Roses are red, and pink, and yellow, and....

Exposition Park Rose Garden 

Yesterday was a beautiful day for some urban adventuring. My first trip on the metro was a success! Fairly clean and easy to navigate, if I ever need to go multiple places in the city or don't want to park somewhere I think I've found the best way to get around! Also, apparently each metro stop has it's own "theme" so to speak. The one at Hollywood and Western is multi-colored tiles that remind me of the Dairy Queen off of the boardwalk in Virginia Beach.  Yesterday's train lead me to the Rose Garden in Exposition Park, right next to USC's campus.

The Rose Garden was lovely both in sight and smell. There were several families there for the afternoon and many children swimming in the fountain in the middle of the park.  According to wikipedia the garden has more than 20,000 rose bushes and more than 200 varieties of roses (after the mid-1980s). It was interesting seeing so many different colors of the same flower outside of your local Ralphs (Safeway, Giant, Kroger, Wegmans, Trader Joe's, Harris Teeter, Rouses, etc.)

After walking around the garden for a bit and soaking up some sun I was able to walk around the buzzing USC campus. I even snuck into the film school (shhh!) where there is a seven foot (or so) giant model of Kung Fu Panda. The band was getting ready for some kind of event. What with the pep music and students of about the same age milling about I couldn't help but think how amazing it is that all college campuses can feel similar no matter where they are. Thinking of all of you starting classes this week at UVA. Wahoowa!