If you have time for only one stop in the Pasadena area, it should be the Huntington, built in the early 1900s as the home of railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington. Henry and his wife Arabella (previously his aunt by marriage) voraciously collected rare books and manuscripts, botanical specimens, and 18th-century British art. The institution they established became one of the most extraordinary cultural complexes in the world.

The Huntington Gallery, housed in the original 1911 Georgian mansion, holds a world-famous collection of British paintings, including the monumental Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse, by Joshua Reynolds, and John Constable's intimate View on the Stour near Dedham. In a too-cute pairing, Gainsborough's Blue Boy faces Pinkie, by Thomas Lawrence. American paintings and decorative arts are housed in the Virginia Steele Scott Gallery of American Art. The library contains more than 600,000 books and some 300 manuscripts, including such treasures as a Gutenberg Bible, the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, George Washington's genealogy in his own handwriting, scores of works by William Blake, and an unrivaled collection of early editions of Shakespeare. The estate grounds, now the Huntington Botanical Gardens, include a 12-acre Desert Garden, a Japanese Garden, a 3-acre rose garden, a Shakespeare garden, and more. COST: $12.50, free 1st Thurs. of the month.