Today was spent entirely at the amazing Getty Center, an art museum situated high on a hill overlooking Los Angeles. Well, it’s hard to say you’re “looking at Los Angeles” in any complete sense unless you’re using Google Earth, but the Getty does its best. But the Getty is more than a scenic view; the art works inside are just as captivating.

We had the good fortune of being there on a beautifully clear day. The visibility was so good I could have imagined I was in Tucson. Take a look at the photos below.




Chloe basking on one of the lawns.



Lizbeth and Georgia admire the view.



This is definitely an all-day venture. We met Dana’s boyfriend and his son there, making a party of eight, and wandered through the sculptures, the paintings, and the kids’ center. It is always amazing to me to compare the originals of famous paintings with prints of them. The real paintings seem to glow, and have much more dynamic range in their color. When I take photographs of outdoor scenes I am often frustrated with how difficult it is to squeeze what I really saw into not just the rectilinear constraints of the frame but the color and tonal latitude constraints of the camera. I don’t know whether oil paints have a much larger range inherently or whether galleries simply know better how to light them.

Afterward we went to a hamburger place called “The Counter” which Savanna still remembers fondly as a highlight of the trip, because of how customizable the burgers were (hard-boiled egg and lettuce, in her case).

Next: the Huntington Gardens!