California

My husband and I recently visited his brother and his sister in law in Pasadena, CA. My husband's brother is a student at CalTech. Here is the cute couple in the prestigious university's lab. Having never taken a chemistry class in my life, this was quite a different world to explore.

Of course, we went to the ocean- this picture is in Malibu- my husband loves to explore the tidepools and find little crabs (he has one in his hand here), fish, and whatever else lives in the water. He could do this for hours if given the chance.

We also went to the Getty Villa. J. Paul Getty, a wealthy oil tycoon, has two HUGE museums in L.A. (admittance is free, but you have to pay for parking). The Getty Villa is a re-make of a villa found in Pompeii and Hurculaneum, two ancient cities in Italy that were destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The house was BEAUTIFUL. It had all types of Roman and Greek art, statues, relics, etc. that Paul Getty acquired on his world travels. Some of the exhibits were temporary; for example, here is a photo of a mummy that was on display in one of the temporary exhibits.

The house had an herb garden- this is me next to rows and rows of basil. It smelled sooo good! The basil looked better than anything you could buy in the store. Fresh basil in October... I definitely need to move to a warmer climate.

This, my friends, is a pomegranate tree. I want one!

This is the "backyard," I guess you could call it (formally called the outer peristyle). Gorgeous.

This was a sarcophagus. Look at the ornate carvings!

This is a statue of the Greek God Zeus. He was half way in water, which is why half of him is discolored and eaten away by marine life.

Playing in the ocean in October (this is at the Santa Monica beach)- I could get used to this!

We also went to the Griffith Observatory, which is a space museum and a place where scientists look through telescopes into outer space. This is in the basement, where they had a bunch of exhibits on the planets and stars. Pretty cool stuff! (And, once again, FREE admittance- not too bad, eh?)

And of course, I have to mention that we went to Disneyland! Since it's October, the whole park is decked out in Halloween decorations- this is the Haunted Mansion ride, which has been changed to reflect a more "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme. It was so fun to come here! I loved it.

This is a picture of my husband and our gracious hosts in front of the Griffith Observatory.

This is a picture of Micky Mouse- at the front of the park on Main Street U.S.A.

My husband in front of Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth!

We went and toured the campus of Caltech on our first night. Our gracious hosts took us to this small, un-assuming pond and told us to get down close to the water. In less than 10 seconds, these guys started swimming up to us! We counted over 8 red ear slider turtles.

Here's us next to the "turtle pond."

We also got to tour inside CalTech's lab- here is a canister of bubbling liquid nitrogen. My husband's brother put a blown-up balloon in the canister, which hardened the balloon's surface. Then he crushed the balloon in his hand like it was a dried-up leaf like you can find on the ground in your backyard right now! That was a pretty cool experiment... not enough to make me want to go into Chemistry, though. =)

Here I am doing some crazy experiments in the lab. It was such an awesome trip, and a nice get away from the cold in Utah. Thanks for having us, Paul and Stephanie!