Thursday, July 9, 2009

At Least They Built a Tram to Get You There

I love the lackadaisical days of summer. I'm not one to put my kids into summer camps or sign them up for activities that require keeping a schedule. We're a fly by the seat of our pants summertime family. We kick it at the beach, lounge by my parents the pool, see a movie, hit an amusement park, and even get some exercise cultured at the museum.

Have you ever been to the Getty? It is an enormous structure situated at the top of the mountain off the 405 freeway and overlooks the all of Los Angeles and on a clear day the ocean is visible. When the conceptual designs were drawn and mock ups made; I envision it being something like the Kohler commercial. Where that uber dirty stinking rich couple walks into a design firm and the wife whips out a bathroom sink faucet from her designer bag - the kind that only she and Oprah can obtain - and says to the architect, "design our house around this". And the architect puts his palms together and rests his chin in a thoughtful pose atop his fingertips and is like, it will be minimalist and fierce because I'm so fabulous. He didn't have to say it out loud - I read it in his eyes.

Only in the case of the Getty, the chairman in charge of building stuff whipped out a flight of stairs and said, give the people something to climb, pull a hamstring, and that puts them closer to God.

Just getting started

It was either go down these stairs or walk my kids past a wall of full frontal nudity photos and I wasn't in the mood to explain excessive bush growth to my 5 year old, you understand.

Weren't we already here? I think we're going in circles.


Not to feel left out -even the garden features boast steps.

We pause on this bench to rest and strike a pose.

And hydrate and giggle.


*photos by Dorothy Z.

12 comments:

smalltownme said...

I was going to go there on Monday. But now...stairs? Ugh.

Swirl Girl said...

not only stairs - but the museum was evacuated yesterday because of a wildfire.

it is an amazing place with an awesome cactus garden..

---maybe the whole million steps thing was created to make people pay attention to details instead of plowing through things....?

Karen said...

Did you make it to the top? Where are the photos of the top?

Madge said...

just looking at those stairs wore me out.

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Looks awesome. I guess with my asthma I wouldn't last very long!

Lisa..... said...

I have been wanting to go there. It's on my list of things to do in SoCal that I have yet to do. Thanks for that peak into it.

Glennis said...

Wait, whoa, were you there during the fire?

I do love the Getty and it's been ages since I've been there. Love the garden.

stephanie said...

I am weary. Were you trying to sell this as a fun thing to do?

Jen on the Edge said...

Art + exercise = AWESOME! You can work out your brain and get cardio at the same time. :-)

Mrs. G. said...

I would like a video of you explaining the overgrown bush.

Susanne said...

Love, love, love the Getty! They have an awesome children's museum, and their traveling exhibits are awesome. Plus, it's free, you only have to pay for parking.

If you live in the L.A. area and have never been, please go (in spite of the stairs). You won't be sorry.

Annje said...

Way too many stairs! What exactly is the mood for explaining excessive bush growth