Spring Break, Day 4

Tonight is the last day of spring break, and I've got two more posts to get to so I start ignoring the blog again. Luckily, we did two awesome day trips suggested by new California friends and I have lots of pictures!

 

Here's The Goose on her daily quest. She gets dressed up in various royal get-ups and swans about the house, saying PRIIIIIIINCE! Whose gonna be mah PRINCE?!?!

The brothers hide from her. I suggest that she could be a queen without a prince, and she regards me as if I am completely insane. Princesses are better that Queens, and everyone needs a prince. Whoboy. 

Day 4! Evan managed to finagle Thursday and Friday off, so we putter around in the morning and make our way to Pasadena. We stopped by the playground near the Rose Bowl but didn't have much chance to explore more. Some weekend we will have to return and look around. It really seems like a lovely place. I really want to hit the Rose Bowl flea market sometime.

But we were there to see the Huntington. A couple months ago, my friend Janice, also a transplanted Jersey Girl, arranged a brunch for four displaced Jersey Girls. One of them was Susan, a childhood friend of Janice's and the sister of Laura, Arlo's beloved teacher from Playhouse. Arlo loves Laura more than cookies and Japanese monsters and mud. Susan is a curator at the Huntington and encouraged me, through friendly posts on Facebook, to visit. She's also given me lots of advice about living in CA and raising kids here, and I'm really grateful to know her (just like her sister!). Susan left some passes for us and we went in.

 The Huntington is hard to describe. First of all, it's huge. Like Central Park huge. I had expected that it just was a botanical garden, but it also houses multiple world-class libraries and museums. I picked up a map on the way in and my jaw dropped when I realized they had a Gutenberg Bible. (I'm a book geek, what can I say?) I have to come back here without three crabby children.

We were there to see the gardens, which are spectacular. I was expecting the Bronx Botantical Garden, which is lovely, but not nearly as diverse as the Huntington. We made our way through the rose garden (a month before it peaks) and down the hill to the lily pad garden, in hopes of seeing some frogs.

We went through a couple gigantic fir trees and entered the Desert Garden.

When I talk to my friend Elizabeth about living here, we will often say that it's like living on Mars. There's still trees, and houses, and people. But it's like some crazy absurd version of trees and houses and people, and my eyes are just dazzled by them. That's what the desert garden was like.

The kids plunked down to draw a bit. Evan and I roamed about taking pictures. The kids spotted a million lizards, and we saw half a dozen hummingbirds. This place was magical.

 Those last cacti looked like giant spiky worms on Mars. Crazy.

Susan got out of a meeting and came down the hill to say hi. Now, Arlo knew who we were there to meet. Before Susan even introduced herself, Arlo threw his arms around her and buried his face into her midsection. Arlo does NOT act like this around strangers, and Susan was a pro -- she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big, big hug. And then Arlo broke away and started talking about dinosaurs and mammoths and cactus, and Susan did her best to keep up. 

 

I didn't get a picture of the hug because I was weeping. Mostly internally.

Susan chatted with all the kids and Evan and I for a while, and every five minutes Arlo would rush over to her and give her a big hug. I think that in his mind, Susan was New Jersey for a little while, and he missed Laura and Playhouse and South Orange and Robyn and Elizabeth and everyone so much, but Susan was there, and he could hug her. So he did. And Susan got a lot of hugs from a homesick 6-year-old and a couple new drawings for her wall. Her kids are in college, so I think she was happy to get some scribbles for her fridge.  

One of Oscar's drawings of the garden.

Susan encouraged us to make our way up the hill to the children's garden, and after a tortured climb where everyone was convinced they were gonna die from thirst and exhaustion (much to the amusement of all the grandparent-types strolling through the gardens), we made it -- to the coffee cart, where everyone had ice cream and was revived. 

 We made our way through a charming shady path and entered the children's garden. 

Boy, was The Goose in love with that entrance? She stayed in that bower for about 30 minutes, saying it was her fairy house. Luckily she brought her own wings. (The garden is BYOW.)

 There were fountains and magnetic rocks and chimes to play with pebbles.

That's just one of those views that gets me really mad at Southern California. Stop being so beautiful, Southern California. I'm trying to be cynical and jaded over here.

 That charming little tower structure? Those were the bathrooms. Family bathrooms, complete with room for a stroller and a changing table. Exterior hand washing stations (with warm water and working soap dispensers, two things I never found in YEARS of going to the Bronx Zoo and Botanical Gardens) and functioning water fountains. Bliss.

All the complaining stopped once we got there, and every one of the kids said that they loved the garden and wanted to come back. That, my friends, is high praise from cranky kids on a hot day.

 Needless to say, the place was lousy with lizards.

It was a glorious day. We hope to return for the opening of the Japanese Garden and any grandparents reading this might consider giving us a membership for upcoming birthdays.