It's a little further away, I guess, but I love the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. Gardens, museums, what more could you want? When I visited the area for the first time, it was the thing that made me realize maybe SoCal isn't so bad, just different.

A must see is The Bradbury Building in Downtown LA.
It will make you cry.

I'd drive up the PCH to Point Mugu with my chair and paper every week. Far enough out of the way to not see civilization (you can't from any direction) but close enough to get to in an hour, it was my favourite private place in LA, and along with sushi lunches with your wonderful husband one of the very few things I deeply miss.

A drive on a winter clear day on Mullholland Drive, west of Labrea and East of Laurel Canyon is pretty damn cool. You can see the ships at sea, I send my g/f pics of this on clear mornings. Descanso Gardens in La Canada is very beautiful, gardens and a lovely tea garden. The Labrea Tarpits have a very nice museum. The Japanese American Museum is quite cool. MOCA, LACMA, Norton Simon Museum, The Getty Museum, Gene Autry Museum, museum of Natural History, Aerospace Museum, the Museum of tolerance also has some very good exhibits. The Forest Lawns and Hollywood Forever Cemetary have some nice exhibits. China Town can be a short outing but kinda cute. The Los Angeles Police Museum in Highland Park and the Los Angeles Fire Department museum in Hollywood are also short lil interesting tidbits. The Peterson's automotive museum is interesting if you like cars. Gods...but I could ramble forever...these are just the museums and tidbits...there is just sooooo much to do here.


M

Hm. I didn't recognize "The Pleasure Chest" and wondered why I'd never heard of it.

Oh...OK.