I had some quality family time this past weekend. My sister had a basketball tourney in San Diego, so on the way back my mom, grandma, sister and sister's friend stopped overnight in Pasadena. I met them for dinner and the next day we went to the magnificent Huntington Library.
Now they call this a "library", but this is not your run of the mill public library by any stretch. While it houses a fantastic collection of rare books, it is also so much more. It has a famous art collection, an arburitum, a mansion, and hundreds of acres of gardens of all different variety. Here's a little history on the place...come on, don't roll your eyes...read on.
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| Henry Huntington. A cool dude. |
A private, nonprofit institution, The Huntington was founded in 1919 by Henry E. Huntington, an exceptional businessman who built a financial empire that included railroad companies, utilities, and real estate holdings in Southern California. Huntington was also a man of vision – with a special interest in books, art, and gardens. During his lifetime, he amassed the core of one of the finest research libraries in the world, established a splendid art collection, and created an array of botanical gardens with plants from a geographic range spanning the globe! COOL!
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| The library part of The Library |
Ok, enough of that, lets see the place! We stopped first to see the book collection, or "library" as it were. I took a picture of the famous Gutenberg bible, but of course it didn't save. So instead, you get this, a really old copy of Shakespeare. I'm talking like first edition. Pretty neat.
We took our time looking over the fascinating collection of texts that seemed to span the entire history of published works. Then it was on to Huntington's modest dwellings after a few photo ops.
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| Mom and Grandma with Huntington Mansion in the background |
The house was wonderful and reminded me of something you might see in Europe, Austria perhaps? Inside was an impressive porcelain collection and the famous blue boy painting along with other paintings. Grandma told us about how she went to the Huntington as a little girl and marveled at the big staircase. So naturally we had to take a picture.
While the house was great, it was a perfect day outside, so we were eager to explore the gardens. But first we went around the front of the "house" to take in it's splendor.
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| Just a shack right? |
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| The gang and the view from the terrace |
We decided to explore the jungle first. It is amazing how many different types of plants can grow in Pasadena.
It was about lunch time so the girls and grandma decided to head to the cafe, but my mom and I had to press on a little more. And I'm glad we did. This was our reward.
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| A Cactus Tree! |
There was a great desert landscape, and then just to the side was a green lily pond garden.
We had lunch at the cafe and Grandma decided a beer sounded nice, and boy was she right (She ended up giving half to me.) Refueled, we decided to hit the Japanese garden. It was pretty spectacular. I neglected to take a comprehensive picture but suffice to say it rivaled any Japanese garden I have seen in the States.
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| Molly contemplating swimming with the Koi fish |
The Bonsai tree garden was very impressive too. Many of them were hundreds of years old! I had no idea that you can basically make a Bonsai from any kind of tree, well probably not you or I, unless you are a Bonsai Master. But I was pretty fascinated by how much time and effort goes into these trees. And they had so many!
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| My favorite Bonsai. It was like a mini forest! |
At some point the Japanese garden became the Chinese garden, but don't ask me where exactly. Both were beautiful.
We were finding our way back to the main entrance when we stumbled upon the arboretum. And when you stumble upon an arboretum you don't just pass it by right? Right. So we went inside. They had several exhibits for kids about carnivorous plants and plants that had special features, which of course I found enjoyable. Also saw these little beauties.
So as you can see I was thoroughly impressed with the Huntington. If you are in Pasadena looking for some culture, or want to get away from the city without really leaving the city I highly recommend you check it out. Be prepared to spend a good chunk of time there though because you won't want to leave. I will definitely be going back.
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