Getty Villa (June 11)

As a birthday treat, I decided to drag the boys to the Getty Villa.  I had always wanted to see it.  And come to find out, there's actually the Getty Villa and then there's the Getty Museum.  It's a good thing I found that out before our time-entry visit!  Bobby would definitely not find that amusing, especially having to drive in that LA traffic!

It didn't take us long to be amazed by all that was around us, including this ceiling!

It's crazy to think that old man Getty didn't even see the completion of this villa:

After telling the story of J. Paul Getty, the boys weren't too sure if they liked the man or not. Especially after explaining the story of his grandson's kidnapping.  Well, if anything at least we are able to enjoy some of his wealth:

I'm not too sure about the eyes on these statues though.  Just a tad scary?!

The fire/emergency alarm went off not long after.  Charlie went straight to Daddy to protect him from the loud noise!  Thankfully, it was a false alarm:

There were lots of interesting artifacts and items - including these tablets with written notes on them.  Can you imagine having to carve your letter on a rock??! Yikes! And how would you deliver it???

The marble statues are quite something but I think I was mostly blown away by the intricate designs on the floor:

Every room/floor was different.  Isn't it amazing!

Some of these collections were so super old.  Unbelievable:

This peacock was a mosaic tile from a floor in Syria if I remember correctly.  So precious:

See what I mean about the floor!  And this was an amazing sarcophagus of ancient Greece:

We had a good laugh when we saw this one side of the sarcophagus.  There's a animation/cartoon that we've watched with the boys called "Sherman and Mr. Peabody" and when these characters visit ancient Greece, they come across the soldiers hiding in the wooden horse. And one of them said, "Smell my victory!" while lifting his arm-pit up. It's just like this scene below! Ha ha! 

A view of the very inviting pool on the lower level:

Check out the carved-in banister in the stairwell:

More amazing flooring!!!

These sculptures were super old:

I can't imagine collecting things like these.  It's probably a good thing we don't have the space for it :-)

And oh, some more amazing tiles work and hand-painted art:

Maybe we'll come back to see the herb garden next time.  Seems like a big project!

Up the steps of the auditorium to get to the cafe:

I'm glad I pre-ordered so I didn't have to deal with the wait.  Yummy dessert!!!

That banoffee was outstanding! I guess you can't go wrong with banana and toffee?! YUMMM....!

Back to wondering outside of the villa.  This corridor is massive and the entire length of it is hand-painted:

I love these windows:

Not sure if you can actually see it, but the window patterns are solid but the frame is actually hand-painted.  Just amazing!

No dipping any body parts into the pool!!!

It's like the clearest water ever!  It really is too bad we can't jump around in it :-P

The boys are pretending to be running off like the statue in between them:

More amazing ceiling work and interesting tile on the roof.  They almost look like caps so the gaps of the roof tiles are not exposed for the birds to make nests in:

I love this photo of Graham and Charlie.  What a place!

I was trying to do a selfie with this statue - where I'm pretending to be laying down just like it.  Didn't work out so well.  Ha ha!

This little spot with the semi-circle concrete bench was an interesting find.  If you stand right in the middle of that mosaic circle and talk, the sound bounces off the bench and is amplified in some weird way. So cool! I wonder how many people actually missed this because there was no signage whatsoever about it's awesome feature:

One last family we-fie at the Getty Villa:

I love doors... and I love this one :-)

There were these big blue dots on the floor in the elevator and this was Bobby's form of social distancing in the elevator. LOL!

I thought this little corridor was a fun one for a photo.  I was having the boys to the "dab".  Probably would have liked a few other photos but they were getting pretty tired.  I guess I can only push so much:

On the way home, I took a photo of this house with this HUGE bougainvillea plant. Woah!!!

And... we're back in traffic on the infamous I-405.  This is probably the only reason why we don't like going anywhere in and around LA. YIKES!!!

It took us over an hour just to get home. Only 25+ miles and yet, still so far.  Thankfully Bobby was able to stay alert because the boys and I were in snooze-land not too long after we hit all that traffic.  Another adventure checked off.  Now that we're on summer break, I'll have to make another timed-entry/appointment to visit the Getty Museum.  Hopefully it won't be too busy now that LA has mostly reopened!