Today was a very ambitious schedule. We had tickets to the Getty Villa at 11:00 am, lunch afterwards, and the Cleopatra exhibit at the California Science Center before 5:00 pm. Traffic was so light this morning that even though we left a little later than originally planned, we still had time to pull off the freeway to a Starbucks, next to the Fox premier theater, for a little morning coffee and baked delights.
The Getty Villa is in Pacific Palisades overlooking the Santa Monica bay and is a museum about Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts. And in Roman style, the steep driveway up to the museum is done in cobblestones, which while lending to the theme of the museum, are not the least bit functional for a modern car. Then, once you park, you must ascend about 10 flights of zig-zagging stairs just to get to the docent counter to pick up a map and be told you have to go up, and then down, two more flights of steps to get to the actual entrance of the museum. It was like a horrible real life M.C. Escher painting.
We visited as much of the 1st floor in the first 30 minutes as we could, pushing the elderly and crippled to the curb, so that we could catch one of the tours at 11:30. They were offering an architecture or garden tour. I chose the garden tour first thinking that if we were going to be outside we might as well do it first before it got any hotter. There were four gardens at the Getty that we were given a tour of, all of which the guide had elaborate stories for that I've long since forgotten. I guess you had to be there.
On the second story of the Getty Villa they had a special exhibit about Pompeii, but you couldn't take photos so you'll just have to trust me that it was very interesting. I think we ended up leaving Getty around 2:00 pm and headed back into Westwood for lunch at Noodle World which really did turn out to be everything Wilson promised and more.
I had chicken curry with rice and it was deeeelicious. After lunch we went over to Wilson's work where she brilliantly, I mean accidentally, left the Cleopatra vouchers. I got to meet her co-workers and check out the corner of the dungeon she works in.
Then it was a mad dash to Cleopatra since it was coming up on 4:00 pm and we didn't know when the last reserved time they issued was since they close at 5:00 pm. We got to the ticket counter at 4:10 pm where they tried to tell us the last ticket reservation they have for that exhibit was at 3:30 pm because they suggest at least an hour and a half to get through it all, but Wilson wasn't having it. She explained that she'd already been through it before (which she had) and I said I was an out of towner so we couldn't reschedule like they were trying to suggest to us. Finally, if we promised to be done by 5:00 pm they would still let us in. So off we raced to the third floor to get through the exhibit as quickly as possible.
These were all artifacts that had recently been excavated out of the water where the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria used to be. These two statues were enormous. I don't even think I came up to their knees. There were lots of coins, jewelry, and figurines, but the most impressive piece was a portion of a scroll that was declaring that a friend of Marc Antony's was exempt from paying taxes and it was actually signed by Cleopatra. I had to take a photo of the screen next to the exhibit because the actual scroll was so dimly lit that it was hard to see and you couldn't use flash photography.
They were saying that there's no known images of Cleopatra (other than coins) to know what she actually looked like since after her defeat the Roman's destroyed all known images of her. So I guess we'll have to stick with Elizabeth Taylor in the meantime.
After Cleopatra we came home through super slow traffic that at least allowed for a nice nap for me. Then Wilson was kind enough to stop at a Whole Foods around the corner from her house so that I could peruse and drool over all the awesome stuff they have. I did find a gluten free meadow muffin to have with breakfast tomorrow and a gluten and dairy free coconut creme pie to split with Wilson later for dessert which is never going to come if I don't get off the computer and start making us some dinner!
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