A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Botanical Garden. . .

I intended to write about our visit to the Huntington Historical Library and Botanical Gardens last weekend, but there is a bonus to report! As we drove to the gardens, located near Pasadena, we passed through a town called Montebello, which is one of the many ethnic communities around LA, in this case Chinese. The main street was closed down, and we could tell there was a festival underway. It occured to us that the Chinese New Year was being celebrated, so we parked and checked it out. Very cool!

This is a few store fronts on the main street. Virtually everything in this sizeable town is Chinese, include all signs, etc. It is better in many ways than going to China Town in LA, because this is real and every day life for Chinese-American families.

Inside of one of the stores, as in many stores just like it, were barrels and barrels of dried ginseng root, each a different variety and from a different region. Judging by the signs, which we couldn't read save for a big "Wisconsin" printed on some of them, this must be some especially prized ginseng.

This is one of the many booths lining the street selling New Year party favors. There were also many food booths, and we had a nice lunch listening to some music of Chinese origin.

After an hour or so at the festival, we moved on to our original purpose to visit the gardens. What a beautiful place! It covers about 120 acres, and represents so many different climates and landscapes. We visited the Japanese garden, the palm gardens, the desert garden, the rose garden, and the historical library. The art gallery was closed for refurbishing and will reopen in May, and they are opening a new Chinese garden in about 2 weeks that looks really nice.

This is a huge Agave plant that looks almost prehistoric up close.

Here is Laurie near the cactus garden. This reminded me of moms cactus collection when I was growing up, only on steroids!

This is a view through the palm garden. We found a nice bench nestled among the palms and sat for a spell. While there, a 7-8 year old boy ran up and stopped about 20 feet in front of us. He was not facing us, but after standing there a few seconds, he ripped a big fart. He then looked our way, laughed, and took off running back toward his parents quite a ways off. He ran in a big arch across the grass, laughing, and we watched him go. Suddenly, his foot caught on something in the grass, and he went down face first at full tilt! It was one of those falls where momentum takes over, and as he slid on his chest and face, his legs arched clear up over his back. It was positively delicious! When he finally came to rest, he propped up on one elbow to assess the damage and pout a bit, and I called over and said "that's what you call Karma, son"!

That's all for now folks!