Pasadena

No more shakin' in LA! And, another great California day of sun and fun. After a leisurely start to a Sunday morning, we headed off to Pasadena to visit the Huntington, which is gardens, gallery and library. This meant a route that took us through downtown LA.

This was our first visit to Pasadena, famous for the Rose Bowl and it's parade. The old town has been lovingly protected and therefore has tons of character, with an impressive City Hall.

Before we headed off to the Huntington, we had a nice prix fixe lunch at Bijoux, a downtown Pasadena eatery that featured French cuisine and a $15 three course lunch. Then it was off to the Huntington via the Rose Bowl.

Since it was a beautiful sunny, warm Sunday, the Huntington was packed, but due to the vast expanse of this estate the crowds quickly thinned out.

We spent some time in the gallery, loaded with an impressive art collection and "Pinkie", the most famous piece of art work.

The highlight of this property, in my estimation, is the gardens. They are divided into numerous themes over 640 acres.

Because it's spring, flowers and trees were bursting forth.

The first themed area we walked through was the desert garden with more cactii and succulents then you can shake a stick at.

We continued our walk and next wandered through the expanse of Japanese gardens, with ponds and structures.

We had a fabulous walk and met some intersting birds and critters along the way.

A few days ago, they forecast serious rain for today, but there was nothing but sun. How fortunate! The day concluded in Brentwood with a steak dinner, wine, cards and wine. Am I repeating myself?

Cruising at Newport Beach

Before I begin today's tale, a postscript on yesterday's fun and frolic is necessary. Betty did indeed take on the kitchen on her own and prepared a fabulous meal of mustard chicken.

After dinner, we got into a game of Bite Me and at around 9:00, the earth began to shake - no sex was involved. The light fixture above the table was doing a nice sway and it was quickly clear that LA was having yet another earthquake. The action lasted no more than 10 seconds and we tuned into the local news channel to get the goods on the seismic event. It turned out that the epicentre of the 5.1 quake was closer to Disneyland than us, where they closed all the rides. There was footage of spilled wine in a liquor store - quel domage! - and a street flooded by a broken water main. Otherwise the quake produced little damage. Of course by this morning the e-mails were rolling in wondering about the quake's effect on us. All is good. So today we opted for a drive down to Newport Beach, a trip of slightly less than an hour on the infamous highway #405. The traffic was good and we got to the Marina a little ahead of time, where Gary had rented a Duffy boat.

These Duffy boats are electric boats used for runabouts and unique to Newport Beach. It was a lovely sunny day for a trip around the harbour and Gary and I shared piloting responsibilities. It got a little chilly, but otherwise the day was perfect.

We brought on board all manner of delicious snacks and enjoyed some liquid refreshment as well as we cruised past the beautifully exclusive homes of Newport Beach.

The homes are not the only high point here as we cruised past many multi-million dollar yachts like the 110 foot Shogun and cleverly named Knot Too Shabby.

There are many other ways of getting around the harbour with kayaking and paddle boarding being very popular.

Most homes have very little property and usually very little beach with a big boat parked out front. They are very different from each other, which made our cruise even more enjoyable.

We sailed past John Wayne's former residence, a grand, well kept home aptly named Duke's Point. The history of his relocating from Beverly Hills to Newport Beach dates from when he was a budding football star who was injured in a bodysurfing outing at Newport Beach. The mishap directed him from football to acting.

As well as numerous sightings of Newport mansions and yachts, today we also discovered some very expensive electric cars of which Californians have grown fond. The first one pictured here is the Tesla, retailing for around $90 000. I guess it goes like a bat out of hell. So much for electric cars being sluggish.

The next equally priced electric car was the Fisker. This one had a roof loaded with solar panels which helps augment the cars batteries.

The last hot car sighting was an Aston Martin Vantage that is on Gary's wish list. Yeh, mine too.

Before returning to Brentwood, we stopped at Ralphs for some groceries for tonight's pasta dinner. Then it was slow time/blog time before dinner, with hopes for a seismically calmer evening and more cards.

Back to California - Respite from Winter

When we originally planned this year's trip to California to visit good friends Gary and Betty and Bill and Brenda, we thought we were going late enough in the year that the great California weather would be inconsequential. Not so. Not only are we still up to our armpits in snow in Ontario, but it has remained bitterly cold. In fact, as we boarded our American Airlines flight for LA, the snow began and we spent 15 minutes on the runway being de-iced. So when we stepped out into the California air, we immediately felt relief from Canada's cold. We quickly started getting caught up with Betty and Gary and stayed up late swapping tales and sipping California nectar to help us acclimate to the time change. Next morning, the sun was shining, we opened up the door to the balcony and it was warm. Betty wouldn't agree with the warm, but for us is was almost shorts weather.

Betty and Gary are still living in their Brentwood apartment which is a great location, while they continue to finish what will be become their first home in 20 years. They have a condo on the 2nd floor which is actually the first floor of residences of five floors and 23 total units and it's got the famous zip code of 90210 - Beverly Hills.

The building on Burton Way, a stone's throw from city hall, is called Le Faubourg St. Honore. It was built in the 1980's and has a most impressive foyer.

Today, while we visited the condo, the workmen were installing trim. We could get a good feel for what this place will be, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Their unit is on the back corner of the building and looks out on a fairly quiet side street - quiet in Beverly Hills terms. They have lots of windows, so the place is very bright.

Realistically, they hope to move into the new digs by the end of May. Here's hoping!

Following the condo visit we went to see a new possible project, also in Beverly Hills. This house, on a corner lot, was listed for a little over two million and looked like it had great potential. Of course all of the beautifully fragrant roses are in bloom. Next step will be to see whether or not they can get it for their chosen price. We'll stay tuned.

After lunch at In and Out Burger and visits to both the Wine House and Costco, who have a fabulous selection of wines and liquors, we came back to Brentwood, awaiting the end to Gary's work day. Betty decided to cook tonight for dinner with cards to follow. It was a beautiful day in paradise and we're already perking up.