Home in Pasadena

Dear You, I don't know your name yet, or where you're flying in from, or what kind of week you've had — but I have a room for you, and I think you're going to like it. It's upstairs, in a hundred-year-old house on a quiet Pasadena street where the trees are old enough to remember things. The kind of street where the porch lights come on one by one in the evening like a slow, dignified applause. A welcome to a great many tired, happy people, and now it's your turn. SRH2023-00439 The space High ceilings, off white walls, French doors, sun moving slowly across an oriental rug all afternoon because it has nowhere better to be. A white sofa that has cradled more good conversations than I can count. And down at the far end of the living room, beneath a chandelier, a mahogany grand piano, lid open, sheet music waiting. If you play, please play. If you don't, sit down and press a key anyway. The house likes the sound of being home. Climb the staircase. At the top, behind the white double doors -- this is your room. A queen bed dressed up in crisp white linens, likely with lace edging. A handmade, iron scrollwork headboard with a French novel's worth of curlicues. European landscape paintings on the wall — places worth dreaming of in a place to read one more chapter late at night, when the rest of the house has gone quiet. When morning comes, it will come gently, the way mornings do here. The kitchen will be waiting — a round wood table beneath lace curtains and more landscape paintings, the kind of table that turns coffee into a small ritual instead of a transaction. The kitchen, also sunlit and full-size, will let you cook anything you'd cook at home. Then Pasadena, which is more beautiful than people who haven't been here understand. The Norton Simon Museum is ten minutes away — go for the Rodins in the garden, stay for the Cézannes. The Arroyo, Eaton Canyon, and Millard Canyon are nearby too for when the body wants a trail and the mind wants quiet. Old Town Pasadena, Caltech, the Rose Bowl — all close. Downtown LA, Hollywood and more of Los Angeles are beyond when you want them. (And when you don't, you don't have to want them.) I live here too. I'm generally around and available without being underfoot. Ask me anything — about Pasadena, about California, about where to eat tonight. I'm a road-tripper at heart and I keep mental notes the way other people keep souvenirs; if you're heading up the coast, into the Sierras, anywhere with a horizon, ask me and I'll tell you which two-lane road to take. A few other rooms in the house may have travelers in them. They tend to be lovely. The house stays calm and gentle at night. Self check-in, twenty-four hours a day. Arrive whenever the airline or the road delivers you. The lights will be on. So, whoever you are, wherever you're coming from, whatever you're carrying with you — there is a room here, with good light and a soft bed and a door that closes on a private bathroom, in a house with a piano in the living room and a kitchen full of real dishes and a garden where the morning lingers. Come stay a while. Guest access You're welcome in the public spaces -- living room, kitchen, dining area, laundry room, patio and large back yard. During your stay Usually I'm available as needed and socialize as time permits. Other things to note This is a pet free house. Registration Details SRH2018-00007