I woke up on Santa Monica Boulevard and couldn't get that Sheryl Crow song (All I Wanna Do) out of my head. I drove through the UCLA campus and by the entrance to Bel Air on my way to The Huntington in Pasadena. The Huntington is another elaborate estate of a collector turned into a museum. It includes artwork from England and America, statues throughout the grounds, an enormous private library, and the most spectacular and diverse collection of gardens I have ever seen in one spot. My favorite finds included notebooks belonging to Octavia Butler, Pinturicchio's "Virgin & Child," Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy," Hopper's "The Long Leg," and Luks' "The Boxing Match" not to mention Andy Warhol and Gilbert Stewart's portrait or George Washington which was used for the one-dollar bill. The gardens were fantastic, especially the Japanese Garden, Bonsai Garden, Chinese Garden (and ponds), Rose Garden, Palm Garden, Desert Garden, and Shakespeare Garden. I also enjoyed the conservatory and even saw baby Venus Flytrap plants - they will snap on fingers!
Now it was time for the next half of my trip and a drive southwest to Newport Beach which has a fun boardwalk vibe and finding my hotel in Anaheim which had a view of the Disneyland fireworks that night.
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