Free Day: Time Travel Among Pasadena Landmarks

Heritage Square, the Gamble House, and other gems are open for gamboling about.

There are days during the year when a few dozen Southern California museums will waive admission in one glorious swath of juicy cultural-minded goodness.

And while we await these days, with eagerness, they can sometimes prove a tad overwhelming: How to visit a good number of them in the get-in-free time allotted?

Museums of the Arroyo Day does not face that challenge. The six museums are grouped around a singular feature, the Arroyo Seco. (You probably guessed there'd be an arroyo nearby from the name.) They all have history at their heart, too, and other commonalities, but their arroyo-adjacent locations means this: You can see all of them when they go gratis on Sunday, May 18.

The six museums and historic sites? The Gamble House in Pasadena, the Pasadena Museum of History, the LA Police Museum, the Lummis Home (oh, pretty river rocks everywhere), The Autry's Historic Southwest Museum, and Heritage Square.

It's the 25th outing for the always bustling, Craftsman-charming, Victorian-regal event.

Beyond peeking around landmark mansions and institutions, however, what else will go down? The Gamble House will serve weather-perfect lemonade, Sew Cranky'll be breaking out the hand-crank sewing machines at Heritage Square, and live accordion music? It's at the Lummis Home.

Seriously, though, the Lummis? Been? We know, we know, there are buildings that are more rock-laden in town, but if it doesn't look like something straight from a whimsical Tolkien book, well, we'll quiet down and say no more. (But it is pretty.)

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It's a fine way to get to know a sextet of arroyo-important treasures, and not spend money.

And as for the larger museum days around the region, where dozens go free? Please. We want more of those, and our grumbling that it is hard to see everything is our own deal, not anyone else's.

Isn't there a word when you want to take in a bunch of art and culture for free but you don't have enough time? Artclockfrustration? It's not a bad thing.

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