The Botanic Gardens at The Huntington in Pasadena offer 12 different gardens, one being the Japanese Garden, which includes a drum bridge, Japanese house, walled Zen garden, a bonsai court, and a ceremonial teahouse and tea garden.
Links: The Huntington
Built on a hilltop near Simi Valley, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library offers dramatic views of the surrounding countryside. It was opened on November 4, 1991 with five US Presidents and six First Ladies in attendance. Following his death in 2004, approximately 105,000 people viewed his casket as it lay in repose in the library lobby. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who died on March 6th, will be laid to rest next to her husband.
Links: Reagan Foundation
The Santa Barbara Mission was the tenth of twenty-one California Missions founded by the Spanish Franciscans, and was established on the Feast of Saint Barbara, December 4, 1786. The present building was dedicated in 1820 and still functions as a church today.
Links: Old Mission Santa Barbara
The Getty Museum, designed by architect Richard Meier, is on a hilltop just west of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and offers good views of Bel-Air and the surrounding Southern California landscape. Be sure and check out the renowned impressionist and post-impressionist paintings by van Gogh (Irises), Renoir, and Monet.
Links: The Getty
This beautiful statue and coastal view is in Cabrillo National Monument near where Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed in 1542 as the first European to set foot on the west coast of the United States.
A fun place to visit in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is Seventeen Palms Oasis, which boasts a series of beautiful palm trees (Washingtonia filifera) set against the stark desert. It’s a nice shaded place for a picnic lunch while you check out the “prospector’s post office” which contains a visitor’s log book, notes, etc.
The largest building at Hearst Castle (near San Simeon) is called “Casa Grande”. Its 68,500 sq. ft. contain 38 bedrooms, 30 fireplaces, 42 bathrooms, and 14 sitting rooms.
Point Loma/Cabrillo National Monument offers some great views of downtown San Diego as you look back across San Diego Bay, but the pilots of these two sailboats have an even better view.
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This ocean view is from the Bull Taco eatery that is within the San Elijo State Beach campground and shows multiple armed forces helicopters flying north up the beach while several surfers wait for the next big wave.
Links: San Elijo State Beach
At very low tides the Solana Beach tide pools are a great place to wander and explore. They are located at the north end of Tide Beach Park and just south of Cardiff State Beach.
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