A Weekend in LA Day 2

February 25th

Today we went to Venice Beach and walked up to the Santa Monica Pier.

There is a surprising amount of beachfront here.  There's this walkway.

And then ALL this beach.

There was some interesting street art.

And SOOOOO MUCH beach.

We found a carousel.  

This man was having a meeting with all the pigeons.

There's a whole amusement park thing down on the pier.

We had lunch at the end of the pier.

Our next adventure was to the Getty.

The Getty Complex itself is interesting and seems like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Get ready for some art!

Irises by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Iris up close.  I like the different textures.

The Milliners by Edgar Degas (1882)

I didn't know Degas painted anything but dancers.

The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light by Claude Monet (1894)

 Spring by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1894)

There's a lot going on in this painting.

I was particularly struck by how the flowers stand out both in color and texture from the rest of the painting.  It's almost as if they were redone after the original painting.

The Centennial of Independence by Henri Rousseau (1892)

What?  This isn't a dream or a weird jungle. 

Starry Night by Edvard Munch (1893)

So, not The Scream and not van Gogh.

A view of the Getty garden from whichever gallery we're in at the moment.

Russian Dancers by Edgar Degas (1899)

Oh good, back to dancers.  I'm more comfortable with this.

The Vexed Man by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1770)

1 - This is my favorite bust of anyone ever. 

2 - The artist's name makes me think of Daffy Duck (skip to 5:50 for the point).

Downtown LA in the slight haze.

We were there!

Before the Ball by Jean-François de Troy (1735) 

Ooooh girl!  Did you see what she was wearing?

Portrait of Magdaleine Pinceloup de la Grange by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (1747)

I hope Magdaleine is the cat.

The Painter in His Studio by Pietro Longhi (1744)

It's a painting within a painting!

Here are three paintings Dan liked.  He did not take photos of their informational plaques.  

So...you're on your own.

The Getty has some interesting architecture.

It had started to rain right before we left.  

I can easily imagine this being a school or something in a Star Trek movie.

Nothing much else of interest happened on this trip.  We flew back to Monterey the next morning.

This concludes our adventures for today.

A Weekend in LA Day 1

February 23rd/24th

We decided to go to LA for the weekend.

 We could fly directly from Monterey, which was a huge plus.  However, our flight got delayed about 2 hours leaving Monterey.

 Blurry city.  We landed and then couldn't get out of the airport.  We couldn't get an Uber to pick us up.  I think it took around an hour to leave the airport.  It was a grumpy day of traveling. 

We got to our hotel, went to dinner, and passed out.

 Today we're going to Universal Studios!

There's this fabulous Mexican tribute angel.

Hey!  It's the spinning Universal Studios Globe!

We were there!

A bit of the Universal back lot and maybe Warner Brothers in the distance.

We took the trolley back lot tour, so we got to see lots of empty sets.

Brownstones!  From...probably Sex and the City or any movie that takes place in NYC.

Town center from Back to the Future. 

More Back to the Future town center.

I think this a corner from Friends, and other things from NYC.

Ooooh! Into a cave!

There was a 3D Dinosaur adventure in the cave.

Are they taking Jaws out the back?

I think this is from The Good Place.

Subway disaster simulator!

Oh!  I found Jaws!

We're gunna need a bigger boat.

FIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiirrrre!

Bruce is looking a littler derpy.

Whoville is a little empty today.

Something sketchy's going down at the Bates Motel.

Disaster movie?

Apparently they disassembled an actual plane for this.

GIANT bluescreen!

Back to the park!  We found Krustyland.  

Crazy panorama!

 It was reasonable crowded for a random Friday.

Dan was pretty excited about all the Simpson's things.

This is the exit sign for the Minions ride.

Flying bug ride!

 And finally, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

Hogwarts!

They had a weird singing frog concert.  

We met up with my cousin and his family.  Dan and I tried butterbeer for the first time.  It is delicious.  We also got to run around with my Peter's son's wand which reacts to things around the village.  It was a lot of fun.  

 Yay blurry family!

We went on a handful more rides and then the park was closing.

 One last look at Springfield got us to Moe's.

And the Lard Lad Donut shop.

Bye Universal!  Thanks Peter and family for meeting with us!  It was fun!

This concludes our adventures for today.