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.