The Getty Center & Greystone Mansion

Yesterday my friend Ben & I drove into LA to the Getty Center. The weather was perfect and sunny. We started by browsing through the gardens outside. Everything was in bloom and so full of so many colors. A beautiful reminder of God's creation. The exhibits inside were very interesting also. We saw the famous painting by Manet "Bar at the Folies-Bergere", a Van Gogh pen and ink "Portrait of Joseph Roulin", and a the wonderful collection of paintings by French artist Jean-Baptiste Oudry who painted a portrait series of exotic animals during the first half of Louis XV's reign. After grabbing a bite for lunch at the cafe there we were off to explore some more.

We drove through Beverly Hills to find the Greystone Mansion. Over 46,000 sq ft the English Gothic Revival manor home was completed in 1928 for the Doheny family. Unfortunately Mr. Doheny met with an untimely death (which is still an unsolved case) after just living in the house for six months. The house is closed to the public and you can just browse around the gardens and the grounds. It is up on a hill and has a great view of the city. The grounds are very beautiful. Then we ran into Steve, the park ranger, who kindly answered all of our questions and told us more about the history of the mansion. Then to our surprise he invited us to actually go inside! It was like taking a walk back into time. You can see all the pictures of our day here: http://chiarapics.spaces.live.com/