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A San Gabriel Valley Gem: The Huntington Library
I honestly do not know what type of So Cal local I am simply because I never once knew the city of San Marino existed. This city is beautiful. And what’s even more beautiful is the fact that The Huntington Library is located in this city. I can’t tell you how many gorgeous homes I passed by on my way into and out of the Huntington Library. I would sooo love to own a home there. (If only I could actually afford to buy one, that is… Someone that owns one, please just propose to me and I’ll say yes without a second thought! lol I’m coming off a little looney now, but I suppose that expresses exactly how much I adore San Marino and its homes. It was just love at first sight!)
Silliness aside, allow me to get back on track to San Marino’s Huntington Library. I visited the place on a gloomy day, prepared. I came with an umbrella and open-fingered gloves just in case it would rain. It rained and this was a good thing because I find gloomy weather/rain rather romantic. While others were busy frolicking about with a significant other, friends or children, I was having the time of my life exploring the expansive grounds alone as self deserved me-time. (I think I only came across 2 other people that came alone. One was a male and the other was a female. The female actually approached me to inform me of a wonderful Kodak moment – a rainbow shot and I must say I am thankful for her random kindness and for being cool, like me to frolic around alone. lol)
Contrary to its name, the Huntington Library is more than just a library. While it’s true that the Library contains an extensive collection of books, art and even furniture, the grounds of the Library are truly something else as they contain a plethora of amazing gardens.
My most favorite garden at the Library would have to hands down be the Japanese Garden. If you’ve been reading my blog, you probably remember the time I visited CSULB’s Japanese garden and was quite disappointed by its small size. Huntington’s Japanese Garden was not only big, but impressive and pleasing to the eyes.
In addition to the Japanese Garden, the Huntington Library is home to the Chinese Garden, a Jungle Garden, a Shakespeare Garden, a rose garden, an Australian Garden, lily ponds, a Desert Garden and I believe, even more gardens. Each garden, with an exception to perhaps the lily pond was big and took a good amount of time to explore and enjoy. If you’re a nature lover, you’ll probably love every garden featured here. I ended up taking a lot of photos and for the first time ever, I ended the day with just 1% of battery left on my cell phone. (Seriously!)If I could squeeze all of my experiences and photos from the Huntington Library into this entry, I would. But since it’s impossible for me to do such a thing, expect to see at least two additional follow up entries in the near future! 😀
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Getting Touristy: Warner Bros. Studio Tour
If there’s anything super touristy to do in Southern California, it’s got to be the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. As a So Cal native, I find it rather amusing that I’ve never ever once gone on a studio tour before, whether it be at Warner Brothers or Paramount Pictures.
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Catalina Islands’ Botanic Garden & Wrigley Memorial
The Botanic Garden and Wrigley Memorial are easily accessible by “The Garibaldi” bus. I believe it’s the highest point on the island that “The Garibaldi” bus will take you and it truly is worth the visit.Admission isn’t free but reasonably priced as it covers one’s visit to both the Botanic Garden and the Wrigley Memorial. If you’re a student, you can get a nice discount; all you need to do is show your student ID card. If you want an even better discount, visit the grounds on your birthday and you’ll get in for free.There are so many different plants and flowers in the Botanical Gardens and they were all placed in an organized manner. One thing I noticed and liked right away about the garden is how a clear, wide pathway exists so that one can choose to enjoy nature at a distance or simply have enough personal space when there are just too many visitors around. The other thing about this pathway is that it leads you to the Wrigley Memorial if you just keep walking north. (I took the less obvious route to the Wrigley Memorial, thinking that it was a hiking trail… lol If you’re interested in this route, simply get “lost” with the trees towards the left side of the gardens, where there is I believe a bridge entrance. It’s kind of nice if you want some shade/alone time.)
The cactus collection was nice and to be honest, a bit creepy. I say creepy because a lot of what-if case scenarios crossed my mind. Some of these cacti were very spiky/hairy and I had to be extra cautious when touring them or taking selfies with them. Despite this, they were probably my most favorite plants at the Botanic Garden.As you tour the plants in the Botanical Gardens, you will eventually reach the Wrigley Memorial. The Wrigley Memorial is quite iconic and if you have a thing or two for architecture, you’ll probably like the Wrigley Memorial. Getting to the top of the Wrigley Memorial requires climbing a decent amount of stairs. Nothing too complex. Plus, you get rewarded with a pretty good view of the gardens once you’ve reached the top of the Wrigley Memorial.According to some handout I retrieved from the admissions employee, the entrance to a hiking trail is suppose to be near the Wrigley Memorial. I had considered the idea of going on this hiking trail but decided not to since I was already quite tired by the time I got to the Wrigley Memorial. This may be too much info, but I was already sweating like a pig, “thanks” to the sun. I will be honest and say that I couldn’t figure out where the entrance to this hiking trail was. When I was on top of the Wrigley Memorial, I couldn’t see this “entrance” either. Perhaps, I wasn’t looking for it hard enough… Anyway, I just wanted to mention it in case anyone was interested in doing a hiking trail. I know there is a fee to the entrance of the trail, though. How much it is, that I am unaware of. -
California’s Island: Catalina Islands
Catalina Islands just never gets old, regardless of how many times I visit it. It’s a place where I and other mainland “locals” can temporarily say goodbye to everyday stresses of work/life and pretend to have a vacation, even if it’s just a one day getaway thing.
Getting to the islands can easily be done by air or sea. I have always utilized Catalina Express’ service to get to/from Avalon, CA (Catalina Islands). While there are other companies that provide water service to/from the islands, I’ve always chosen Catalina Express for two reasons:
- The company offers free rides to/from the islands on one’s birthday.
(Update: As of 2017, the company offers a different type of birthday promotion.)(Update: It seems they no longer offer birthday promotions.) - It’s more convenient since you can choose from 3 ports (Long Beach, San Pedro or Dana Point) to depart from.
The Long Beach Port that Catalina Express departs from happens to also be the same port that Carnival (cruise ship) departs from as well, or so I believe. Parking at the Long Beach Port is plentiful albeit pricey. But I suppose parking cost shouldn’t be an issue should you decide to go on-board the Catalina Express on your birthday. ;]
While I assume that many mainland “locals” are aware of Catalina Islands, I realize that there are still many “locals” who’ve never set foot on the islands before, let alone know that such an island exists an hour away from the California coast (if departing from Long Beach Port).
I was quite surprised to learn that many of my coworkers had never been there before and were wondering whether one had to stay overnight in order to enjoy Catalina Islands. In the beginning of this post, I mentioned how some “locals” visit Catalina Islands as a one day getaway type of thing and it certainly is possible to enjoy the islands in one day.
However, I recommend first time visitors to stay for more than a day. If lodging expense(s) will be a burden to your wallet, I recommend visiting the islands for a day but to make it a very long day. (Translation: Depart from your port of choice on the 1st or 2nd earliest trip and leave the islands on the 2nd to last or last departing trip. If you get bored, you can always attempt to leave on an earlier trip, however you’ll be charged $5 for a trip change.)With Catalina Islands now offering public transportation via “The Garibaldi”, an electric bus, you really have no excuse to not explore what the island has to offer you as a visitor.
With rides costing $1 per trip, I managed to visit Catalina Islands’ Botanic Gardens and Wrigley Memorial for $2. It was great!
For those that are unsure of utilizing public transportation or simply just prefer to get around with more privacy, Catalina Islands offers a variety of other alternatives. They just may be a lot more pricey…
Similar to lodging, food on the islands is quite pricey regardless of where you choose to dine from. (There isn’t a fast food joint on the islands, so don’t think you can save money on food by visiting a Mc Donald’s or something.)
On my most recent trip to the islands, I had a bad craving for Mexican food and chose to order from Mi Casita. It was expensive, obviously. However, to make matters worse, service from Mi Casita wasn’t good whatsoever. It’s one thing when I receive good customer service from an establishment that charges a lot of money but it’s another thing when I receive poor customer service. I’m not sure where to begin with my experience with Mi Casita. Let’s just say that I had to wait a ridiculously long time before I was able to even order my food. And when the time came for me to order, the employee (female) just stared at me. (I kid you not!) It was almost as though her starring was a cue/signal that I should now be ordering. (I should mention that before the starring crap began, she had told me she would take my order in a moment. Apparently, she wanted to do something with the cash register prior to taking my order. Okay, whatever…) The service was cold, off-putting and rude. Perhaps I am looking in to it too much, but I wonder if this attitude/poor service came about simply from the possible fact that they (or she, I should say) thought I was Mexican/Spanish speaker as well? I question this because the female had initially spoken to me in Spanish. Uh, first of all, I’m not Mexican. Second of all, mi espanol es no bueno so I’m not going to try to speak in Spanish. (2 semesters of Spanish does not equate to me being able to converse well.) Third, it is so rude to just talk to someone in Spanish just because you think someone is Mexican or some other Spanish-speaking ethnicity.
Despite the crapola service I received from Mi Casita, I can at least say the food was good. (Oh, but no matter how good the food was, I’ll definitely make sure to never give my hard earned money to Mi Casita or any of their affiliated restaurants again.)
Despite my bitter customer service experience at Mi Casita, my trip to the islands was overall good. While on the topic of customer service, I’d like to give a so-called shout out to US Bank as their teller gave me superb customer service on the island. <3In my next entry, I plan on writing about my visit to Catalina Islands’ Botanic Garden & Wrigley Memorial. Do be on the look out for that. 🙂 - The company offers free rides to/from the islands on one’s birthday.
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The Griffith Observatory
People will dislike me for saying this but the Griffith Observatory is overrated. I honestly do not get why people rave over this place. I just don’t get it…
I think a part of the problem is that I don’t care much for astronomy. I also am not fond of having to search for a parking spot. A parking spot that will most likely require you to hike up to the Griffith Observatory. This may not be an issue for some people but for practically everyone in my party (translation: everyone but me and one other person), the hike was a bit of a challenge. Kind of like an unexpected work-out that you just have to force yourself to do… Not sure if that made much sense, but yeah.
Parking (wherever you end up parking) is free.
Admission to the Griffith Observatory is also for free.
As a freebie tourist destination, it makes much sense as to why you’ll encounter drama with finding a parking spot.
The stress of finding a parking spot as well as hiking up to the observatory from the parking spot made me look quite horrid in all of the selfies I took of myself. Fortunately, you can’t see that but I’m choosing to confess this to you anyway.
The Griffith Observatory has a cafe, called “Cafe at the End of the Universe”. Available food options are quite limited and to make matters worse, whatever food is available for sale just doesn’t taste good. I find it somewhat “funny” that the cafe is supposed to be associated with Wolfgang Puck, yet there is nothing that is Wolfgang Puck-ish. (I’ve eaten at one of his restaurants before in Orange County and must say it’s quite different from whatever they were serving here at the cafe…)
In my attempt to be fair to the cafe, I will say that someone in my party did find their curry to be good. I can’t help but to wonder if it really was good or if that was her hunger that was doing the complimenting. Then again, there are people (not me) who have palates that can be pleased quite easily.
I had the macaroni and cheese and was quite disappointed with it simply because it just didn’t taste good. It tasted dry/bland. Talking about dry, the top parts of the mac and cheese were literally dry. (It was dry to me but I wonder if that dry-ness is what people consider to be “al-dente”?)
I honestly was not sure what to make of my mac and cheese. A part of me was wondering if I was just used to crap macaroni cheese (think processed mac and cheese from Kraft) and thus couldn’t find the cafe’s mac and cheese appetizing. I wondered…but alas I realized that even if this were the case, it still did not make up for how bland the mac and cheese was. Ugh!
Views seemed to be a big thing among practically every visitor to the Griffith Observatory. This, I totally get especially if a visitor comes with a good camera. (I’m not talking about cell phone cameras…)
The one view I found to be amusing was the iconic Hollywood sign. Yes, you can see this iconic sign from the Griffith Observatory and to be honest with you, I found it amusing that so many people were taking photos of the sign from the grounds of the observatory. It was amusing to me because the sign doesn’t necessarily need to be viewed/photographed from the Griffith Observatory. In fact, I don’t think any photos of the sign taken from the observatory grounds would come out good. (See below as an example.) But then again, who am I to say such a thing when I was one of the few not sporting a fancy camera…?
The architecture of the Griffith Observatory was nice and all, but if you were to ask me if I’d like to visit the place again, I’d have to say no.
No, unless it’s for a hike or something.I can just see myself parking on Fern Dell Dr. in order to hike from Griffith Park up to Griffith Observatory.I can also sort of see myself hiking from Griffith Observatory to the Hollywood sign…