The Huntington Library in Pasadena

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.

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!

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.

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.

Just a shack right?

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.

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. 

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! 

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.

http://www.huntington.org

Santa Anita Canyon Hike

Two weeks ago I went on this hike with my friend Steve.  We had been on several hikes along the Santa Monica mountains and were ready to branch out a little.  After consulting our favorite LA hiking website, modernhiker.com, we decided we would go a little further and head to the San Gabriels.  Our destination was Santa Anita Canyon, a shady canyon in the mountains north of Pasadena.

Parking could have been a little bit of a nightmare but we got really lucky.  We climbed down into the canyon and were pleasantly surprised by how shady it was and were thrilled that the river actually had some water in it.  Thank god because it was almost 100 degrees.  This sign was a bit sobering.

True and depressing. Thank you sign...

 We had heard that there was a waterfall and I was skeptical of that too.  A waterfall in LA?  Well we trudged through a group of old cabins and some flowers.

And we got to the waterfall!  While it wasn't the roaring Yosemite falls it was pretty cool especially for SoCal.

Don't do it Steve!!

We followed the river up through the canyon for several miles.  It was beautiful and green.  I couldn't believe we were still in LA.    

Yeah we are special, don't hate.

We kept hiking and hiking, because we thought the trail would loop. But when it didnt we decided to turn back.  About 6 miles later we were back where we started.  It was a beautiful hike, I got to see some trees, and we got to splash around in the river and were under shade for most of the hike.  Good times!

A pretty cool flower.

A night in Hollywood

Yes, yes, yes I have been a slacker for a month. Unforgivable I know, but I haven't been in town much, so thus not much to post about LA.  But I'm back! And ready with two new posts.  And on Friday I spent the evening in Hollywood with friends Rachel and Nathan.

Inception was the reason for the trip.  One of the most anticipated films of the summer, and The most anticipated film for those in the business. And we were seeing it at arguably the best theater in town, the Arclight.  It was my first time going to this much talked about theater.  But when we got there they had just canceled all showing in the giant dome theater because the A/C had gone out.  One showing got canceled right in the middle of the film.  Rumor has it that the director Christopher Nolan was actually in that screening!  Luckily we were not seeing the film in the dome.

We had some time to kill before our movie so we decided to get a drink.  There is actually a bar inside the theater and we checked that out but it was too crowded on our way out, we saw none other than celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.  Oh Hollywood....

We walked a few blocks to..........Big Wangs.

Yep, Big Wangs... if you were to assume that this was some kind of flamboyant gay bar you would be incorrect....I think.  I am assuming the name has something to do with chicken wings.  Anyways, it was a decent enough place to grab a beer.  Pretty fun actually and I got to catch the end of the Giants win. 

But we couldn't stay all that long, Nathan was getting antsy.  We booked it back to the theater and began the crazy journey that is INCEPTION.  The screen at the Arclight was huge and perfect for the film.  I won't review the film, but I will tell you to go see it.  Just be ready for some confusion.... I know I need to see it again.  So, a great night in Hollywood. 

Malibu, Lily's Cafe and Zuma Beach

After an exciting morning of World Cup Soccer (USA, USA!) at my friend Austin's in Redondo, my friend Steve and I headed up to Malibu for the afternoon.  Steve was house sitting in Malibu and I wasn't about to pass up an invitation to hang out.  Steve had been raving for weeks about a burrito from Lily's Cafe in the Point Dume shopping center so we decided to hit it up before the beach.

As I walked in I noticed a bottle of Tapatio on each table which is always a good sign.  Even with all of Steve's hype, Lily's carne asada burrito managed to delight.  It was huge and delicious and I didn't have time to snap a photo before I had demolished it.  The only thing it was lacking was cheese, but it almost got away without it.  I highly recommend it if you are up near Zuma Beach, and I hear their breakfast burrito is also highly coveted.  Lily's on Yelp 

With our bellies full, Steve and I headed to the beach.  And chilled.  Zuma beach is beautiful.  It is much more laid back and peaceful than the hustle and bustle of Santa Monica beach.  With colorful life guard towers and beautiful blue water, Zuma is definitely a gem.

Steve and I threw around the football for a while, channeling our inner manlyness.  We were soon joined by Laura.

We were soon treated to a show by several dolphins! It was so cool, one of them even caught a wave.  I have certainly never seen a dolphin surf, but aparently it happens at Zuma.  There were also seals out there having fun.  Soon the sun was setting and we got this view

It was so relaxing and such a needed break from the city.  I was happy, can you tell?

After the beach we went back to the house Steve was watching.  It was determined we needed buns for our hot dogs so it was off to the local grocery store.  And guess who we saw?  Ok you will never guess.  Ben Stein! Who? Ben Stein of Ferris Bueller fame, and Win Ben Stein's money... the dude with the annoyingly dry voice. Ya you know who I'm talking about.  Anyways, fun day.

Nike Shoe release party

Only in LA right? On Thursday Jaime's brother Jon was back in LA and invited me to come out to this shoe release party.  The shoes were designed by two professional skateboarders.  Jon (DJ StaticJon) and rapper Andre Nickatina, were the special guest performance.  Jon asked me to do a little filming.  It was a short show but the crowd loved it.  It was a really interesting mix of people.  Mostly white skaters.  After the show I hung around for a little bit with Jon, his girlfriend Katy and friend Kristin.  The venue was really interesting.  It was a converted old smog check station, so it is aptly named Smog Shoppe.  It is apparently a green venue. Whatever that means.  All in all I will say it was an interesting and strange experience.  It hardly seemed to be about the shoes, but maybe they presented them before I got there.  It was fun to see Jon & Co. and I got out of my apartment.  So...good times.

http://www.smogshoppe.com/   

The Prominade and Santa Monica Beach

So this seems like an obvious one, but I haven't posted it before.  This past weekend my back was somewhat out of commission so I didn't feel up to doing anything too crazy. Yeah I know, I'm getting old.  I had to get out of the apartment though, especially since the sun finally came out.  So I decided to take a book down to the beach.  I parked at work and walked to the promenade.  For those who have never been, the 3rd Street Promanade is an outdoor shopping strip spanning an entire 5 blocks.  It has been closed to cars, so pedestrians can wander back and forth from shop to shop.  There is quite the crowd there, especially on weekends.  It attracts quite an eclectic group of street performers, from the incredibly talented to the "oh my god I will pay you to stop doing that".  On Wednesday and Saturday there is also a fairly impressive farmers market.  I tend to think it is fairly pricey, but I guess there is a price to be paid for premium produce in LA.  PS, this picture doesn't do it justice.  They were packing up. 

 After a research trip to the Apple Store, I headed down the pier and onto the beach.  The Santa Monica Pier is world famous but really better experienced with a friend.  As I was a loner on this outing, I stayed away from the rickety carnival and headed for the sand.

I wasn't very diligent in my picture taking, so I will have to update this post later, because there are some interesting parts to this beach, including the muscle beach exercise area.  I had a nice relaxing afternoon lounging on the sand and enjoying a book (that's right a book! No scripts this weekend!).  The weather was perfect.  I will admit this wasn't all that adventurous, except for when I tried to get up off my back, but this is a quintessential Santa Monica experience and it's what you pay a premium for when you live close to the ocean.  But in my opinion, it is so worth it.

    

Sandstone Peak Hike

Last weekend my buddy Steve and I decided we wanted to do a hike that we hadn't done before.  I had heard great things about Sandstone Peak and so we headed out past Malibu and just barely into Ventura county.  Once we got of PCH, we crawled 6 miles up a road that was as windy as roads come.  But we couldn't have asked for nicer weather. It was sunny and about 70.  It took us about an hour to get out there, but it was well worth it.  Sandstone peak is the highest peak in the Santa Monica Mountain range, which still isn't all that high at about 3,000 feet.  But boy are there great views.

The rock formations were some of the coolest I've seen.  Huge jagged formation jet up from the rugged mountains.

Not even ten minutes into the hike I spotted a snake slithering across the trail.  Steve jumped into the bush with no hesitation and grabbed the snake by the tail.  Good thing that tail didn't have a rattle on it!  It was a harmless snake but it didn't like being held very much (there is some great video footage to prove it.  But this sucker was pretty big.  After some kodak moments, Steve set the snake free and it crawled away with a slightly bruised ego.

Here is video evidence. Please excuse my language.  I was frightened.

We marched on.  The wildflowers were all in bloom so it made for a beautiful hike.  Very romantic....wait, I mean, it was a very manly ascent to the top, look we even did some bouldering

It was surprisingly green for socal this time of year.  It doesn't look all that green to us norcal people, but trust me, this is pretty rare for socal when summer is approaching.

Buddies! And yes I realize that face isn't very attractive, but hey, it's hiking.
 It was a steep climb up the last push of the mountain, but we finally made it to the peak.  And apparently Sandstone Peak is also called Mt. Allen, which is really confusing. 

Don't do it Steve!!! The views were wicked awesome. We could see from Redondo beach to Santa Barbara.  We hiked around a bit more and came across these pretty sweet views.

Sandstone Peak was a fantastic hike and I highly recommend.  The views are magnificent and it really isn't that long of a hike or that hard.