Los Angeles

Jan 12-15, 2024
AC793 YYZ-LAX, AC782 LAX-YYZ

With the amount of competition on the Toronto to Los Angeles flights, and lots of hotel options, LA is a reliable option for winter getaways. With Tom’s nephew living in town, it was also an opportunity to spend some time in Pasadena, which we had only passed through in the past. We arrived on a Friday evening flight to LAX and walked to our nearby hotel.

Jan 13

After breakfast, I walked over to the car rental place and picked up a rental car to head to Pasadena for lunch with Tom’s nephew and family. On the way, we stopped in Venice Beach, which I learned for the first time was constructed with canals to recreate one element of Venice, Italy.

Grand Canal, Venice Beach

Seagull on Venice Beach

Looking up the beach towards Santa Monica

Looking back at Venice Beach from the Venice Fishing Pier

After lunch we got to visit Alex and Vanessa's house in Pasadena

Our first flowers, with a bee, at the incredible Huntington Botanical Gardens

Desert garden

Saguaro cactus

Aloe plant

Grusonii Cactus

More cactus

Sad carvings next to the "please do not harm" sign

Bamboo garden

Chinese Elm Bonsai

Olive Bonsai tree

Japanese Zen garden

Japanese gardens

Pond and Japanese garden

More of the Japanese gardens

More of the garden

Statue outside of the art gallery

Rose garden

Up close with the roses

The Huntington Library

Bird of Paradise

Lily pond

White Silk Floss tree

Our last flower shot before heading out

After having covered a lot of ground in all of the gardens at the Huntington Botanical Gardens we made our way downtown to our hotel and found some dinner nearby.

Jan 14

For our last full day in LA, we first had some time to explore downtown Pasadena for the first time. It had a lot of cool buildings, restaurants and squares, and had much more to offer than we expected. We also decided to return to the Getty Center which we’d only visited once before, more than a decade earlier. Finally, before we gave up the car, we had to drive up the coast to catch some more ocean breeze.

Plaza with Pasadena City Hall in the background

Fountain perspective

Snail detail on the fountain

Looking back at the City Hall from the other side

Robinson Memorial - memorial to Jackie and Mack Robinson who lived in Pasadena

Entrance to the Getty Center

With the Getty Center on the left, looking north up the 405 with Bel Air on the right

Although the sky is blue, the smog obscures the buildings beyond Beverly Hills

Bird of paradise in the Gallery Gardens

We're not in Venice, but we needed to capture Marini's Angle of the City statue, from Spirit of the West's "Venice is Sinking"

View of LA's downtown and Burbank

Cactus garden, and looking west you can see the ocean in the haze beyond Brentwood

Giacomo Manzu, "Seated Cardinal"

From the south end of the museum looking south down the 405

Up close with the cactus garden

More of the expansive grounds, proving the scope of Getty philanthropy

Having made our way across Brentwood we're now at Dan Blocker Beach on the Malibu coast

Lifeguard station at the beach

Looking back towards LA

After grabbing a late lunch in Santa Monica, walking Santa Monica State Beach

Clear skies and a beautiful day near the coast

Seagulls enjoying the pier

Santa Monica's Pacific Park amusement park

Looking up the coast from the pier with downtown Santa Monica on the right

Very busy bridge connecting the pier to the city, where we've left our car

We headed back towards the airport to a nearby airport hotel for the evening. and I dropped off the rental car.

Jan 15

With the early flight of the day to Toronto, we were up and out of the hotel quite early and on our way back to Toronto before 8am.