Huntington What?! (Part I)

My boyfriend, in his latest attempt at being wonderful, planned a surprise day for me that he declared was Lonely Los Angeles approved.  When he told me we were going to Huntington Gardens, my response was “Huntington what?!”  Clearly I hadn’t quite made it to the San Gabriel Valley portion of my LP guide.  Because Lonely Planet doesn’t offer pictures, I had no clue what I was in store for.

After a lovely drive to Pasadena (where it was scorching hot), we made it to the gates that led the way to a truly magical place.

 

Our first stop was the desert garden.  The moment I walked in, I wondered if I had come across a drink that said “drink me” and a cake that demanded, “eat me” and forgotten; the shapes and colors could only have existed in an Alice-style psychedelic trip.

  

The heat was really starting to wear on us (we were in the desert gardens after all) and so we headed to the Lily Pond. 

A group of us cheered on a poor little fish that had gotten grounded on a lily pad and was leaping for his life.  After many daring attempts, the guppy made it safely back into the water.

We were told there would be ducks, but when no ducks appeared, I had one of my bratty child meltdowns and on a duck hunt we went. It turns out the ducks were also hot (and hungry) and found a tree to find shade and get some good grub (literally).

We found it quite odd that there was one duck that wasn’t looking for food, instead he walked right up to the group of us taking pictures and started posing for us.  This is no joke, the duck was trying to get discovered, finding different poses and not stopping until we finally stopped taking pictures and walked away. This duck was a starlet in training with a likely eating disorder.

Next we made our way to the orient with a visit to the Japanese Gardens.

It was the land of the Four Bs:

Bamboo…

Bonsai...

Bridges...

And Buddhas!

To keep with the zen theme, there was a little house that was perfectly feng shui. 

But as much as I wanted to go lie down on one of the mats, we weren’t allowed in.

And then we entered China, where we were relieved to see a little café where we bought water.  We took a seat and admired the Chinese pond.

It was getting close to our reservation for tea (yes my boyfriend is so masculine that he can take me to high tea) and headed towards the tea room.  Our reservation was running late, so we took a stroll through the Rose garden.

When our reservation was finally called, we bathed ourselves in the air conditioning and drank tea (with our pinkies out) and ate baby scones and sandwiches with the crust cut off.

We had enough heat for the day, so made our way to other areas with a/c.   But you'll have to wait until Part II to hear all about it.  

Trust me, it's worth it.

TIP: In the summer it gets really hot and they don’t allow outside food or beverages, so bring a big purse and stash some water inside.

It's the pits: The La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum

All I had previously known about the La Brea Tar Pits was that it smelled like ass.  It pseudo occurred to me to stop in and see what was making it smell so putrid as I oft drove down 6th St (though for a while I blamed the fetid scent on the eye sore that is Park La Brea), but I never actually took that pit stop.  But since it's description in my LP Guide fell right between the Farmers Market and the Craft and Folk Art Museum, I figured I might as well swing by during my lunch break one day.

I honestly had no clue what was going on in there and quickly found out that there was a lot more than some smelly sticky goo.  This was one of those places that is meant for kids who love learning; the kids who like to go to the planetarium, not just to get high and watch the laser light shows.  For an 8 year old boy, this place could seriously be heaven, once they got past the fact that the tar pits never captured a dinosaur (the tar pits showed up around 100k years ago, whereas Dino was killed off 64 million years prior).  However, they have bones from mammoths, wolves (not the "were" kind) and saber-tooth cats (mistakenly known as saber-tooth tigers).

The most fascinating thing I learned is that the tar (AKA... asphalt) is so sticky and thick that even an inch thick layer of it can stop a mega mammoth in its tracks.  In fact, the animals didn't die because they sank (this isn't quick sand, friends), but rather because they got stuck like flies on a fly trap and they would die from starvation or sometimes from the predators that would attack them (which is idiotic, since they would then become stuck in the muck and die themselves).  Also, this crap isn't hot, even though it looks like it's boiling.  That's just gas (which is also the thing that makes it so putrid).

Apparently, it's also not just a museum, but still an active excavation location.  Pit 91 and project 23 are still occasionally active and you can view them at work when they are.

You can also see the folks who are cleaning up and categorizing the fossils at work in the lab called fishbowl in the museum (which seems to me to be a huge and unnecessary distraction, since I can barely focus when a gust of wind blows by).





One other thing I hadn't anticipated was that the tar pits were like little black gooey ponds within a bigger park, which is named Hancock Park.  This fact blew my mind, as there is a very affluent neighborhood less than a mile away also named Hancock Park.  I thought perhaps I was falling into a mean game of chicken or the egg (was the park named after the neighborhood or the neighborhood named after the park?), but with some later research I discovered one had nothing to do with the other, besides both being funded by the same George Allan Hancock.  Another lesson learned was that La Brea literally translates to "the tar."  All this new information was actually very exciting, as it was quickly turning out that I was learning so much more about my city (um, and history) through my asinine project.

TIP: If you are a teacher, your admission is free.

http://www.tarpits.org/

Beverly Hills (that's where I want to be)

I'm a Beverly Hills girl. I've always worked in Beverly Hills and for the past 7 years I've lived in Beverly Hills Adjacent (yes,  my neighborhood is snobby by proximity).  Despite the errands I've run, the lunches I've eaten and the walks that I've gone on, I never really spent much time on Rodeo Drive other than when I was a tourist or when I've had friends in town.  I guess there was no real reason. Even though it is one block away from a street I frequent weekly (Beverly Drive), Rodeo Drive always seemed over priced, overly snobby and unnecessary.  So yesterday, during my lunch break, I ventured down the glitz and glamour of the street made infamous by PRETTY WOMAN.

My Lonely Planet guide actually had a handful of suggestions of places to see on Rodeo Drive that I had never known about, so I was pretty excited. I start my walk and realize that this street is more than high end shopping, it's really it's very own version of a Museum Row.  The clothing, the bags, the shoes and the jewelry are all so stunning and so unique, if we weren't meant to wear them, they would be considered incredible pieces of art.  Even the presentations are incredible, evoking emotion everywhere from awe to absolute envy.  However, what I was shocked to see in almost every single window display was the most evil (and my favorite) four letter word in retail:

This is obviously good news for me, until I realize that at the majority of these stores, even with a price slashing sale, are still way out of my price range.  I conceded to window shopping.

One of my favorite things are all things that sparkle.  I was stopped in my path by the most beautiful diamond necklace in the store front of Cartier.  I was dying to know what it looked like on me...

Pretty good, right?

Soon after, I came across the Harry Winston store, which I didn't even know existed.  I was just aware that he lends his million dollar jewels to the stars for the Oscars and Cannes.  I guess he isn't just doing that to be nice, cause I found an entire room of displays like this in a lobby area between the front door and the store itself...

Talk about product placement.

Finally, at the end of the long walk, I came across my favorite store, my mecca, if you will.

*Cue angels singing*

My boyfriend is completely positive that my efforts to pull him into Tiffany's are based on an ulterior motive to go engagement ring shopping, but in truth, I just love how all the diamonds and gems sparkle in their most perfectly lit displays.  There isn't a Tiffany's I walk past that I don't go in (that includes you, London Heathrow Airport!).  I wander in, check out the sparkle and quickly leave before I appear suspicious.

Moving on from jewelry (not because I want to, but because I should), here are a few other highlights.

Until I read my LP guide, I had no clue that Frank Lloyd Wright designed a shopping center on Rodeo Drive.  However, according to the LP guide, it's located at 322 N. Rodeo Dr.  I walked up and down that block and if it really was supposed to be 322, then it was an empty pre-construction lot.  Next to that lot I found an angular, white shopping center at the address 332 N. Rodeo Dr., so I put my faith in the fact that a Frank Lloyd Wright structure wasn't completely demolished, but instead was just mislabeled.  To be honest, the shopping center wasn't much to "wright" home about (see what I did there?).  It was very simple, didn't offer great views, and the stores didn't scream I-deserve-to-be-in-a-Frank-Lloyd-Wright-shopping-center!  However, I did get this pseudo cool pic from inside looking out...

Another can't miss is the Two Rodeo shopping center on Rodeo and Wilshire.  I love it, because it's the home to Tiffany's, but it's just a cool little cobblestoned walkway that resembles the area in that scene from THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA when Anne Hathaway is in Paris, getting romanced by the uber sexy Simon Baker.

Paris...

Two Rodeo

And of course I must mention the major designer flagship stores.  They are incredible.  The one that really caught my eye was the one that had no marquee of sorts, just an incredible open air display that resembled a modern art installation more than a clothing store.  I happened to look in my Lonely Planet and saw that the address matched the address for the one store the guide actually mentioned: Prada No. 343.  And it was worth mentioning.

Those guys in black suits are real.

The final site I checked out was north of the shopping portion of Rodeo, at the bottom area of the residential district. Last summer I took a last minute solo trip to Spain (I literally planned it in a week and off I went) and fell madly in love with Gaudi's architecture that makes you wonder if perhaps he was eating the same cakes and drinking the same tea as Alice, as it really looks quite a bit like Wonderland.  My LP guide informed me there was a Gaudi inspired house.  I'm really not quite certain if anyone lives there or if it welcomes visitors, so I wouldn't recommend knocking on any doors, peering through any windows or jumping any fences, but definitely stop by and take a pic from outside like I did.

Of course I have to give a mention to the residence of our favorite hooker with a heart of gold, the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel...

 You can find this on Wilshire and Rodeo.

And if you need more shopping, or a good plastic surgeon, head to the Rodeo Collection at 421 N. Rodeo.  It didn't blow me away, but is likely frequented by the Beverly Hills ladies who lunch elite.

TIP: Don't be freaked out and instead take advantage of the diagonal cross walks on Rodeo Drive.

TIP: Parking is easy and cheap in Beverly Hills, but don't look for it on Rodeo Drive.  One block east, on Beverly Drive, there are two city sponsored parking lots that are free for the first two hours.