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»CA.MUSEUMS & ART sculpture and conceptual artwork. In Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum features a wide range of Modern and European artists, including this writer's favorite Picasso (Woman with a Book, 1932). The sculpture garden is unusually beautiful and serene. Nearby, in San Marino, the sprawling Beaux-Arts mansion and grounds of financier Henry E. Huntington are now The Huntington Library, with its 120 acres of botanical gardens. Here one can view a Gutenberg Bible, bird drawings by Audubon and "some of the finest rare books and manuscripts of AngloAmerican civilization." The adjoining art collection spans four centuries. Equally famous for its setting, the Getty Villa in Malibu showcases the arts of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria, while the Getty Center in downtown LA features Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. A 90-mile drive north of Los Angeles, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is renowned for its ambitious and imaginative exhibitions. An equal distance to the south, San Diego's Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park is California's only museum dedicated exclusively to photography, film and video. Science As befits the home of Apple Computers, UC Berkeley and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California has more than its share of superb science museums. The California Science Center in Los Angeles' Exposition Park is the largest hands-on science museum on the West Coast, with ongoing exhibits on ecology, space travel and the worlds of invention and innovation. The Tech Museum, in San Jose (the heart of Silicon Valley), is the country's first museum dedicated to the digital world, with state-of-the-art exhibits on genetics, the Internet and the ever-popular Earthquake Platform. On the central coast, the Monterey Bay Aquarium deserves to be listed among the Wonders of the World for its fantastic displays of sea otters and jellies, its hypnotic three-story kelp forest and a dazzling, million-gallon "Outer Bay" tank. San Francisco itself hosts two of the finest science museums in the world. Ten years and half a billion dollars in 32 2 013 travel guide to c al ifo r n i a THE MUSEUM OF NEON ART lights up in Glendale, right. the making, the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park features a walk-through rainforest with free-range birds and butterflies, the largest alldigital planetarium in the world and a "Living Roof" that, with 1.7 million native California plants, is a world unto itself. Topping the list of California's science museums is the beloved Exploratorium, founded in 1969 by atomic scientist Frank Oppenheimer. The original hands-on science experience, the Exploratorium features an interactive tornado, a crawl-through tactile dome (reservations required) and some of the most original and informative physics and biology exhibits this side of Alpha Centauri. It'll move to a convenient new location on Pier 15 (close to the Ferry Building) in spring 2013. Culture California is America's most diverse state, and many of its museums reflect the ethnic mix and cultural history of this melting pot in microcosm. In Sacramento, the California Museum (originally the Golden State Museum) features the California Hall of Fame, celebrating local legends from Buzz Aldrin to the Beach Boys. In San Francisco's North Beach, the Beat Museum is affectionately known as "The House Jack (Kerouac) Built." Downtown, the Contemporary Jewish Museum and nearby Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) provide fascinating insights into two of California's most creative ethnic traditions. Visiting the Asian Art Museum, in the revamped San Francisco Public Library, is the next best thing to a trip along the ancient Silk Road. For a taste of pure California kitsch, the Museum of Neon Art offers bus cruises through the high-voltage landmarks of downtown Los Angeles. Also in LA, the Mexican Museum showcases "more than 12,000 objects representing thousands of years of Mexican art and culture within the Americas," while in Long Beach, the Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) features modern and contemporary work by artists from all over the New World. Anaheim's new Muzeo opened in 2010, offering sweeping exhibitions on megathemes ranging from chocolate to Steampunk. CA » FIND ART YOUR THE ARTS Fine Arts Museums of SF famsf.org SF MOMA sfmoma.org Oakland Museum of California museumca.org LACMA lacma.org MoCA moca.org Geffen Contemporary moca.org Norton Simon Museum nortonsimon.org The Huntington Library huntington.org Getty Center & Getty Villa getty.edu/visit Santa Barbara Museum of Art sbmuseart.org Museum of Photographic Arts mopa.org SCIENCE California Science Center californiasciencecenter.org The Tech Museum thetech.org Monterey Bay Aquarium montereybayaquarium.org California Academy of Sciences calacademy.org Exploratorium exploratorium.edu CULTURE The California Museum californiamuseum.org Beat Museum thebeatmuseum.org Contemporary Jewish Museum thecjm.org MoAD moadsf.org Asian Art Museum asianart.org Museum of Neon Art neonmona.org Mexican Museum mexicanmuseum.org MoLAA molaa.com Muzeo muzeo.org