Getty Centre

We went to the Getty Centre today. It's a museum full of art and stuff, which wasn't going to go down a storm with A and D. So, while S looked at the pics, the boys and I went to the cafe and drank smoothies. Given how vast and posh everything was (polished marble floor that made D fall over and hurt his bottom - then he bent over with his bottom in the air demanding I blow it better), it was all surprisingly bargainacious - smoothies were $2.50, and were made of fruit juice with no added sugar - although actually they were slush, but that was OK. (Well, it would have been OK if they didn't come in such vast containers which D and A had no hope of finishing, so I had to drink, well, probably two in total).

Then we ran around the garden (well, they did), and then they went to the "family room" and frolicked, with S, while I went and looked at some stuff.

It's a weird place. Firstly, because it's vast. it must have cost a terrifyingly large amount of cash to build, and that's before you put any art in it. You enter, and park in a car park with 7 levels (going down into the ground) - it's $8 to park, but that's all we paid.

Then there's a tram which takes you up the hill to the centre - the tram seems to be a hovercraft type of thing - it had no wheels, or tracks (see first picture for the track), and it had an impressive view of the Interstate 405 (second picture - this was about 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon - people joke about it being called the 405 because you go at 4 or 5 mph).
At the top of the hill, you get out of the tram, and potter about - and marvel at the vastness of the place - third picture is taken from the garden, but you get a better sense of it on Wikimapia.

There were some nice views of the haze that covers Los Angeles. The last picture shows (I think) the San Fernando Valley, which is just called "The Valley". Valley Girls (or Vals, for short) come from the San Fernando valley.