Today we woke up in Malibu. It was magical. We slept right on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. In the morning, Ammon and Clarissa played on the beach, even though it was cold.
We then went to the Beach Cafe at Paradise Cove after having eaten there yesterday. I was feeling sick. I wasn’t sure if it was from the seafood dinner the day before, getting sick (after being cold in Universal studios), or a combination of the two, so I didn’t eat much, but everyone had a really good time. Everyone loved the noodles straws they gave us, and the kids actually at them. While we were waiting for our food, I took Ammon and Clarissa to the doc to occupy them and give myself some air.
noodle straw 
We then went to the Getty Villa. It was likely the highlight of Lily’s whole trip. The Getty is already her favorite museum, and she has never been to the Getty Villa. The story is that Mr. Getty was the united state’s first billionaire. He got his money from oil and he was devoted to the arts. He was especially interested in ancient collectables and so he built his villa to store his art collection. When he died, he made a stipulation in his trust that 4.7% of it had to go to advancing the arts every year. Eventually his trust got to be worth over 7 billion, and so the amounts of money that had to be contributed to the arts got to be very large (100s of millions). The trust couldn’t just purchase art with all that money (they would have actually disrupted the art market), so they used the money to build the Getty museum for which they transported beautiful travertine stone from Italy. Once the new Getty museum opened, the Villa shut down. But then they made improvements to the Villa and reopened it. Also, during Covid, so many museums were on hard times since people couldn’t visit them, and the Getty trust gave out a ton of money to different museums to help keep them afloat.
The villa is super thoughtful. It was built to represent an excavation site because much of it is meant to be a replica of one of the residences of the father in law of Julius Caesar, Piso (villa of Papyri) which was excavated during the life of Paul Getty. Paul modeled the buildings and the gardens after the villa of Papyri. As you walk up to the Getty, you approach it from the top, looking down into it as though it is an excavation site. I think the weeping stones in the fountain below creating the wet wall also represent the moisture in excavation sites. The plants in the gardens, the statues, even the buildings are all modeled after that villa which was located in Pompeii. The whole tour was so fascinating. We had a garden tour and Lydia and Mary entertained the little kids so Lily and I could really hone in on what was being said.
The beauty of the gardens reminded me and Lily of Vilandry.
ancient roses 
clean hedges like at Vilandry 
After the garden tour, Lily and the two oldest girls had a tour involving sculptures and Greek mythology. Since I wasn’t feeling well, I hung out by the pond with Ammon and Clarissa.
Ammon and Clarissa were completely over the moon with the fish pond. The tour guide explained that in Ancient Rome, there were no fish in the pond, but some goldfish got in the Getty Villa pond at some point and then they grew into coy. Ammon and Clarissa spent a solid hour petting them, naming them, and telling anyone who would listen all about them (getting other visitors to pet them too). I was feeling ill and was zoning out on a nearby bench, but I couldn’t help, but to be delighted by the scene. Some of the fish names I think I remember are Goldy, Brownie, Princess Peach.
We had such a great time at the Getty Villa!
Then we had a long drive to San Carlos to stay with Jere. I think it was 6 hours or so. We didn’t bring devices on this trip and for the most part, we never gave the kids our phones. I’m very proud of how they entertained each other and themselves in the car. For example, here is Ammon turning his apple into a skeleton.