Here's something new I learned: "direwolves" are not just an invention of George R. R. Martin for his Game of Thrones novels. They actually existed and are the single most common animal fossil that's been extracted from the tar pits. Here is a dire wolf skull that was just recently extracted from a massive excavation project currently underway on the grounds of the La Brea Tar Pits.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre got a drive-by, as did the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Holloway House. I did make it up to Griffith Park and, more specifically, to the very famous Griffith Observatory.
We tourists were all excited to discover you can get a really good view of the HOLLYWOOD sign up on the hillside, from the excellent vantage point of the roof of the observatory.
For the afternoon, it was the Getty Center, right on the 405 Freeway north of Los Angeles. I love the Getty Museum. The collection is always pleasing and its various exhibits are worth seeing. But I have always been in love with the facility itself. It is absolutely gorgeous. As I look through the photos I chose to take, it was clear to me that the art I was most taken with this time at the Getty was the Getty itself.
Dinner afterwards was the special treat of catching up again with fellow University of Virginia PhD grad Sheryl Cohen, who is now the Director of the early childhood center of the Stephen Wise Temple School. We found our way to some excellent sushi and gorged ourselves silly. It was also nice to see the house she's bought since I was last out in L.A.
I guess it's been since March 2005 that I actually last saw Sheryl in person, and that's just too long.
1 comment:
At the end of July I went to La Brea while killing time after a trip, and in a couple weeks I'm off to Vegas for a convention.
We should get our people talking to coordinate schedules.
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