I really needed a vacation.

We landed in LA June 29th after 13 hours of travel with a toddler. The trip was not as horrible as you might imagine. The Atlanta airport (Delta area) has several small play houses that enthralled our youngest family member. A bag of new toys kept her occupied on the short flight from DC to Atlanta, and she slept most of the 4-hour flight from ATL to LA.

The CalTech campus offered gardens with ponds full of overly friendly turtles (who were not supposed to be fed but obviously are). The Athenaeum — a guest house on the CalTech campus available only to members and Jet Propulsion Laboratory visitors — offered a scientific magazine on the nightstand instead of the usual Gideon’s Bible. The bath products more than sufficed.

We especially enjoy Huntington Gardens. The Children’s Garden was divided into Earth, Air, Water and Fire. With those themes in mind, the geniuis who designed the place offered magnetic sand (you can build with it!), fountains that can be stepped in, small houses, a rainbow prism tunnel, an area with fog and and area with mist. Other gardens included: Chinese, Japanese, Junel and Desert. The Desert Garden, on a sweltering day, only made me grateful to see the unique cacti and know that a water fountain was not far away. An art museum on the grounds offer Cassat paintings, but I was not in a museum mood. I want to be outside as much as possible these days.

After LA, a respite in the mountains was a good idea, and we headed over to Laguna Mountain (east of San Diego). More on that later…