Tales of Trips & Tours by Lynn Jax … Another terrific tour day!
On June 23rd, twenty-two club members, family, and friends boarded a luxury-chartered bus at Laguna Beach High School parking lot early in the morning for the day-long excursion to the famed Lotusland in Santa Barbara (Montecito).
Madame Ganna Walska, a well-known Polish opera singer and socialite, purchased the estate in 1941 and spent the next 43 years creating Lotusland, which is now recognized as one of the ten best gardens in the world. The 37-acre garden is a spectacular collection of exotic plants. After her death in 1984, Lotusland became a non-profit foundation and opened to the public in 1993.
Prior to arriving at the gardens for our appointment, our bus driver found a lovely spot at Chase Palm Park near downtown Santa Barbara for us to enjoy our lunches followed by time to stroll on the pier or State Street to stretch our legs. Upon arrival we broke up into small groups and followed the map of the garden to explore at our leisure as much of the garden as we wished.
It was truly a wonderful garden filled with such rare specimens; we garden lovers appreciated it all. And kudos to our bus driver who used back roads to cut off at least an hour on our drive home. Thank you to Nancy Englund for organizing this outing.
Please click on any photo below to look through the album.
