The Getty! in LA

 Wow!  I was so impressed with this place!  Ilana, Ben, and Griffin took me here.  First off, The Getty Center offered incredible views of the LA area.  The museum is nestled at the top of a ridge and you can see pockets of skyscrapers, and out to several of the islands off shore.  Way too cool.

It was the type of place where you just feel completely at peace and far-removed, leaving you to really appreciate aesthetics.  As a museum-goer, you park your car at the base of the mountain and wait for an automated 3-car tram to come and take you up to the top.  Very cool and atypical museum experience.

Super cute family, right?

Ilana, Ben, and Griffin frequent the Getty quite a bit.  Griffin really likes the tram ride and the cactus garden..

Griffin's fav part of the Getty

 Griffin absolutely loves the cacti around his house and that you see all over LA, but the cactus garden had a ton of different types all in one space.  Griffin has very interesting likes and dislikes, I loved learning about him during my visit.  And though he's more articulate than most kid's twice his age, he is still 3 and still needs food and sleep on very regular schedules..so we had to leave pretty soon after getting there.  Ben and I did a lightning quick appreciation of a Cuba photograph exhibit as we passed through the building back to the tram..

I was smiling every other second, I swear

 I'm pretty used to having to walk away from really cool museums/places of interest after just getting a taste--in Paris a few years ago I got to see a lot of places but like at Versailles, I had to just do a quick run through of the stunning rooms of the chateau itself in something like 35 minutes before closing because I had spent all day walking the grounds and seeing the other little buildings of the palace! 

Chik*n wings, sweet potato fries, purple slaw

For dinner that night we ordered in Veggie Grill--sounds unassuming and kinda boring but it was anything but.  They offer up all-american fast food that's all totally veg.  The mango cobb salad with tangy lemon dressing and tempeh, chik*n, and bac*n was out of this world too.  Ilana and Ben also took me to Cafe Gratitude (L.A. location)!!---Out of this world..luckily I had learned a bit from my blogger friend Natalie about CG so I didn't completely freak out at the coolness.  All of the menu items are self-empowering statements like, "I am Eternally Youthful" (vanilla milkshake) the kind of hip place where all the cheeses--ricotta, mozzarella, etc. are made of nuts, several of the entrees, even enchiladas, and nachos are raw, and kombucha is on tap!  Ilana and I had fresh sangria.  Some people aren't too fond of the "hippy-dippy"ness of the whole empowering statements or whatevs, but I don't think that anyone can argue that their food isn't insanely good and that their spattering of crazy cool veg restaurants along the CA coast isn't a great thing!

Next up:  A really sweet day hike in the hills east of LA with Allison