Prickly Adventures and Sticky Situations

On Monday, my cousin Charity and I set off to explore the Huntington Botanical Gardens and Library near Pasadena, CA. 3 things to know about Charity:  she lives just outside of Charlotte, she's also a nurse (guess it runs in the family) and she loves cactuses! While working at camp I made friends with the interpreter, Greg, who offered for me to visit the Huntington sometime with him. I'll do just about anything free, so I took him up on his offer just 1 day after camp and who better to go see one of the largest Cactus Gardens with than my cousin! Thanks to Greg's membership we both got in for free, and he proved to be an invaluable resource as the Huntington is an extensive property that houses a library, art collection in the original mansion, and multiple gardens. We had perfect weather for spending an afternoon outdoors strolling the grounds! With cameras in tow we set out first for the Cactus Garden (hence the "Prickly Adventures"), where Charity took 200+ pics...enough to last a lifetime! I can't say I'm a huge cactus fan, but here a few fun shots I took: 

 

As you can see, Charity really enjoyed herself here.

Here is some Cousin love in the Japanese Garden

Sadly, when we were leaving the gardens and walking with Greg to his car we walked upon Security cleaning up debris that not only surrounded his car, but also covered the front end. Turns out a tree branch broke, landing on his car, resulting in a cracked windshield, broken side mirror, several scrapes, and a big dent :( We assisted him as much as we could, trying to keep him calm, and get info together. Here comes the "Sticky Situation", who is at fault? Nature or the estate? After a quick drive to his house (where Charity had to ride with him and hold the dangling side mirror), and a few phone calls, we were on our way to dinner, in an attempts to cheer him up! Greg introduced us to some local Korean BBQ, a first for both of us, that was SO yummy! Followed up by a visit to Yogurtland so Charity could go home having tasted my favorite part about Cali---the frozen yogurt! I'm so glad she got to visit since I won't be seeing any family during the holidays and I only wish there would have been more time together, but work calls...for the both of us!