I forgot that I hadnt posted this one yet. I was waiting to upload the photos. This a couple weeks old, but it was such a fun day.

Yesterday was Sam's Birthday. We started the day with a delicious breakfast at my house. My family and Sam's siblings came to celebrate too. After breakfast, I took Sam to Huntington Library and Gardens. It is a huge, beautiful garden in the middle of Pasadena which used to be the residence of Mr. Huntington, a railroad tycoon. There are many themed gardens within the property and recently a Chinese garden had been added to the many others. I had not yet seen the Chinese garden and knew that even if Sam had been to Huntingtons before, he had not seen the Chinese garden either. As it turned out he had not been there at all before.

It was a glorious day with lots of sunshine, but not too much heat yet. We explored all over, and even bumped into one of my family's friends there. Along with the Chinese garden, there is also a Japanese garden, rose garden, Cactus garden, Children's garden, vegetable garden, and plenty of open green grassy areas.

After tiring ourselves out, we went back to the car and gobbled down a picnic lunch. Having seen the majority of the gardens, we decided to keep pressing on with the day. Our next destination, in Sam's little red convertible, was Mullholland Drive. This street winds its way across the top of the mountains that separate the Los Angeles Valley from the San Fernando Valley. Back when it was built, Mullholland drive went from the 101 freeway all the way out to Malibu Beach. Today, it is only drivable part of the way. This is one of my favorite drives and I wanted to share that with Sam. We drove along and stopped at the scenic overlooks. These gave us impressive views of both the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Valley. We could even look across the San Fernando Valley and see the mountain were we got engaged.

As Mullholland came to an end, our next stop was the Griffith Observatory. Sam had never been, and by now the sunning was setting. We walked through the building which has all kinds of fascinating interactive displays about the sun, moon, stars and planets. We came out in time to see the sun setting over the ocean, well actually setting behind a mountain, but it was obviously over the ocean. That was the end of the plans that I had for the day, so we ended it by hanging out at Universal Citywalk for a while. There we got some much needed refreshments, and a chance to sit for a while.

This was the first time that I have had a whole day just to spend with Sam in a very long time. It was not a relaxed event, but it was relaxing just being together. We got to make some memories that I know I will cherish. And Sam was very patient to let me drag him all over the city sharing some of my favorite parts of LA with him. I did take my camera with me, but I kept forgetting to use it. But below are a couple of pictures that we took while on Mullholland.

Overlooking Studio City and Burbank in the San Fernando Valley

Overlooking Downtown LA and the 101 Freeway