West Coast US, Western US

72 hours in Los Angeles, part I

Diana

Prior to this trip, I would have said there’s a zero percent chance I’ll ever move to LA. It’s hot, crowded, noisy, expensive, the air quality is terrible (upon arrival, I invented a game; it’s called ‘Fog or Smog?’ and, as it turns out, it’s often difficult to determine the answer), and traffic is a nightmare. I don’t know how people do it. Very few things frustrate me more than sitting in traffic.

There’s still only about a five percent chance that I’ll ever move to LA but, after visiting, I do get it. I understand why people live there. It’s a pretty location, with access to the mountains and the ocean, the weather is pretty good for much of the year, and it has anything you could ever want and then some in terms of places to go and things to do.

But also, traffic.

At one point, this was the cause of the traffic

The good thing is, since my sister lives there, I’ll always have a good reason to visit. And I don’t have to be the one doing the driving.

This past March was actually my first ever trip to LA. I spent 5 days in California over my spring break visiting my sister and celebrating her birthday. The main part of the celebration was wine tasting in Santa Barbara, which I’ve written about over the last couple weeks. We spent the rest of the trip touring some of the famous – and some lesser known – LA attractions.

I’ve never had much desire to visit many of the common tourist sites like the Hollywood sign or the Walk of Fame or Santa Monica Pier. I’d much rather be outside in nature or learning cool things at a museum than navigating hordes of tourists just to see something that’s probably at least a little overrated. Fortunately, this is something my sister and I have in common, so she was more than happy to take me to museums and the mountains and the beach instead.

I arrived in LA fairly early in the morning and we headed from the airport straight to Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. If you’re reading this and thinking library + art museum + botanical gardens is a strange combination, I’m inclined to agree. The Huntington was established in 1919 by the wealthy Henry E. and Arabella Huntington. Henry made his fortune from the railroad while Arabella inherited much of her fortune from her first husband and was, at one point, the richest woman in the world. Her love of art is what inspired much of Henry’s art collection and she was instrumental in the founding of The Huntington. The library is one of the largest in the world and is home to a handful of very rare books and manuscripts.

Huntington Library
Fountain outside the library
Diana of Versailles, c. 1648, bronze
Huntington Library
Draft of Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 1854.
Only about 200 copies of the Gutenberg Bible were ever produced; 48 remain today, including 12 printed on vellum (calf skin). This is 1 of the 12.
German translation of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, c. 1860

We didn’t actually visit the art museum, partially because to us it was the least interesting of the three options and partially because we’d be going to other art museums over the next couple days, but mostly because we spent so much time frolicking in the botanical gardens. This was the one day of our trip that was mostly sunny and warm, so it was an absolutely beautiful day to be outdoors. Coming from Colorado, where March is still very much winter, the lush greenery and brightly colored flowers were a welcome sight.

I was also endlessly entertained by the palm trees, much to my sister’s embarrassment. What can I say? I haven’t seen a lot of palm trees in my life so the novelty is very much alive.

We began our botanical tour with a walk through the Japanese Garden, which included an extensive collection of bonsai trees in addition to numerous plants native to Japan.

Japanese Garden
Bonsai Garden

From here, we followed a bamboo-lined path to the Chinese Garden, which is centered around a lovely pond.

Bamboo walkway
Chinese Garden

There are many places to sit and eat (or just enjoy the view) throughout the gardens, so we stopped here for some lunch. We accidentally made it into the gardens with our own food which, as it turns out, is not allowed. At security, the guy asked if we had any sandwiches with us; it seemed like an oddly specific question, but we didn’t have sandwiches so we answered no. In retrospect, I think what he really meant was, “do you have food in your bag?” in which case the correct answer was yes. Oops. We were well into the gardens by the time we saw the ‘no outside food allowed’ sign, and given that no one had searched our bags and no one yelled at us when we sat on a bench to eat, they clearly don’t spend a lot of effort enforcing that rule.

Rose garden

In addition to the rose garden — most of which was closed when we visited — there is an Australian Garden, a jungle garden, and a subtropical garden.

I wish this photo could fully capture how tall this tree was!
Australian garden
Subtropical Garden

My absolute favorite part, though, was the Desert Garden. I love succulents, and the entire garden was overflowing with various cacti, succulents, and other unique and colorful desert plants.

Desert Garden

Huntington Gardens is enormous; plan to do a lot of walking during your visit. I wish I’d had my hiking tracker with me, because I know we covered many miles. By the time we finished, we were sweaty and our feet were very sore. But it was only about 2:00pm; my first day in LA was far from over.

While we were in Pasadena, my sister took me to the Pasadena City Hall, otherwise known as the exterior location of Pawnee City Hall in Parks and Rec. We also drove past CalTech and a lot of street names I recognized from the early seasons of The Big Bang Theory. To locals, I’m sure seeing things in real life that you’ve seen on TV isn’t at all exciting, but for me it was kind of fun. So many TV shows and movies take place in LA, so it was neat to finally see the city and all these places I’ve heard about my whole life. Plus, now when my sister tells me about things, I actually know what she’s talking about!

Pasadena City Hall

And we still weren’t quite done with our day. We had one more stop to make: the Griffith Observatory! The observatory exists thanks to philanthropist Griffith J. Griffith (a name that very much amuses me) who donated the land and millions of dollars to the city of Los Angeles with instructions to build an observatory to increase the accessibility of astronomy to the general public. Per his wishes, admission remains free, though you do have to pay to park (unless all the machines are broken when you arrive, which is what happened for us… what a bummer).

Caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign from Griffith Park Drive

I’d heard of the observatory and seen it on TV and in photos, but I didn’t realize it’s also a rather large museum, with extensive exhibits on the lower levels and a planetarium. As someone who spent her entire childhood wanting to be an astronaut and then an astronomer, I was excited to learn this. I only wish it hadn’t been the very end of the day; between my 4:45am drive to the airport, the flight, and the hours spent at The Huntington, I didn’t really have it in me to read all the exhibits.

We did attend a planetarium show (admission required) called Signs of Life, which explored the locations throughout the universe that contain the necessary ingredients for life to exist. I’ve been to quite a few planetarium shows, but this was the first one with someone narrating it live. When I pointed this out to my sister, she shrugged and said, “it’s Los Angeles.” She makes a good point.

Griffith Observatory
Astronomers Monument

The observatory also has a Coelostat (pronounced SEE-low-stat), which is a collection of moveable mirrors — in this case, three of them — that follows the sun across the sky and projects a live image onto the screen. You can see the projection in the left photo below. The sun was slightly obscured by clouds so it’s not a very sharp image.

Los Angeles from the deck of the Griffith Observatory
Looking west from Griffith Park Drive

And that wraps up day #1 in Los Angeles. It was a great introduction to the city and I was looking forward to more. But I’m going to leave off here for now; more to come next week!

Published by Diana

Hiking, road-tripping, and handstanding my way around the US (currently) and the world (hopefully in the not-so-distant post-COVID future… if such a thing exists)

48 thoughts on “72 hours in Los Angeles, part I”

  2. I love your photos of the botanical garden, they really show your interest in all these plants and their arrangements. I tried twice to visit The Huntington. The first time I couldn’t find it, the second time I arrived at the end of the day just before closing time, so I’m taking full advantage of what you show. Thank you so much.

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  3. I’ve visited L.A. a few times, and honestly, I hate it. It’s one of the few places I would never live. Even the “good” weather is lost on me, as I enjoy rain and snow and cold more than most people, lol. But I will give it props for great food. I might be a little more jaded than most because I lived in the Bay Area for eight years and there’s that whole Northern Cali-Southern Cali rivalry thing going on.

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  6. Looks like you made the right choices. The botanical gardens are so vast! I love that it has both a Japanese and a Chinese garden. The observatory seems really neat, too. Plus, you got to see the Hollywood sign without even trying!

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    1. The botanical gardens are so huge, I really wish I’d tracked our mileage. It’s nice that they’re so large, though, because once you’re inside you’d never know there’s a giant city surrounding you.

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  7. Wow, what a full day. I imagine you slept very well the following night. Since I have no sister in L.A. and also HATE traffic, I doubt I will ever get to visit the places you presented here. But I did enjoy traveling to them vicariously.

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  8. I don’t think I could handle the traffic either. That’s one of the main reasons we moved away from Toronto a couple of years ago. Despite the crowds, traffic and air pollution, LA looks like it’s great to visit for a few days, especially to enjoy the warmer weather and to see all those beautiful palm trees. The botanical gardens look lovely.

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  9. Yay, finally got to read about your trip to my hometown! I haven’t been to the Huntington Gardens in YEARS, but I definitely want to go back; I hear that admission is free the first Thursday of the month, so there’s that! There’s also a gorgeous tea room inside the gardens with incredible scones! Griffith is a must whilst in LA, and I’m glad you got to go. Can’t wait to read more adventures in LA soon!

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    1. Oh fun! I recall it being about $20 per person so free admission would be a nice perk. I remember seeing the tea room but we didn’t stop; sounds like we should have.

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  10. I think the botanical gardens win with your readers, including me! My sister also used to live in LA, but she moved and I have not been there for years. Southern California is really beautiful, but I don’t think I could handle the traffic or some of the potential environmental problems long-term. Sounds like an action-packed first day for you … hope you weren’t too tired out to have a beer at the end of the day! 🙂

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    1. It was definitely a highlight for me as well. I agree, I couldn’t handle the traffic at all, and the summer heat would get to me too. Both of those things are already bad enough in Denver, I can’t imagine it being regularly worse.

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  12. Such a lovely tour, Diana! With the sunny weather in LA, no wonder the Botanical garden was so nice. The Desert Garden reminds me of the Exotic Garden from Monaco, full of cacti and succulents. Great pics!

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  13. The botanical gardens look gorgeous and I love how they’ve created different themed gardens. I hadn’t realised LA was home to one of the largest libraries in the world – it’s not somewhere I associate with books and reading.

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  15. You packed a lot into your trip to LA, and it seems like you and your sis had a great time. The botanical gardens are absolutely inviting. But the traffic, no thanks. LA is so complex with so much to offer, but also difficult to take in at times. Wonderful post Diana.

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    1. It really is, it’s just so enormous that I know I only saw such small bits of in during these 3 days. But I guess it has a little something for everyone which is nice for those who live there.

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  17. LA is not a bad place to visit. I love the Orange County area but I don’t know if I could ever live there. It’s just so darn crowded all the time! The beach is the best part for me though. I’ll take that any day of the week!

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  18. I’ve been in LA several times over the years, especially when I was working with the entertainment industry to reduce tobacco use in G, PG, PG 13 movies, given its influence on kids. But I never made it to the Griffith Observatory. That sounds like a great place to visit.

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  19. Los Angeles is blessed with sunny weather nearly year-round and a geographical location that allows you to hit some of the best beaches and mountains in the state on the same day. I know by now that Los Angeles isn’t the celebrity and paparazzi-filled la-la-land it’s made out to be in the movies and TV. It is, however, a beautiful, diverse and sometimes confounding city I would love to visit one day. Thanks for sharing and have a good day 🙂 Aiva xx

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  20. We used to play your game of fog or smog every time we visited. We got to the point…that if you could not smell it, it was fog. We have enjoyed a few trips to LA, but like most cities with year round good weather, there are too many people with problems moving there. I think venturing away from the downtown to explore was a good choice. Happy Wednesday Diana. Allan

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  21. Jon lived in LA for two years and he misses being able to golf year round and easily. Whenever a show is set in L.A. he pauses it if they show something near where he lived haha. I haven’t visited yet but I’d love the library and botanic garden. In college I took an astronomy class and the lab was in the planetarium, I was so fascinated!

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  22. Lovely-lovely walk through the botanical garden. It’s amazing how many different types of gardens there are – it’s the one thing I’d enjoy seeing in a big city. Oh yeah, and I’m with you … hate traffic (that’s why we always take the back roads on our trips). Looks like a great (sunny) day and can understand why you had tired feet.

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    1. Yes it’s a huge place. It was nice to escape the sights and sounds of the city for a while. We couldn’t see skyscrapers or traffic or anything while we were there.

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  24. I never would have thought of a Botanical Garden in LA, but of course there is with their weather! I would also love to see street names from Big Bang, I’ve never been to Pasadena and am not really sure where it is. 😊 Maggie

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