SeeCalifornia.com

If you’re looking for a way to brighten your day the next time you’re in L.A., be sure to stop by the The Getty (getty.edu) to see the beautiful gardens.

The Central Garden (top-right photo) includes a natural ravine and tree-lined walkway that leads visitors through an extraordinary experience of sights, sounds, and scents, descending to a plaza of bougainvillea. Artist Robert Irvin planned the garden as an ever-changing artist’s palette of  color  and light. The garden has changed appearance since first opened in 1997 as an outdoor centerpiece to The Getty, and is in a constant state of change, providing one of many reason to return time and again.

Garden Tours: Free 45 minute garden tours are offered several times daily (subject to change.) If you aren’t “toured out,” also consider taking the 45 minute architecture tour that helps bring the gardens into perspective as an integral part of the bigger picture that examines the thinking behind L.A.’s most expensive museum to build, designed by famed architect Richard Meier.

Getting there: Free to see (there’s a $15 parking fee,)  you can get to The Getty without parking in their lot by taking Metro Rapid Line 761, which stops at the main gate on Sepulveda Boulevard.