Pasadena

Last week, I asked my bosses where the nearest Toyota dealership was that had converted to the new Image USA II standards and they told me the closest one was in Pasadena. I looked up the city online to see what else there was to do around there and found out that there was a lot to do there! I decided that it would be a good day trip to take on Sunday. Unfortunately, because it was a Sunday, most places closed around 4 or 4:30, so I had to choose just two things to do.

The highest of interest on my list was the Mount Wilson Observatory, perched on Mount Wilson high above Pasadena. So I found myself winding up the mountain on a gorgeous day.

These are some photos from near the bottom of the mountains.

In the photo above, you can kind of see the edge of the road I was on. This is a video of part of the drive so you can feel like you were there!

These two photos were taken from higher up on the mountain, close to the observatory. It was beautiful with the fog (smog?) in the valleys below. There was hardly anyone around, but I did pass some courageous bikers.

Once I reached the observatory, I walked up an access road and felt like I was in LOST, or Myst because there were all these mysterious-looking buildings appearing between the trees and as I mentioned, there was hardly anyone around. This is the 150-inch telescope.

When I was standing next to the museum, reading the information about it, a family came walking up. The father told his young son that if he looked into the mirror closely, he could see some aliens. Of course, as you know, the "aliens" were them looking funny in the mirror. I took a photo of the alien I saw.

I made my way to the 100-inch telescope.

This sign hung at the foot of the stairs leading to the viewing area inside the telescope. Okay people, let me tell you -- this was NOT a long stairway. These people must have never trekked up stairs at any one of a multitude of towers in Europe because THOSE are long stairways!

Thankfully, I made it up the "long" stairway into the viewing area (wasn't sure if I would make it), where there was nobody but me. I enjoyed looking through the window at the huge telescope and it was cool because the ceiling was black, so it appeared to be the night sky even though it was not. Apparently, this was the most powerful telescope in the world from like 1908 to 1948 or something like that. Unfortunately, they did not allow you to look through the telescope.

You can see at least two of the telescopic domes in the photo below if you look closely for the white dot. The other is the 150-inch telescope tower I saw earlier. This was taken from outside in the parking lot. There was a family there from Texas, and the father struck up a conversation with me. His daughter then sincerely informed me to beware of the pit where they kept the aliens. So I thanked her and went on my way.

After the observatory, I made my way down into Pasadena to go to the famous Huntington Library, Art Museums, and Botanical Gardens. This was a gorgeous place and I would love to go back sometime and explore some more.

The photo above is of the building that houses their rare book collection, including the Gutenberg Bible! There was also a copy of the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, along with many other important pieces of literature. It was very exciting! There was one book there that was a copy of Audobon's Birds of America done by machinized printing instead of being hand-painted. It was what they call a double elephant portfolio, so it was HUGE and required two people to turn a page!

After spending some time perusing the books, I made my way into the Botanical Gardens. First stop: the Jungle Garden. For the second time that day, I felt like I was in LOST, surrounded by jungle foliage.

There was a little waterfall inside the Jungle Garden.

Next, I meandered over to the Lily Ponds. It was really pretty. There were a lot of groups of people laying on the grass around the ponds. This is a little path through a bamboo forest between the two ponds.

Next to the lily ponds, there was this pattern in the ground. It's hard to see here, but it was a path that was sunken into the ground that twisted around. I think it was one of those things that people used to walk through as a type of meditation. So of course, I had to walk through it. It was fun but a little dizzying!

The next two pictures are of some impressive trees in the Subtropical Garden that I passed on my way to the Japanese Garden.

Below is the entrance to the Japanese Garden (a little forbidding-looking). This garden was my favorite. Once you walked through these statues, the path wound up through some cool bamboo forests to the top of a hill.

This picture is a little out of focus, but it's a new bamboo shoot. I had never seen one before and thought it was cool-looking.

At the top of the hill, there was a bonsai tree garden and a Japanese house, set up so you could look into it. The photo below is of one of the paths going from the house to the Bonsai Court.

These two trees were some of the more impressive bonsai trees in front of the entrance to the court.

A miniature Juniper forest. I had never seen a bonsai forest before -- just individual trees.

A Japanese Maple tree. It was amazing how it looked just like the real thing, but smaller. The leaves were really neat to look at.

This is the Zen Rock Garden going from the bonsai court to the Japanese house.

This photo was taken from the Japanese house looking down into the garden. It was really pretty. I was looking forward to climbing up that bridge, but unfortunately, it was blocked off so you could not go across it.

Part of the little body of water in the Japanese Garden.

There were all these huge coy in the water, but what amazed me most was that they were practically coming out of the water, often lifting their mouths up out of the water. You can see this orange one poking out a little bit.

There was this nice bower on the other side of the garden where a lot of people were sitting and overlooking the garden below.

Finally, I made my way to the adjacent Rose Garden. It was beautiful.

I took this on the way out, as the guards were guiding everyone to the exit, so I didn't get to go into the garden beyond this. But I liked the building and the sculpture inside.

I also saw this on the way out and wished I had had time to walk around it. It was an expanse of grass lined with sculptures. You can't see them too well in this photo.

I was exhausted by the time I left, but was really glad I had come to explore this place. I will definitely go back some time. I will leave you with this one last video, your Moment of Zen from the Japanese Garden (must have sound for the full Zen effect):

Palos Verdes and Ports O'Call

I had planned on sticking around the house this weekend, but got bored and decided to go for a drive on Saturday. I figured I could go back down to Palos Verdes, see the Trump golf course this time, and stop by the whale watching station while it was open. :-)

On my way out of the house, I saw a sight that I had seen once before that just cracks me up. The neighbor's dog loves to lay on the garage floor and peek out of the slightly-open garage door. So of course, I had to take a photo. The first one is what you see just standing there, and the next one is closer up.

Once in Palos Verdes, I tried to take a different route than the one I had taken before. I drove by this cove called Lunada Bay. It was really pretty.

Then I drove to the whale-watching station. Inside the building, they had a nice little museum talking about the geology of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the people who once lived there, and of course, the oceanic wildlife off of its coast. This is a grey whale model they had on the wall. You could open up little compartments to see what was underneath the skin of the whale.

Then I went outside to see if I could see any whales, but unfortunately, did not see any. So I took another picture of the gorgeous lighthouse.

As I was driving, I saw something that I have seen a couple times now in LA -- sky writing! You never see that back home. Another type of advertising I often see out here along the beach is banners pulled by airplanes. This ad is for a show on the ABC Family channel called Kyle XY.

I arrived at the Trump National Golf Club hoping to see some Apprentice action or a stray hairpiece, but no such luck. But I did see some gorgeous views and some incredible homes!

I'm curious to know how much these houses cost! They were huge and right across from the entrance to the golf course.

This shot is overlooking the driving range, out to the ocean.

This view is from the other direction, where you can see the course and the ocean beyond. The green against the bright blue was quite striking.

When I was at the whale-watching station, I looked at some brochures and they reminded me that Catalina Island is just off the coast below Palos Verdes. I thought that even if I couldn't go out to the island that day (it was kind of late in the afternoon by then), I could at least drive down to where the boat launched from and see if they had any information I could get. As I left Palos Verdes, I immediately entered a much less well-off neighborhood. I guess all the workers from the shipping industry and nearby port live there. Anyway, I kept driving towards the spot on the map where it indicated the Catalina boat launched from, but I must say, the map was not that detailed where it counted. So I ended up mistakenly going over this bridge into the port area. Normally I am not nervous in these cases and know I can just turn around and find my way back, but when I started seeing signs for "Federal Correctional Institution" and "Berths 508-523" I thought I'd better turn around pretty quickly and get back across the bridge. It was kind of interesting though because the view was basically taken up with those big storage bins as far as the eye could see. I've never been in a big port like that before.

Anyway, I turned around at the first opportunity and went back over the bridge (this photo is from the "wrong side" of the bridge as I went back.)

So I finally made it safe and sound to the Catalina launch spot and took some photos. This was some Navy ship that was docked there. Can't remember the name. U.S.S. something-or-other.

The fateful bridge!

Here is a video of one of those storage bins being lifted:

As I was walking around, I saw this sign and it cracked me up. I think it was mostly a crime-free zone because there was nobody there, but I took a photo to reassure Mom and Dad that I was in a crime-free zone walking down by the docks by myself. ;-) But seriously, there was really nothing to worry about, although I don't think I would want to be there at night, despite the sign.

I wish I had had a little more time because the harbor seemed to have a lot to do down there, like museums and stuff. But I went into the station for Catalina Island and picked up a bunch of information. Who knows -- I might go there another weekend. That would be a fun trip!