The Little Old Lady From Pasadena

Yesterday my friend Mandy and I celebrated Memorial Day by taking a scenic tour of the city of Pasadena. It is one of the most beautiful cities around (that I've been to yet)! Amazing tree lined streets, gorgeous landscaping, and great houses. mmmm. We toured according to what the Internet calls "the important sites visitors must visit". They were very fun places but most were abandoned due to the holiday and other sites we stumbled upon were not marked and so we were left to speculation .. millionaire row? a college? a public park? private property? Wriggly mansion? Our first stop was the house from The Father of the Bride.


We had some difficulty finding it at first and since all the houses are amazing and similar, it further confounded the problem. Next we headed to Castle Green built in 1898 as a lavish hotel but it is now an apartment building which will undergo restoration soon.


From here we headed to Colorado Blvd to do some window shopping. So fun! We wandered down to the intersection where the Rose Parade begins at Colorado and Orange and I really wanted to go to the Norton Simon Museum.. I think it's the building that's shown with the rose symbol on it during the parade. We continued the adventure by discovering the West Ambassador and then other houses.. we weren't sure what they were but it seemed like a public park connecting them.. I hope so! There was also a Christian High School in the area which I still can't beleive is a High School. It's georgous!
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Then we went to the desserted Fennyes Mansion, the Gamble house (where a graduation party was occuring), and lastly, Huntington's Gardens. We ran/speed walked as we attempted to see the whole garden but since it's HUGE.. we didn't get through it all. I kept tripping on the stones, our trek up to the Mausoleum took some time, and our less than great map reading skills took us in directions we hadn't accounted for.. but it was very enjoyable. And we found that the Mausoleum was the prototype for the Jefferson Memorial.




All in all it was a great day and one which makes my exploratory nerve itch for more!