A Happenin' Place

Note: This is the last entry on this blog site. Our next trip will be at:

http://john-mimi3.blogspot.com/

Friday turned out to be a day of relaxation and rest. Being on vacation isn't easy! We started out toward Santa Monica, but realized that it was still fogged-in, and may be that way the rest of the day. So we returned to the campground and relaxed in the warm sunny weather there. Later that afternoon we went into Malibu and returned to the Thai restaurant we liked so much before for a repeat performance of dinner.



Saturday it was much sunnier by the ocean, and we drove south to Santa Monica to visit the farmers market. Mimi had read about the market in the New York Times, so it had to be good!







The market was a colorful place with flowers and great looking food. Pricey, but high quality.




We bought several cheeses from a specialty farm there. Giving out free samples was a great sales technique, and it worked with us. Mimi also bought some baby bok choy and strawberries. She also bought some rare tomato plants. The farmer roots in her took over.

Afterward we rode our bikes to the Santa Monica Pier, as we did on Tuesday. It was much more active this time.


Zoltar beckoned us to do a "reading", so Mimi slipped him a dollar.

We also took a ride on the ferris wheel and did some more people watching. It's fun to watch the tourists try to go swimming in 50 degree water. Must be from Minnesota.





There were many musical groups playing on the pier and boardwalk. I think L.A. has a lot of talented people who can't support themselves with their gift.

Saturday night we had a nice fire. The campground was full, but the people were well-behaved, especially considering that most were from L.A.

The Sunday ride home was fast and uneventful. A nice little trip for being away from home for a week.

Time to start planning for our next big trip - New Mexico....

Another Great Place

Another great place. It turns out that the Getty mansion is actually another museum, but a very special one. Getty was fascinated with Roman architecture and decided to reproduce a Roman villa which was buried and subsequently excavated after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius near Pompeii. The villa was owned by Piso, the father-in-law of Julius Cesar.

The idea was to show the lifestyle of the folks who lived at that time. A family would have about 100 servants taking care of them, cleaning, building, growing food, providing entertainment, etc.

Detail of ceiling in main room.

The objective of Roman architecture was to combine functionality with beauty, which the villa does very well. The living rooms in the villa square are filled with examples of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art. Some rooms are devoted to statues of gods of the times, such as Herakles. (I think he left something at home when he posed for this - can you identify it?)

Family entertainment center.

The floor materials are made of eleven types of marble, carved and fitted like stained glass.

The walls of the main reflecting pond are hand painted Fresco-style.

Here is one of the local goddesses. A rare depiction of Mimi, goddess of beauty and the culinary arts.

All of the vegetation represents what was used in Roman times. The ponds contain papyrus, used to make their paper.

The west garden with pond and alcove.

Detail of alcove.

The main reflecting pool with a statue of a drunken satyr.

Some gold household dining implements.

The god Mercury taking a break.

Summary: Another winner! Every facet of this place was designed to convey a period of Roman life to the detail. Not just another museum to house artifacts.

Some details - admission is free but reservations are necessary. Arrive after 1:00 p.m. on a weekday to avoid hordes of school children.

Web site: http://www.getty.edu/museum/

Wow !

Today is the Getty Museum. But first, we'll start with breakfast. Last night we had an excellent Thai meal with Pad Thai noodles and spicy shrimp and scallops. This morning, Mimi used the leftovers to invent a fried rice/egg foo young/omelet. I fried up the rice with some green onions and sesame oil (doesn't everyone stock this in a motor-home kitchen. I then added two eggs which blended with the rice. Then I put the spicy shrimp and scallops on top. The pad thai noodles were served on the side. Pretty good for camping.

We arrived t the Getty about 10:30 am and parked in their multilevel garage. There is an automated train to shuttle us to the main area.

Wow! A truly beautiful facility.

There is a 360 degree view of L.A. from the museum. Best spot in L.A.

The grounds are spectacular also.

They have an orientation tour with personal sound amplifiers, so you can wander around viewing the works while still listening to the lecturer.

Humm... Wonder who painted this? Must have some talent.

Another beauty...

Most of the paintings had very vibrant colors - a product of good restoration and excellent lighting. The lighting for paintings is natural, controlled by slats in the ceiling. On cloudy days it is supplemented by artificial light. Also, almost no paintings are covered by glass, eliminating reflections.

Another view of the landscape...

The central plaza area...

Summary: I had high expectations for the Getty. They were easily exceeded. The best part is that it's free! (once you pay the $8 parking fee). Prices in the cafe were reasonable, and services great. On a nice day, one can just ramble around the grounds, enjoying the scenery and views. A must see if in L.A.

This shows you what can be done with 1 billion dollars, when you don't blow it on jet bombers.

Tomorrow: Getty Villa

Woo Woo, Malibu!

We left home Monday morning at about 10:00 am and arrived at our campground about 1:00 pm. Three hours to travel 150 miles - directly through L.A. Not bad time at all, considering. Big, bad L.A. traffic was tame, with no stop and go. Shows what a little timing can do. Being retired allows us to pick the day and time to travel, which is a great benefit when dealing with the traffic in big cities. No guarantee of light traffic, but it sure increases the odds.


After arriving in LA, we took I 10 West, which runs into Coastal Rt. 1 - directly into the famous Malibu area. A bit of a let-down though. Malibu really consists of rows of townhouse-like sturctures crammed together, wall to wall, with Hwy 1 (a busy 4 lane) running three feet by them. Of course the houses face the beach and Pacific ocean. Pulling out of the built-in garage onto the highway must be quite a feat.

We turned right onto Malibu Canyon Rd, drove by Pepperdine University (bastion of Republican think tanks), and proceeded about 8 miles north to the campground. The campground itself is in a very nice valley. Rolling green hills and rocky outcrops give it a feel of being in Oregon. Hard to imagine that Big, Bad L.A. is just a few miles away.

Our campsite is great! There are just a few campers in the park - mostly tenters. We like tenters - they are usually quiet and go to bed when it gets dark. We also like to watch them in the rain, and on a cold morning, jumping around to get warm (We call their dance the "Tenters Stomp".

The sign explains the unusual geology of the area, making it visually interesting and desirable for movie making. The mountains in the background from our campsite may be familiar to you - they are the ones in the opening scene of MASH. As a matter of fact, the MASH series was filmed in the back of the park.

In the main parking lot were lots of "movie vans" containing filming equipment. I asked a worker what was being made today, and he replied "Witches Mountain". Maybe soon we will take our bikes into the back part of the park and see whats up. Mimi wants to volunteer to be an "extra".

Tuesday is "Boardwalk Day". We took the bikes to the Santa Monica area and began riding several miles along the boardwalk. It was chilly and overcast, chasing away the crowds that are usually present.

These are some shops that line the boardwalk in some areas.

One area that I wanted to see was Muscle Beach. It's part of a sports complex by the City of Venice. But, "Where's the beef?" Nobody was working out! Mimi was disappointed, wanting to see some beefcake.

Santa Monica peer is very photogenic. An amusement park, shops, and resturants jut into the ocean.

The Great Zoltar still lives. He's been updated to speak Spanish if you push the red button. Your future will now cost a dollar!

An art tool by the pier. This concrete roller is about 6 ft high and weighs several tons. There are designs imprinted on it, so that when it rolls on the sand, it makes a flat surface with lots of patterns. It was made in the '80's when cities had money to blow.

We had lunch on the pier, eating at "Bubba Gumps" a shrimp house. Although lunch was $30, it was good. Mimi had cajun shrimp peelers and I had a chicken salad.

On the way back to the campground we saw some beautiful houses on the cliffs overlooking the beach. This is where the serious money resides.

Unfortunately, nature doesn't respect money that much. Here is a place where a major landslide occurred. Wonder what nice house took a ride down to the highway?

Tomorrow: The Getty Museum

Latest News

Well, we are several days away from our "mini trip" to the San Bernadino Mountains just north of L.A. Our plan is to camp there, and drive into the city during the day to visit museums, bike the boardwalk, etc. This will be a prelude to our major New Mexico trip in early May.



The big news is that I'm In Bidness (thats Texan for business). That's right. I've figured out a way to make some money as we travel to help pay for the outrageous gas prices, as well as taking a tax deduction for part of our travel. It all started on our last trip, where we had a nasty chip on our windshield on our way to a seminar series on RVing. At the seminar, there was an RVer who had a windshield chip fixing business. I watched as he fixed mine, and he was very helpful with all of the questions that I bombarded him with. What a perfect little business! RV windshields are very expensive, and it's best to fix small chips and cracks as soon as possible, so that they don't expand into larger ones. Repair it now $ or replace it later $$$$.



My equipment consists of a ladder and glass tool kit. Advertising is by magnetic signs on our tow vehicle. And that's it! I'll let you know how things progress while we are on the road.



This is a picture of a cactus in our yard. It's springtime here already. Mimi has been harvesting sugar peas and lettuce. Our trees are producing limes, lemons, oranges and grapefruit. A regular garden of Eden.

We are currently doing "packing" which consists of us transferring much of our household to the motorhome. It's the least enjoyable part of traveling. Our cats are becoming suspicious because of the increase in activity. They hate the first few days of traveling, then settle down. Poor Puddies! At least we don't make them drive or buy gas.

On the right side of the blog page are links under My Favorites. You may want to check them out. Briefly, Tioga George is a good friend and the "Grand daddy" of full-time RVing and blogging. Nick is also a full-timer and publishes a newspaper and books on RVing. Michel is a fulltimer from Europe who is a world traveler and professional photographer currently working in India. Geeks On Tour are a full-timing couple who do educational stuff about computers. Their site is a gold mine of information. Peter is a retired business executive who is touring the U.S. in his giant motorhome. He aspires to be a professional model airplane pilot. Finally, Daily Coyote is about a gal living in a log cabin and raising a coyote as a pet. These are the people we meet on the road.


And don't forget to check our trip progress and current location with the Google link provided.