los angeles

As I said earlier, I was a sub-nanny in LA for my awesome friend Anna while she celebrated her birthday in Europe.

view from street, south side

if it was dark, you could see everything all lit up

different day, view from street, north side

The first week, I took a little trip to the Getty Museum in Malibu.

inside courtyard

If I had one color to describe this trip, it would be blue.

Then, a trip to Santa Clarita.

Then, a trip to San Luis Obispo, with the nanny family.  The kids didn't have school on Monday and so their mom decided that she wanted to take a short trip up north to check our this little town.  We stayed in this hotel called Madonna Inn.  It is the love child of an architect who married an interior designer whose favorite color must have been pink.  EVERYTHING was pink: the walls, the soap, the key cards, etc etc.  And each room had a theme of some sort, like a safari room where everything was animal prints.  We stayed in a Sir/Knight room.

So it has a feel of an olde English home.

We ate at the restaurant that night and it was a yummy steak house with an explosion of pink.

huge pink flowers and cupids

the kids goofin in the huge pink cushioned chairs

surrounded by pink pink pink

The next day, we swam in the pool and then explored SLO.  It's a cute little college town that also caters to the tourism.  It has a gum wall alleyway like the one in Seattle.

me and the kids

It was a cute town and it made me miss my undergrad days.

Anna came home Tuesday night and we played when we didn't have the kids.

Wednesday, we went to Century Mall on Santa Monica to see "10 Years" and then talked about what it would be like at our 10 year high school reunion over Pinkberry.  

Here's what we were trying to figure out:

1. Who would be the one who was popular/a party-er in high school, but then went on to be a nobody?

2. Who would marry their high school sweetheart?

3. If you had the chance to "hook-up" with any guy from high school, who would you pick at the ten year reunion?

4. Who was the "one that got away," or the friend from high school you'd like to connect with?

Anna and I graduated from the same high school and same graduating class, so it was fun trying to remember the people we went to high school with and stories from those days.  I can't believe our reunion will only be in 5.5 years.

Thursday was the dad's birthday, so I made a cake and Anna made dinner.  

that kid just cracks me up.

Thursday night, Anna and I people-watched on 3rd Street Promenade and then saw "Premium Rush" (we like to watch movies...).  And then I wanted to pick up and move to New York.

Friday, we hit up the beach (which, if you couldn't tell, was a 5 second drive away from their house).  The water was awesome, even though I was afraid of getting eaten by a shark and we enjoyed ourselves even though Anna was afraid of all of the pigeons.  

I love the beach mostly because I love being warm. And so this day was perfect :)

you can see LA/Santa Monica in the distance

I was so so so so so sad to go and I can't wait to go visit Anna, again!!! 

Michelle's Guide to the J. Paul Getty Museum

Location: off of the PCH in Santa Monica by West Sunset.
Price: free
Parking: at the museum, $15. Or you can drop off at the entrance
Duration: 1.5-3 hours

Located on the cliffs above the PCH and the California coast, this museum was created from the personal collection of J. Paul Getty. He was the richest man in America during his peak in the oil industry and he used his wealth to collect art and artifacts. When he died, he left it for the people of California.
Before you visit, you have to have a ticket printed out online. Good news: it's free! Bad news: parking is $15 (is the museum really "free"??).
You have to print the ticket first because you verify it at the gate. You get a certain time, but I called and they said that I could go up to an hour earlier. That's possibly for the off-season, though.
I was a TA for a classics class and took a few during my undergrad so I have found a love for Greek and Roman history and mythology. To my delight, I found that the collection at the Villa is Greek and Roman artifacts.
My favorite from the permanent collection is the Lansdowne Herakles statue on the first floor. I also liked the gold laurel victory crown/wreath from Olympian games a long time ago.

There also was a temporary exhibit inspired by the last days at Pompeii. They had a couple of casts of people that they found preserved by the debris from Vesuvius, which was cool. And I loved this painting:

The Destruction of Pompeii by John Martin

I'm a fast museum-er so know that you can spend more time if you want. They have guided tours that take 40 minutes, so you can easily spend a few hours if you take your time. If you're interested in Greek and Roman artifacts, spend an afternoon at the Getty Villa!