Three out of four college roommates were able to get together. Our other roommate, Mary, is from Mountain View and it would have been an eight hour drive for her. Our roommate, Maria from Maryland came to visit relatives and later to stay at my place. Although it would have been cool to see the California state flower - poppies in Antelope Valley - Lancaster - they were not in "super bloom". Thank you Vicki and Tommy for driving 2 hours to get to Descanso Gardens. Thankfully, I only had to drive 35 minutes.
Since, I haven't been using my Canon camera, I practiced with the plant outside my building.
We agreed to enjoy Descansco Gardens in Flintridge La Canada. We enjoyed an outdoor picnic table lunch from Magnolia. As everyone was trying to figure where to go looking at the map, I saw this and had to capture it.
I can assure you this looks better in person at the Japanese Garden, hopefully you can see how the gravel has been raked to create a "Zen Garden".