The Getty Museum

I got up this morning and tried to figure out what to do today. Talked with Cathy on the phone and Skyped with Lindsay for a while. While it had been sunny when I woke up, clouds were rolling in, and the beach didn't look like a good option. I decided to check out the Getty Museum, as several people had suggested it. The AAA guidebook indicated that the cost was a whopping $15 for parking. The fact that it was located immediately off the 405 made it easy to get to, so off I went. I parked in the structure, and took a picture of the sign near my spot so I could find it again!

You can see the tram that shuttles visitors from the parking structure up the hill to the museum complex on the right. Once you get off, you are greeted by a variety of placards showing the various special exhibitions that are on display.


I visited all three of these exhibits. I really enjoyed the Asian photography exhibits, some of the photos displayed were well over 150 years old. The stairs that led up to the entry building were decorated by a sculpture and large urns of flowers. The honey aroma of the alyssum dominated the air.



Once inside the Welcome Center, you can opt to watch a short movie that provides an overview of the facility as well as pick up a map of the entire complex. In the language of your choice! I picked up a few of the foreign language version to share.

The Garden at the Getty Museum

The Flowers of the Getty

The Getty Gardens are pretty amazing! They were designed by an artist. The colors, particularly the wide variety of shades of green, make an enjoyable view. Not much to say about them, the pictures say it all!



There are a large variety of succulents in the flower beds, helping add to the many shades of green.

If you look carefully in the picture above, or click on it to bring up a larger verison, you'll see a hummingbird feeding at one of the flowers. It was there for a few seconds and I just had time to click the camera once!

Tremendous Trees

When you step into the entrance hall of the museum, volunteers hand you a slip of paper with the events of the day on them. I read through them and one caught my eye right off, Family Drawing Hour: Tremendous Trees. You signed up for a one-hour sketching class for age 7 and up. So I found the right location to sign up and put my name down. We met at the appointed location and everyone was handed their supplies, a cardboard backed pad of paper, a graphite pencil, a rubber and an eraser.

Audrey was the instructor, assisted by Kelly, who kept everyone supplied with sharp pencils. We were taken to one of the photo galleries that had a display of photographs of trees and plopped down on the floor. We did a warm up exercise where we drew and filled a sheet of paper with scribbles. The rubber was applied to blur and shade. Then we used the stretch eraser to remove and shade.

Then we were shown two ways of drawing trees, the line and the 'blob.' We each started two pictures based on a couple of pictures hanging on the wall. Both of them were pictures of trees in front of backdrops. After about 15 minutes we moved outside to the garden. We talked about using the different techniques and Audrey pointed to the various trees in the garden and we all were to pick a tree and try to draw it.

Audrey standing next to the tree I tried to draw. I need a lot more branches to make it look good. At the end of class she posed with me and one of my pictures. The painting of the bug in the back is pretty neat. You can see the insect pin that looks like it is holding the bug to the wall, it actually comes out of the wall.

Jake Shimabukuro

We were glad for a chance to stretch our legs and walk for a bit after the big meal. The area around the theaters was filled with buses, cars and crowds of people, but traffic of all types flowed smoothly.

The venue was huge! Once we found the door, we were directed to 'take the elevator all the way to the top.' We opted for the stairs, which was quite a long haul! We arrived at the top and looked over the railing at the people coming in below. A friendly usher, who was also a member of a local ukulele organization that had purchased a block of 150 tickets, told us we were in the right place. We also learned that the hall held just under 2000 seats and the show was sold out with a waiting list. The show was part of the Orange County Japanese celebration.

We chatted with a lot of people, many of whom had no idea who Jake was. A couple of them were kind enough to take a picture of Jesse and I. No photos or recording allowed during the concert and the ushers were pretty vigilant about it.

Yes, that little tiny stool down there was were Jake was. The size of the pipe organ on the back wall is pretty impressive! We were in the front row of the top balcony. There were a lot of rows behind us and they were steep! You can also see that there were people seated behind Jake.

Despite the long distance, the sound was wonderful! He did many tracks from his current album, Love, Peace and Ukulele. He did Crazy G for an encore and it was amazing!

I Feel Like Peruvian

So Jesse and I arrived at the concert venue in plenty of time, despite the traffic on the 405. Having two people in the car was a definite plus as we got to use the Car Pool Lane on the highway. We found the three theaters around the center square, got a parking spot on the first level and went in search of dinner.

After crossing a couple of major thoroughfares, we found a small outdoor shopping area that was filled with a variety of small restaurants. After seeing Mexican, Japanese, Greek, and Vietnamese, we decided for the novelty approach and chose to patronize the Peruvian Restaurant.


We threw ourselves on the mercy of the waitress, who was very helpful. She pointed out the house favorites, highlighted in a box and said that one of those was typically the starting point for a person new to Peruvian foods. They served bread with Aji sauce. It is based on lettuce, and has a touch of garlic and jalapeno in it. It was very good!

The beverage is a purple corn drink, chicha, it has a hint of Cinnamon spice in it and is unlike anything I've ever had before.

We both opted for the Seafood Plate. With the rice it had mussels, shrimp, calamari and scallops. There are also french fries in the mix, with a rich gravy over it all. We also got a side order of Plantain that were grilled up very nicely.



We did not clean our plates, but it was due to a lack of space, not that we didn't like the food!

Toyota Racing

One of the constants across all of the auto companies are their sponsorship of various types of auto racing. Having one of the company's cars doing well in a race, particularly winning it, is an easy source of advertising for a relatively cheap investment. So every once in a while the company will bring the cars and racers in to the Headquarters for meet and greets and photo opportunities.



So it wasn't a complete surprise to come to the plaza and discover the full spectrum of Toyota Racing vehicles spread across the landscape, complete with photo ops!



THIS SPACE RESERVED
When the promotion team posts my picture in the funny car, I'll add it here!