LA sunset

we enjoyed the sunset on venice beach in los angeles, on saturday......

now its monday and we spent the entire day getting back home again.... we had a great time and im not done with showing you pictures of it just yet.. :)

at the airport i could not take our spray bottle of deodorant. it was too big. aarrrghhhh!! at boston airport the officer was very nice. i had not even taken out the toiletries. he did that for me and deemed it all harmless. in san diego the lady did not like the bottle. it was too big. "oh, they allowed it in boston? they shouldnt have. its too big." "but we imported it from europe, and its a brand new bottle!!" (deodorant is one of the things i have not been able to find a good american subsitute. i think there is none and thus we get it from the netherlands, haha) "well, its too big". and there it went, into the trash.... :( had it been 2 smaller spray bottles; no problem. really. grrrr....

ever since a recent south park episode where they install "toilet security", which they call the TSA, i think of them like the toilet security administration (instead of transportation). my goodness, they can be so anal!! (pardon my language). once an officer complained because the plastic bag i had my toiletries in was double the allowed size; even though i had filled it only halfway and had folded it. "but im not taking too much, right?" "thats right, but the bag is too big". "i folded it, essentially its half a bag". "the bag is too big, next time bring the right size bag". problem ofcourse starts with the stupid airlines that ask for a fee for checking bags; ofcourse now most people only bring carry-on, leading to all this nonsense. then at the gate its always the same story: "this flight is fully booked, space is limited, we will not to check-in bags, it wont fit, but now its free of charge". blablablabla... flying is becoming more and more complicated...

enough ranting, we had a great time! :)

Getty center

yesterday, saturday, we drove from san diego to los angeles to visit the getty center. sylvia and me had gone there last year already, but i was so impressed that tim had to see it too! it was very bright and sunny, a perfect day for some more hours in the car... ;) 

the getty center is situated on a hill and from many balconies from the 4 (or 3?) floor building you have an incredible view of los angeles and the ocean. it was built in 1997 and cost only 1.3 billion dollars.... it is a huge museum with lots of art, but just the building itself is already very impressive. the entrance fee is just 15 dollars per car regardless of the number of people... but well... mister getty owned 2 billion dollars at the time of his death, in 1976. we went to a photo exhibition of the work from herb ritts, an american fashion photographer who often shot in black and white. his photos really made an impression on me. you can take pictures of the human body, or you can make art of it.... and that is what he did.....so, if you are around los angeles; definitely go see the museum itself, as well as the exhibition! other than that, we walked around a bit aimlessly, which is not bad at all in this museum (just frustrating that we always seem to get lost in any museum...)

above, to the right you can see tim and sylvia enjoying the view.... the view from the terrace was endless yesterday, the sky was so clear, as opposed to last year when we were there.