So Cal Museums

Last week we drove to LA. Actually I drove as Mark's driving makes me nervous....especially as he hasn't BEEN driving anything but his bike. While Mark attended VERY important meetings at ABC/Disney (where they have Mickey Mouse heads artistically done in wrought iron on the tops of the fences), I went to museums..... LOTS of museums. This will be a Mainer-who-now-lives-in-NoCal's review of the museums. So, here we go.... First day: It is POURING rain (Really!) and I went to MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in downtown LA. And, yes, there IS a real downtown. The downtown location is one of several and is kitty-corner to Gehry's Disney Concert Hall which is very cool - at least from the outside. The website gave directions to the parking garage which costs $10 and entry was $9. I drove around the museum's block FOUR TIMES and could never find the parking. So I parked in what I thought MIGHT be the parking for the museum and found that it was $18 - UP FRONT. But the museum was worth it. I walk in the door looking like a drowned rat and making a big puddle on the floor as I pay my fee. They take the soggy sponge I call a coat from me and I slosh my way to the ladies' room to try to dry off a bit. After LOTS of paper towels, I am ready to wander happily looking at stuff from the 1920's and later. When I reclaim my coat, the guy says, "So, did you see anything you liked?" I paused (HE thought it was because I was in deep thought - but I was deciding if I should make the first wise-ass comment I thought of or be nice. I chose nice). I replied (in an educated elitist intellectual way, "It was like meeting old friends." The gum-chewing young woman behind the counter said, "Oh that's so sweet." Hmmm....... Second Day: No rain - Thank God! So off to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) and the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. Now the Tar Pit visit wasn't really planned. But they are right next to each other and so I thought Why Not? As you walk around the Tar Pits (which are fenced off holes in the ground filled with water and leaves and don't look very dangerous or pitty), you SMELL the tar. One of the pits is being excavated and you can look into the excavation and see..... well, water and leaves and holes and wooden braces and tools..... The museum has a wooly mammoth that moves and moans VERY LOUDLY as if it was.... well, whatever wooly mammoths moan about. And there is a skeleton of a saber toothed tiger that goes dark and then when the lights come back on, it has fur and eyes and looks hungry. I overheard one young guy say to the young lady he was escorting around that the tiger used to be his favorite part of the museum and he would watch it change for HOURS. I tried to picture the patient parents standing around waiting..... When I got tired of the tar smell, I went to LACMA to check out more art. The collection was great and the space is very modern. The parking is easy to find and only $7. And on Tuesday (which it was) the museum is FREE. Day Three: Went to the Huntington Museum in Pasadena. It was the home of some VERY wealthy people who liked collecting 18th C. art and furniture. Now most of the stuff in the house is French as Arabella Huntington wanted a house just like Marie Antoinette's. Hmmm....... I am not a fan of the Rococo, so I admired the beautiful rooms and architecture and skimmed over the art and furniture. It was all that gilded stuff that seems so fragile that if you sat on it, it would shatter. And all the portraits are of soft slightly pink slightly chubby women who are over dressed in ruffles and frills. See my bias? The gardens are really amazing - acres of space devoted to different types of plants - desert, Japanese Tea garden, rose garden, lily ponds..... At least that is what the map said. The museum is only open from 12 noon to 4:30pm. And I got there at 1:30 and spent WAY too much time with the chubby people. So by the time I got outside, it was getting dark-ish and I HAD to save time for the gift shop. If you go to the Huntington, you MUST do the gift shop. It was listed as one of the best museum gift shops and IT IS!! I got GREAT stocking stuffers and gifts there. So I guess I'll just have to go back to see the gardens. Day Four: I only had a half day as we were driving to San Diego in the afternoon. So I went to the Museum of Natural History. Again, parking was easy to find and $8. Entry fee was $9. But as I walked up to the massive building which was built in the 30's, I notice HORDES of children arriving and going in. When I got to the entrance desk, I asked if they allowed adults in who didn't have any children with them. They assured me that they did and told me that it was school field trip day...... Lucky me! This museum is like the one in the movie about the guard in the Smithsonian. Lots of dioramas of critters in their "natural" habitat with dim lighting and big echoey spaces and ancient bathrooms with antique plumbing and WIDE marble stairs. And, best of all, in the entrance rotunda is a HUGE tyrannosaurus and triceratops FIGHTING. Well.... the BONES are fighting. Although I'm not sure why the T-Rex would WANT to chew on a triceratops that was THAT boney. But, besides the dead animals, I saw live insects like a black widow spider.... COOL! Day Five: Finally, the Getty. Now, the Getty has been the the art news alot lately for problems with ownership of the art they have. So the museum is free - I'm not really sure that is why it is free, but I like to think that they dropped the entrance fee to improve their image. And parking is $15 - that includes the tram ride to the top of the hill and the museum which Natalie and I saw.... IN THE RAIN. The Getty has some amazing art - I LOVE the manuscripts that they have. And they have some of the classic paintings like Van Gogh's Irises. But this was Day Five of museums and Natalie had just finished a week of hard finals, so we were both a bit tired. And when we saw the Degas painting "After the Bath" (see image on side), well..... we got to giggling. The poor girl looks like she just fell getting out of the tub and the lady just caught her by the hair. It reminded me of some of the wonderful cards of Renaissance art with great captions..... like Raphael's "Love's Arrows" which shows a young maiden about to be shot with arrows held by a gaggle of baby cherubs and the caption says "Lucretia is soon to discover that sometimes, love hurts." Now Natalie and I are VERY sophisticated intellectual ladies and we weren't guffawing or rolling around on the floor or bumping into people. We were just standing in front of the painting and giggling. And a Getty guard comes over and says, in a dark and smarmy voice "Can I help you find something?" (Implied addition - like your decorum??). So, if you do go to the Getty, DON'T LAUGH AT ANY OF THE ART. That is NOT OK in a really sophisticated museum.