When Officer Jake has a weekend day off, we like to take family day trips around Southern California. Some days we go to the beach, others we picnic and hike. There is so much to do here around the area that the possibilities are endless. We do have our favorites, though, and one of them is to visit Descanso Gardens, beautiful botanical gardens located in La Canada (near Pasadena). It's a small drive of about 30-45 mins, and we like to make a day of it. We spend several hours touring the gardens, go to nearby Montrose for lunch and do some window shopping walking up and down Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, which has a Main Street USA feel to it.
The scenery at Descanso is amazing. These pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago and show a very small portion of the 150 acres of history and horticultur seamlessly blended into a visually stunning and surprisingly peaceful escape from the stresses of the world for a day. The photo above is in the Japanese tea garden, where they serve traditional tea several times a week. Trails meander all over the park and even when it's crowded, it never feels that way. My favorite times of year to visit are near Easter and again between Halloween and Christmas. They have concerts, programs for children, weddings, etc, but honestly I can just walk and walk and never get tired of it.
I grew up in the Midwest and one of the flowers that I miss seeing are lilacs. Descanso has been developing special lilacs that can grow in Southern California and even have a special lilac garden where at least 50 different large lilac buses are thriving. I stand in the middle, close my eyes, take a whiff and am transported back to days of playing clubhouse under the lilac bushes with my sister growing up on the farm.
Descanso also has amazing rose gardens, popular for weddings, a huge camellia forest, the restored home of the original owners whose dream became a reality with creating these gardens, koi ponds, special seasonal displays and avenues filled with everything from azaleas, ferns, hills of clivias and magnificent, majestic oak trees that must be over a century old. If you live in or around Los Angeles, or are visiting our lovely state sometime in the future, this is truly a wonderful place to see and works for all types of groups. Jake and I used to take romantic walks here when we were dating but enjoy it just as well now with the kids as they can run and play and have lots of neat places to explore. I highly recommend it.
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