon, tucking the town in for the night. In the Highlands, you are never really alone. We are right on the edge of the Santa Monica Mountains and nature is always close at hand. There is something so special about being able to hear the hoot of an owl coming down your chimney as he calls to his other owl friend across the canyon. The coyotes also like talking to each other, and you can usually hear their howls echoing in the night air. The deer are quiet, of course, but occasionally come walking down the street or stray into someone’s backyard. ??The other type of animal that you find here in the Highlands is the domestic kind. I’m not sure that having a dog is a requirement to live here, but if you want a social life, it really helps. A dog will give you endless opportunities to meet other people as you walk around the neighborhood, to the fire road, or to the dog park. It’s not an exaggeration to say that more people know Dylan than know us. ??When the Fourth of July comes to town, many neighbors head down the hill to see the fireworks at Palisades High. But you can also see fireworks from the Highlands and I think it’s a fun option. After a short hike with your big flashlight, and sturdy shoes, you come to the top of the hill by the fire road at the top of Lachman Lane. The show below is amazing. Not only can you see the fireworks at PaliHi and the Bel-Air Bay Club, you can view another 15 or more shows going off at the same time across the L.A. basin. ??Halloween on Piedra Morada Drive and its surrounding cul-de-sacs is the year’s biggest event. What started out as a large party has only grown larger over the years. When we first moved to the Highlands, our neighbors warned us that a lot of trick-or-treaters would come down our street. We thought, OK, how much is a lot’ 75? 80? Really, how hard could it be to have 80 kids come by? Well, that year, the first 80 showed up before 6 p.m., and we had another two more hours to go. Greg made a fast run to Vons down at PCH, yelling as he ran through the store, ‘Give me all your Halloween candy, ASAP! I have angry trick-or-treaters storming my house!!’ ??Back at the house, I was trying to stay calm and hold off the trick-or-treaters at the gate. ‘Come back in a few minutes, we will have more candy.’ I told them. By the end of the night, there were two more Vons runs. You never want to see the disappointed faces of little trick-or-treaters who haven’t received their treat! By now we have learned. Last October, we had over 600 trick-or-treaters, big and little, coming to our house, and this time we were prepared. It is a night when the whole neighborhood comes alive; it’s crazy and great fun. ??We have had so many (too many to count) wonderful memories with family, friends and the people who live around us, that have helped make our life in the Highlands so great. Every now and then, I just step outside, take a deep breath and look around. And, even after eight years, living up here still takes my breath away. ??The author’s husband, Greg Fuss, is an investment specialist. Their son, Daniel, is a freshman at New Roads High School.