The Getty

If you are ever in LA, I strongly recommend seeing the Getty. This museum is abolsutely gorgeous, both indoors and out. Inside people can listen to audio clips about different pieces of art, or if you are a lucky soul like myself, one of the museum workers will decide they want to teach you French and tell you all about French history attached to each piece of work. Here I learned the French pronounciation to cartoon.

The gardens in the Getty Museum are gorgeous. These gardens are hand designed down to the last flower. You can't really see it in the picture, but the waterfall goes down into a large pond where the shrubbery there twirls and twines in on itself. It is just breath taking.

Then take a walk outside to see the cactus gardens, but pay attention to the walls you walk past. You just might find a fossil in the wall! I did. The walls are scattered with little leaf and shell fossils.

Once you are up at the cactus gardens,

you can see almost all of LA. When you are there looking out, all of the buildings with terracota roofs are all part of UCLA. Let me tell you, it is a large campus but the view is just amazing.

Hearst Castle

If you thought that America had no castles, then guess again! Welcome to Hearst Castle. This place is four stories high, with at least four towers and the house alone is 11,ooo square feet. This does not include the mile or so drive up the hill, where it was said that Hearst let animals roam, to the house nor the outdoor pools and tennis courts.

Hearst was a man all about the antiquities. He loved to collect original artifacts from Greece as well as orginal texts. The picture to the right is the outdoor pool with real columns from Ancient Greece. Everything is either from Ancient Greece or was marble. All in all, abolustely gorgeous. The picture above is the side of the main house with its balcony outside the bedrooms. Guests did not stay inside the main building. Instead they had their own building that was completely furnished. Guests only ever needed to leave to get food from the dining room/kitchen. Otherwise the guests in the guest house would never have to leave.

The picture to the left is of Hearst's indoor pool. The wall, floor and even the inside of the pool is all hand crafted mosaic tile. The craziest thing of all though, is this isn't even the whole pool. The pool would not fit in the lense of my camera. Whereever there is an indentation, the pool actually continues a couple of feet into those crevaces. That's not all either! In these crooks are marble statues. This is another must see if you are ever in California.

Muir Woods

If you are near San Fransisco, then I would recommend also visiting Muir Woods. Here you can see redwood trees that are centuries old. There was one tree that had been there since 1776 and was one of the smallest ones there!

While you are there, you have the option of three different trails to take, the smallest trail is about a mile round trip and the longest was around 5 miles. I personally walked the medium length one and found it a really relaxing walk. Chronic texters beware though....there is NO service throughout the trail.

The trail is gorgeous though, the picture to the left was taken while I was standing on a bridge looking out to the stream. The sun filtered through the trees so gracefully and just gave you this calming feeling while you were there.

The picture to the right is one of my favorites from that day. That was my attempt to take a full picture of a redwood but as you can see, it did not work out as planned. The craziest thing about walking through here is seeing just how small you are compared to these trees. The diameter of some of these trees are five feet at least! I would definitely say this is a place to stop and see when in California :) Tah and toodles.

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West Coast!

This past summer I spent three weeks in the lovely California. Much to my surprise going to California in May means the weather is actually really mild....and if you are a heat lover like me then it was borderline cold some days. The first night I was there, after finding the hotel La Playa de Rey, my family and I went to eat at a really good restaurant Minotaur. I strongly recommend this place if you are ever in Los Angeles. I had my first taste of some Spanish food and realized that I like paella a lot actually.

I will say for those who plan on travelling to California, San Fransisco is quite chilly. (The picture above is the picture of a sunset in San Fransisco overlooking San Fransisco Bay.) While I was there, the residents would comment that the next day was going to be a real warm one and I remember getting so excited until I stepped outside. It may be 60 degrees outside but with the wind chill it felt closer to 40. I won't lie though, the weather may be chilly but the landscape was gorgeous.