It all lines up

The beach at Santa Monica... there's miles and miles and miles of sand... and hardly anyone on it.

Palm tree at Santa Monica... they are SO tall and there's loads of them.

We spent the day at the John Paul Getty Centre... or Center as they spell it here. What a fabulous place.

This is in the central plaza. I did an architecture tour while we were at the centre and the guide explained that everything is based on a 30 inch square. So each of those blocks of stone on the building is 30 inches, and the aluminium squares around the windows are 30 inches and the windows are 60 inches. And what makes it so attractive to me is that it all lines up. You can see how the lines between the windows line up exactly with the lines between the aluminium squares and where the aluminium meets the stone in the corner, it lines up, and where the stone meets the floor, the lines between the stones line up with the lines between the blocks on the floor. Very pleasing to the eye.
One of the eateries. We had lunch here and it was excellent - and great value. The whole centre is great value... it's free to get in (my favourite price) - just ten dollars to park the car.

This was one of my favourite piece of art at the Getty. It's Delusions of Grandeur by Rene Magritte. I loved the fact that none of the collection was behind ropes, you can go right up to it and examine it closely... even Van Gogh's Irises, the Monets, Gainsboroughs, Cezannes... you can get close enough to see every brush stroke. And you can photograph it... such an alien concept... so alien that I couldn't bring myself to do it!
I just loved these - located in the central garden. The structures are metal and the bourganvillea grows up through the core and spills out in a froth of flowers at the top.

This is the cactus garden at the south end of the centre and it represents Southern California.

And this is the north end, representing Northern California. You can land your helicopter on the circle at the end. And over to the right is the San Diego Freeway. The only thing I've not liked about LA is driving on the freeway - scary!!! We switched the Sat Nav to take us on the shortest route rather than the quickest and that's kept us off the freeways and finding much more interesting parts of town.

But for us, that's it for LA. Today (Friday) we head for the bright lights of Las Vegas!

Take care, All.

Much love,

xx