I live for a good weekend getaway with my handsome hunk of a honey bunny.
You know that.
Take me anywhere, Tim.
Pismo Beach, Palm Springs, even the Pacific Northwest. I don't really care so much as I care that Tim and I get to spend some usually much needed time alone, together.
For dinner dates and city strolls while hand-holding, for flirting and tongue-kissing.
Lately, though, it's seems a rarity that our work schedules align for a weekend away. Actually, maybe the last time we had taken a little trip together was in February when we went to Seattle and it wasn't really so much as a romantic getaway kind of weekend so much as it was a responsibility to attend a wedding kind of weekend. And so when we had a chance to get out of town together at the end of April, for no reason other than for enjoyments sake, for the first time in what felt like ages, we jumped at it hard.
Naturally, I was the one who got busy planning and making arrangements.
Where would we go? What would we do?
I considered campgrounds and cabins up and down the California coast. Little cottage inns in Carmel-by-the-Sea and hipster motel rooms in Ocean Beach.
My indecision prompted me to book two nights in two different places.
First, a day and night in Los Angeles before continuing on to Joshua Tree for a night of desert glamping in a styled out tipi (but that's another blog post for another day).
We decided to go to LA, because it's a halfway point for us from Santa Barbara to Joshua Tree, and also because for a long time I had been wanting to spend a day revisiting the The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena.
Have you been there?
If you haven't, I seriously suggest that you add to your list of places to visit.
If you aren't familiar, The Huntington Library and Gardens is a wildly impressive institution. On the property that spreads over 207 acres, 120 acres of which are gardens open to the public, visitors will also find a world–renowned independent research library and several important art galleries.
Actually, The Huntington Gardens is one of my favorites of all time. I had been as a little girl, on field trips with my family, but now I wanted to take Tim.
There's something romantic about spending a day in a garden with your lover, you know?
The air is perfumed with flower smells, lily-like and fragrant, and little birdies chirp lovely-dovey songs in the trees. Delicate little blossoms of pastel pinks and pale purples and forget-me-not blue's dance in garden gusts, begging you to notice their powdery perfection. (But your sweetheart has only eyes for you! Where your garden dress is light and airy, girly, high slits that hint.) Spread out across a thin blanket on a green grass lawn, the sun shines and warms your skin, a little shine of sweat on your lips from the heat.
We went to The Huntington on a Saturday at the end of April. The gardens were hot and crowded at high noon when we arrived. The parking lot was packed and the ticket lines long and full of hip LA parents with babies in strollers, couples on dates, tourists in town. I wore a fabulous one shouldered dress with nude, ankle-strap flats. Tim admired me with lovers eyes.
We opted to start in the gardens, to enjoy the spring and determined to find a quiet corner so that we could pretend that we had the whole place to ourselves.
I took Tim's hand and led us first to the Desert Garden. Did you know that the Huntington Desert Garden is one of the largest and oldest collections of cactus and succulents in the world? It's true. At nearly 100 years old, the Desert Garden features more than 2,000 species of succulents and desert plants in over 60 spectacularly curated beds. Strolling over gravel paths that wove through flowering cactus, pink and yellow blooms, and spiderwebby looking thorns, I was reminded of our recent tour of Lotusland in Montecito. The million spikes and spines and the dry desert smell of dust and flower. Garden friends of hippity bunnies and fluttering butterflies. How caught in the midday sun, the colors of the cactus were vivid and glistening, nearly sparkling like some precious jewels, jades and emeralds. Tim noticed the impossible shapes of some of the plants, and I awed over the size others, guessing that the golden barrel cactus must weigh at least over 100 pounds.
At the Lily Pond, Tim and I took a little rest on a shaded bench to notice fat, orange Koi fish swimming in predictable circles and little snapping turtles sunbathing on the pads. I braided my fingers in Tim's and I thought that maybe one day we could have a home with a little pond. Or at least maybe a working fountain.
I liked the Japanese Garden the best. Imagine Tokyo bamboo and Osaka cherry blossoms and Kyoto tea houses. Everywhere, purple wisteria vines and bonsai trees arranged in decorative pots. In the Zen Court, patterns raked carefully into the gravel around shrubs and rock formations reminded me of days in my youth spent in Nara, Toba and Kyoto.
Next time we visit The Huntington, we'll have tea in Rose Garden Tea Room. I'll make us reservations and ask to sit near a window, so that we can admire all the herbs and roses, blooming of course, while we nibble on biscuits and cucumber sammies with cream cheese spread and a dill garnish. We'll sip on flower teas out of vintage saucers and end with something sweet. Maybe little scones with berries and clotted cream.
But I digress.
When Tim's cheeks started to look a little pink, I suggested we step inside the galleries to take a break from the sun.
Inside, we studied The Huntington's collection of late 18th and early 19th-century British portraits, considered one of the greatest outside London. In tall rooms ornately furnished with baroque style furniture and antique books, we felt transported to some gaudy European palace, maybe in France or maybe somewhere in England. Think lots of red velvet, ornate gold frames and crystally chandeliers. I showed Tim Pinky and Blue Boy and in the more modern wing of the galleries I posed for pictures with an Alex Isreal installation. I posted on Instagram, tagged his name and begged him to come do some work at my apartment. He graciously laughed at the joke in private message that I'm still gushing over, and then didn't offer to come over.
Tim and I spent practically the entire day at The Huntington, and still, we didn't even see the whole thing. We didn't even make make it to the Library. Actually, the main library that houses over 6 million items is open only to researchers, however some of its most notable holdings, among them a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest known edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, are always on display in the adjoining exhibition hall.
I think that The Huntington is one of those places that's just too big to see all in one day.
And don't attempt to, either.
Between the art collection, the library holdings and the spreadeagled gardens, there's plenty to see, and most of it is best enjoyed at lingering leisure rather than as part of a mad day-long dash.
And that's okay because we'll just have to go back.
And we will too, I'm sure. For lunch in the dumpling house or to see a traveling exhibition or just because.
Because for us, a drive to Pasadena really isn't too far. We get to drive down the 101, close to the coastline, stopping for iced coffees at hipster spots in Calabasas or Malibu. Sometimes a pit stop for lunch at the Reel Inn and others for a scoop of gelato at Grom.
And next time maybe only half a day in the galleries in gardens will leave time for some of my other favorite LA activities like rooftop bar drinking at Mama Shelter and for some shopping on Sunset.
And I cant wait for the next getaway.
Where to next, Tim?
