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It was time to pay the piper for the good time that was had at the wedding and reception of my niece the night before. I carefully opened one eye, just to make sure the room wasn’t doing anything weird, like spinning. But all was ok. Sometimes all those years of “practice partying” pays off (I minored in it in college)!

We had one more wedding celebration to attend that evening, but were free as birds until then. Electric Horseman and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the restaurant terrace. How strange not to have animals to feed before sitting down to my own meal. How strange not to have wet noses poking at me, warm bodies pressing against my legs, and Barney, sweet, dumb Barney, trying to climb to the top of my head for heaven-knows-what reason. I resigned myself to making the best of the strange situation.

I was intrigued by the chandelier in the hotel lobby. 

(photo) Beauty or danger?

Isn’t this prime earthquake country? Aren’t those shards of glass? How is that thing anchored? Why am I standing under it taking pictures?

After breakfast we rendezvoused with our traveling companions to make a trip to the Getty Museum. I had gotten directions from my brother, but we didn’t get very far (read “the first intersection”) before the five of us were arguing, laughing and pointing in different directions. Why hadn’t we brought a GPS, or rented one? 

I called Rip.

“What?” he answered his phone.

“Which way is north?” I asked him. “You told us to go north on Lincoln, but is that left or right? We’re from Northern California, remember?”

“Sheesh,” he said, snickering, “where’s the sun?”

“IN THE SKY! Which way? Cars are honking!”

“Where’s the airport from you?” he asked.

“Oh my gosh, you are a lot of work! It’s to my right!”

“Then go left!”

“You couldn’t have just said that at the start???!!!”

We did not encounter any of that infamous LA traffic, so we reached the museum in about ten minutes.

The museum is perched on the top of a very high hill. Since no one in America walks, there is a fun tram ride from the parking structure at the bottom of the hill to the treats at the top. I think they should make you earn your way by hiking up. But that’s just me. Hey – they’d sell a lot more food and drink!

We were joined on our ride by a group of 4-year-olds. 

(photo) a gaggle of 4-year-olds

(photo) chaperone duty - NOT!

(photo) alien sunglasses

(photo)hair clip

This is just one of the bouncing butterflies (it's on a spring to make it move) that Butterfly always has in her hair. Kids of all ages love it.

(photo) at the entrance

(photo) the front of the main building

(photo) even the staircases are pretty

(photo) pretty sights everywhere we looked

(photo) what's she doing?

Electric Horseman thinks she’s jumping onto a “slip and slide”.

During the ride up the hill I had looked through the information brochures and discovered we were just in time to take a tour of the gardens. Perfect for Butterfly!

Butterfly was a bit disappointed with our tour. She had been expecting to hear about the plantings and just maybe hear about some plants that were new to her (highly unlikely, but you never know). Instead the docent talked about the architecture of the garden, and said almost nothing about the plants themselves. She knew almost nothing about the plants themselves.

(photo) one of many water features

We spent quite a bit of time discussing the shape, sound and meaning of this fountain, for instance. Butterfly wondered where the flowers were.

Since Butterfly subscribes to the chaos theory of gardening (me, too, truth be known), the concept of there being architecture in a garden would never clutter her mind. She was not the least bit interested in the whys and wherefores of rock placement, water placement, etc. She just wanted to talk about flowers and trees.

(photo) assortment of succulents

The discussion at the succulents garden went something like this:

“What do you see here?” asked our guide.

“Shade,” said one person.

“Different textures,” said another.

“Not much color,” chimed in someone else.

Butterfly just rolled her eyes. She loves succulents (she loves anything that grows) and couldn’t understand why these beautiful plants seemed to be getting short shrift.

tiny blossoms

Especially when these kinds of blooms could be found! It was enough to drive Butterfly crazy.

I would find Butterfly wandering off, muttering to herself about this plant or that. None of the plantings were labeled. She knew that names of most of them, but she’d find some that she didn’t and there was no one to answer her questions.

trotting along

We wandered down the shady path, following the group and listening to the guide talk about the way the rocks were placed, the way the water flowed so we couldn’t see it but we could hear it. We did spot some pretty plantings along the way.

(photo) pretty mystery plant

(photo) hydrangea

I kept a sharp eye on Butterfly, to make sure she wasn’t sneaking cuttings into her purse (a favorite pastime of hers). That’s all I needed – to have all of us thrown into the pokey for thievery at The Getty, of all places, and then to have to call my brother to bail us out. That would so play into his image of us as redneck Northern Californians that I couldn’t possibly let it happen. It’s really, really hard keeping your best foot forward for a long weekend.

(photo) arbors I liked

I particularly liked these rebar arbors and took lots of pictures in case I can con someone into building one or two for me. I can hear Electric Horseman groaning.

(photo)looking from underneath made me like them even more

I’m thinking of taking out a few annoying trees I shouldn’t have planted and replacing them with something that won’t make as much of a mess, and won’t have invasive roots. Or not. Perhaps a nice Lady Banks rose would look good on one of these …

Our guide gave us a lengthy lecture on their structure, their meaning, the architect’s intent, blah blah blah.

(photo)Put me out of my misery, please!

Electric Horseman was ready to kill himself.

Then she directed our attention out beyond the end of the maze in the pond.

(photo) maze surrounded by water

“Look at those gravel paths beyond the maze,” she said, “what do you see?”

“No weeds!” I piped up (although I was still wondering why there was a maze I couldn’t walk through – it was in the water … was it for the fish?).

“Somebody’s lazy!” said Butterfly.

Electric Horseman continued banging his head against the rebar (out of sight of our guide, of course). We’d finally had enough and peeled away from the group.

(photo) heaven for Butterfly

Finally Butterfly breathed a huge sigh of relief. This is what she’d been looking for! Flowers! Color! Mass plantings! Now we were talking! Gravel is not allowed in her garden. An occasional moss rock, yes … but gravel just for the sake of gravel – no way!

We couldn’t start wandering down these paths fast enough to suit her.

(photo) Tammy & Butterfly

Butterfly appreciated the creek bottom.

(photo) creek bottom

(photo) creek bed

There were plenty of coins at the bottom – lots of good luck, I hope, for those who tossed them.

I took lots of flower pictures for Butterfly.

(photo) dahlia

(photo) datura (aka angel's trumpet)

Electric Horseman was worried about the amount of sun exposure I was getting.

(photo) my knight in shining armor

He chased after me with an umbrella, determined to protect me from the sun’s harmful rays, saying, “Here I come, Miss Tammy!”

(photo ) another mystery-to-us plant

(photo) gloriosa daisies - glorious!

After feasting our eyes on flowers, we toured as many of the buildings as we had time for. Photos inside the buildings were frowned upon, so I can only tell you that there were many beautiful, thought-provoking exhibitions and not nearly enough time to see them all.

To be continued …

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