birthday at the getty

For my birthday in 2011, my sister and our good friend joined me on a trip to the Getty Museum, in Los Angeles. It was my first time, and it was amazing!

We saw Monets, we saw Rembrandts, we wandered through gardens, we sipped Italian ices, we enjoyed breathtaking views, we toured, we gazed at sculptures, we giggled at other sculptures, we listened to trickling water, and we climbed a travertine staircase.

If you have time to do one thing at the Getty, you must take the Garden Tour. Designed by Robert Irwin, who was not a landscape architect, but rather, wait for it…a painter, the landscape is a huge part of the museum’s appeal. Some of the highlights include bowers of rebar overflowing with bougainvillea, carefully chosen London Plane trees, having bark that blends in perfectly with the museum’s travertine stone walls, clusters of trees with leaves pruned so that their shadows mimic an impressionist painting, and the combination of plants and pavers that surround the stream descending into the garden; all of which is unveiled in tiers, revealing one breathtaking view after another. It is really a masterpiece.