Filoli Center Woodside, California

When I was about 20 back in the early 70s some friends and I went to Filoli. We didn't even know it was there - we were actually just driving around exploring Crystal Springs and found it. This was before it had been made into a tourist attraction. There was no one there, and no furniture. We could see through the windows it was empty. The doors were unlocked so we went in and looked around. We were surprised to see what looked like gold faucets on the taps upstairs, though they were probably brass. We sure loved the grand staircase. We went back out to the gardens and saw the pool, and it being a lovely typically warm California summer, jumped in, clothes an all. Then we heard voices coming from the direction of the house and worried we might be in trouble so we ran back to the car and scrammed out of there. On the way out we passed some incredibly tall, skinny racehorses with huge eyes. We stopped to pet them but the were too skittish to let us. They were incredibly beautiful. We fell in love with Fi-Lo-Li forever, but we've never been back yet.