The Getty

On Wednesday, Dad and I made another delicious stop at Elysee for breakfast before heading out to the Getty.  Dad said that this is often the highlight of people's trips to LA.  To get to the museum you have to park down low and then you take a little cable-car ride up to the top.  As soon as we got high enough to see the museum, I immediately knew why it was such a special place.

My jaw just dropped to the floor; it's so spectacularly beautiful.  There is so much to see that it would be impossible to take it all in, in just one day (or even three days), so we focused on their special travelling exhibits.  First, some black and white photographs from the mid to late 1800's of China, Korea, and India.  It's amazing to see what real life was like back then and the architecture and panoramic landscapes were amazing.

They also had a really interesting educational exhibit on how old (Renaissance era) drawings are repaired and revitalized.  Obviously a 600 year old scrap of paper was probably not intended to be kept and would've been treated poorly, but now if that drawing was done by some famous master in preparation for an important painting then it's great to be able to preserve that.

We stopped for lunch at the museum's fine dining restaurant.

Amanda:  What is the soup du jour?
Snooty waiter with silly foreign accent:  The soup du jour is the soup of the day.
A: Do you just have one?
S: Yes, the soup du jour is the soup of the day so we just have one.
A: What is it?
S: The soup of the day.
A: But what is it?
S: Soup du Jour

Other than the soup debacle, lunch was wonderful.  The restaurant had enormous glass windows with views of the entire city along with ritzy hillside homes.  I had the duck confit frittata with dried figs, goat cheese, and mixed spring greens which was delicious, but not as good as Dad's braised beef short ribs.

After lunch we checked out their "main" traveling exhibit; a collection of French Illuminated Manuscripts from 1250-1500.  The lights were very dim due to the fragility of the books so it gave a little bit of a mystical, magical feeling to the rooms.  The amount of detail that went into these small (sometimes really small) paintings was amazing.  I could feel my eyes straining just to look at them, I can't imagine trying to paint one.  There were some funny details, such as a painting of the battle of Troy depicting knights in shining suits of metal armor and rushing into a turreted castle.  Not exactly historically accurate :)  I look forward to future visits to the Getty to see even more f what it has to offer, but we had a very full day.

All the boys (Dad, Alexis, and Crit) and I went to Napa Valley Grille for dinner.  I had heard them talk about this place many times before so I knew it was someplace I had to visit while in LA and I'm so glad we did.  Plus, they added an "e" to "grill" so you know that they're fancy.  We got some grilled flatbread with butternut squash puree, caramelized pears, toasted pecans, and blue cheese.  Wow!  I got wild diver scallops with prosciutto, sunchokes, and parsnips.  The boys got salmon, pork chop, and duck.  Everyone left with a full belly and a smile on their face, but that's not all!  Back at the house we had homemade key lime pie for dessert.  Thanks Alexis!  Perfect ending to a great day.