Valley Venture: The Arboretum

On Saturday I went to the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.

I didnt even know this place existed until about a week ago, but Im so glad I was able to go. 

My BFF Rudy planned a near perfect surprise outing for a Saturday afternoon activity. 

I didnt know anything that we were doing! 

So I was pretty dang surprised when we pulled up to a place that I knew nothing about. {surprise #1!}

It was good company, lots of photo opps, perfect weather and so many beautiful sights. 

I was near famished by the time we got there, forcing us to start our picnic immediately which included sharing a pastrami sandwich from my favorite Italian bakery.

{Surprise #2!}

Before we ventured out to the gardens, he surprised me again with bringing The Game of Life in his backpack for us to play during our picnic {3!}. This has been my most favorite game for as long as I can remember and luckily its his favorite too! So now I always have someone to play with me. I almost dont even want to admit this--but I think he has even convinced me that the newer version of Life is better than our 1980 version. What!? I know. I cant believe I just typed those words. 

We then started walking around. 

This place is huge. HUGE. 

We walked around for a good two hours and still didnt even see everything. 

The concept being the Arboretum is that it has plants, trees, flowers etc from all over the world. 

You can see cherry blossoms from Japan, shrubs from Mexico and bamboo from China. 

My dad would be disappointed in knowing that I didnt read every sign...I kinda forgot. 

But I still admired how beautiful each plant was.

One of my favorite things about it is this place is that not only is it massive, but its still right in the city. We didnt have to drive to the middle of nowhere, we were still in the heart of LA!

It was so cool to walk around and still see the backdrop of the mountains, one of my favorite things about LA. 

Our favorite part was the little forest of bamboo trees. Seriously so cool. 

its a brown and gold kennedy cougar! loved that little rock. 

I also loved the waterfall, the wikiup, the historical house, the little lakes and last but not least...the PEACOCKS!

I kinda always knew I had a thing for peacocks...I have peacock earrings, a peacock background on my phone, but when I saw those peacocks in real life, you KNOW I got real excited, chased them around and screamed "peacocks!" like 3463 times.

see. i chased it. for a good 10 minutes. 

I learned a new fact. When Arcadia was being founded, the Baldwin family built a ranch and brought peacocks. They have since gone wild in the city, freely roaming the Arboretum as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. We drove down some of the streets and there were peacocks everywhere!

 Straight up in peoples yards, crossing the street and sitting on roofs and trees. It was insane! And I may have had a mild flip out over it.

I wanted my picture with it, he was running so fast!

I think peacocks just officially became one of my favorite animals.

I highly recommend a trip out here!
Im glad my BFF knows me so well to plan something so fun.