A Secret Garden in Pasadena

After a crazy afternoon dealing with missing mail packages from USPS (don't even get me started...) and a nice family dinner, we came to Arlington Gardens in Pasadena. After doing my own little research, I came to found out this garden uses the same space as a demolished mansion called Durand House built in the 1900s. This was the largest home in Southern California at the time. (Isn't history neat?) After lying vacant for over 40 year, its been specially curated to be a quiet oasis for the public. And we Choi's are deeply grateful for this labor of love. Coming from the East Coast, pockets of greenery are a welcomed respite.

This is the kind of place most people probably drive by every day and never take notice of! It's such an ideal place to go if you want to sneak away on lunch break or just lounge in the shade on a hot afternoon. There's plenty of benches and tables for that.  We came on full stomachs, so we spent the hour meandering the pathways and enjoying the creative design landscape. We saw a few families having their own photoshoot,  so we joined in!

  

One of the sweetest moments... I was setting up our camera for a family shot and heard Preston's gurgly laughter behind me and started snapping just in time to capture this candid moment with his daddy.

So I know he's only 7 months old, but I swear he seems this close to walking. He hasn't even mastered crawling yet though.

  

We stayed until the sun was setting, and it was beautiful. I tell Danny the best time of day in LA is when the sun goes down. In the daytime, the sun is so glaringly bright that it blinds you from seeing anything. At night, the skyline isn't that impressive compared to some other cities. But when the sun sets, somehow the haze-filled sky produces brilliant twilight hues and LA looks perfect. So yeah, we ended the evening on a perfect note.