A Spontaneous Weekend Away in LA...

Last weekend, Dave and I felt we needed a vacation. We were reminiscing of a spontaneous weekend away to La Parguera in Puerto Rico back in 2002 when we were living in NYC, so we decided at the 11th hour to go check out LA.

We never go to LA. The thought of driving in traffic is too daunting for us. And LA is... well, LA... I mean, c'mon, what can beat San Diego? (okay, Hawaii doesn't count)... But we decided at the last minute to go up to the Malibu area and see what's there... So we booked a hotel around 11pm on Halloween night... and drove up at 8am the next morning. Early enough that traffic wasn't terrible at all.

We went to the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, which is "an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Erturia" (so says Wikipedia).

Here's the history from Wikipedia (I'm too lazy to write my own stuff):

Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty originally opened a gallery adjacent to his home in Pacific Palisades. Finding that he quickly ran out of room, he decided to open a second museum on the property (his original home still sits at the back of the property). In 1974, Getty opened the Getty Villa as his second museum in a re-creation of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, incorporating additional details from several other ancient sites. In 1997 the museum's collection was moved to the Getty Center in nearby Brentwood and the Palisades museum, renamed the "Getty Villa", was closed for renovation.

Reopened on January 28, 2006, the Getty Villa once again holds Greek and Roman sculptures housed in the interim at the Getty Center. The Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities are arranged by themes including Gods and Goddesses, Dionysos and the Theater and Stories of the Trojan War, housed within Roman-inspired architecture and surrounded by Roman-style gardens. The new architectural plan surrounding the Villa is designed to simulate an archaeological dig.

There has been controversy surrounding the Greek and Italian governments' claim that objects in the collection were looted and should be repatriated. In 2006 the Getty returned or promised to return four looted objects to Greece: a stele (grave marker), a marble relief, a gold funerary wreath, and a marble statue. In 2007, the Getty signed an agreement to return 40 looted items to Italy.

So some pictures from that afternoon:

Starving and anxiously waiting to be fed

Dave showing off his food

The inner peristyle

Herb Garden

Dave bonding with a statue

Another garden, the outer peristyle... 33 weeks.

Hmmmmm

The Ocean

That night we ate some yummy Argentinian food at Gaucho Grill. Mmmmmm... steak... Sorry, no pictures. We were too hungry to take pictures.

Since we're so used to doing something active and outdoorsy every weekend, we decided to check out Topanga Canyon the following morning. It was a beautiful state park and a good place for Dave to run and train for his half-marathon (he's running the Silver Strand half-marathon on the 16th), and me to walk/hike.

Deer!

There was supposed to be a trail that went to some nice waterfalls, Santa Ynez Trail. We followed it for a while, but then had to turn around to the overgrowth of POISON OAK on the trail! Apparently, there was a better path from a different route from the other side of the state park.

Since I get bored when I hike by myself, I started messing around with the camera.

On the Santa Ynez trail...

Dave coming back to tell me to turn around or else I'll be poison-oaked!

Afterwards, we went to the Woodland Hills area and ate a huge amount of food at the Champagne Brunch Buffet at our hotel. Yum! Yum! but no champagne for me :(

End of short weekend away.

(We gotta do that more often!)