California - the rest (almost)

Warning: this post is going to be long.  Our schedule post Disneyland was full, fun, and fabulous.  And we took way too many pictures.  An attempt to "scrapbook" the rest of our week - here we go:

Sunday afternoon we hit the Pirate park (that morning we worshiped at Pacific Crossroad PCA...a fabulous and rapidly growing church).  Do you see this view?  You could feel the salt water air.  So refreshing.

And there were trees to climb!

At home, we dove into sticker mosaics...a nice quiet activity ;).

Palos Verdes Estates is known for their wild peacocks.  We stopped to wave hello.

Winding down before the adults enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Gina Lee's.

Monday we headed to the Le Brea tar pits, and got to see amazingly preserved prehistoric bones.

They were particularly taken with the saber toothed tiger.

Will and I discovering just how sticky the tar is, and how impossible it would be to get out.

We could see the scientists at work in their glass lab.

Show em what you got...Caden's favorite pose.

Playing in the courtyard.

A quick picnic lunch overlooking the tar pits before walking next door to...

LACMA!  Los Angeles County Museum of Art - it was free for  MLK day.  Our kids could have spent all day in this sculpture.

Dave was delighted to find they had this amazing "band" by Richard Serra, one of his favorite artists.

So fun to run through, and experience this amazing piece up close.

Will taking in a car "metropolis" (this picture doesn't quite capture it), a mini city with hundreds of moving matchbox like cars.

 Monday we were treated to ice cream at the DePauw's - dear, sweet family friends.

Tuesday we were off to the Getty Museum!

Fueling up - I was delighted to find they had several coffee stands.  I'd been craving Coffee Bean all morning (the famous LA chain doesn't disappoint...I'm still missing it).

Picture taken by Andrew...or maybe Caden?

Taking it in.

It was fun to watch these two play together more...as much as we've joked about setting them up ;).

 The Getty had an amazing Children's play/exploration area. 

 There were different areas where they could interact with replicas of various pieces they had on exhibit.

 The were enthralled.

Just this area, and the beautiful architecture/grounds/views blew us away.

Time to run...city and ocean seem almost within grasp.

 Beverly Hills/Wilshire Blvd were directly below.

I had no idea Caden was sitting there :)

Caden was so much more fascinated with this sculpture after getting to interact with its replica.

That evening we enjoyed a much anticipated evening out at "ink", Michael Voltagio's restaurant on Melrose Ave. 

The food was indescribably good.

We savored every second, bite...such a treat.

On our way out.  And a funny side note - our wonderful waitress was on our flight out of LA.

Wednesday we stayed local, and enjoyed a hike in PV

Breathtaking.

Fierce explorers.

There's always somewhere to climb.

A quick lunch at the plaza.

Taking in the fountain outside Jen's favorite, and beautifully quaint library.

Hiking down to the tide pools.

Almost there.

There they are - beautiful, real sea life.

We had our own resident biology teacher.

Will was a bit fussy, until his feet got in the water.

Muscles by the muscles.

 Just a little silliness.

 Hiking back...so much to discover.

One last stop at Inn n Out for dinner..after one last sunset on the beach (pics to come in separate post).

Such a fun, beautiful, wonderful week!  We are so so thankful.