Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
160
For a more enlightening museum experience, I strongly suggest you rent a $3 GettyGuide
Audio P layer, which featur es commentar y fr om curators and conser vators on mor e than
150 works (it's available at the P ick-Up Desk on F loor 1). A dmission to the G etty Villa is
free but, unlike the Getty Center, advance tickets are required and can be obtained online or
by phone.
17985 Pacific Coast Hwy. (1 mile north of Sunset Blvd.), Malibu.
&
310/440-7300.
www.getty.edu. Free
admission, but tickets required. Thurs-Mon 10am-5pm. Closed major holidays. Parking $8.
Griffith Observatory
Made world-famous in the film
Rebel Without a Cause,
Griffith Observatory's bronze domes have been Hollywood Hills landmarks since 1935.
Closed for renovation for what seemed like for ever, it finally r eopened in November of
2006 after a $93-million o verhaul. The central dome houses the 300-seat
Samuel
Oschin Planetarium,
where hourly screenings of a narrated 30-minute projection show
called “Centered in the U niverse” reveal the stars and planets that ar e hidden fr om the
naked eye by the city's ubiquitous lights and smog.
The obser vatory also featur es 60 space-r elated exhibits designed to “ sparkle y our
imagination,” the highlight being the largest astr onomically accurate image ev er pr o-
duced—a 20×152-foot porcelain enamel dazzler that's cleverly called “The Big Picture.”
It supposedly encompasses a million galaxies, but I lost count after 11.There's also a new
200-seat Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater (go Spock!), a Wolfgang Puck “Café at
the End of the Universe,” and several Zeiss and solar telescopes for public use both day
and night.
Truth be told, most locals nev er actually go inside the obser vatory; they come to this
spot on the south slope of M ount Hollywood for the unparalleled city vie ws. On warm
nights, with the lights twinkling belo w, this is one of the most r omantic places in L.A.
2800 E. Obser vatory Rd. (in Griffith P ark, at the end of Vermont Ave.).
&
213/473-0800.
www.griffith
observatory.org. Planetarium tickets $7 adults , $5 seniors 60 or older and students with ID , $3 children
ages 5-12. Tues-Fri noon-10pm; Sat-Sun 10am-10pm. Call or check website for planetarium showtimes.
7
La Brea Tar Pits & Page Museum
Kids
An odorous swamp of gooey asphalt
oozes to the earth's surface in the middle of Los Angeles. No, it's not a low-budget horror-
movie set—it's La Brea Tar Pits, a truly bizarre primal pool on Museum Row where hot
tar has been bubbling fr om the ear th for mor e than 40,000 y ears. The bubbling pools
may look like a fake Disney set, but they're the real thing and have enticed thirsty animals
throughout history. Nearly 400 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish—many
of which ar e now extinct—walked, crawled, landed, swam, or slither ed into the sticky
sludge, got stuck in the worst way, and stayed forever. In 1906, scientists began a system-
atic removal and classification of entombed specimens, including gr ound sloths, giant
vultures, mastodons, camels, bears, lizards, and even prehistoric relatives of today's super-
rats. Today it's one of the world's richest excavation sites for Ice Age fossils. The best finds
are on display in the adjacent
Page Museum at the La B rea Tar Pits,
which houses
the largest and most div erse collection of Ice Age plants and tar-stained skeletons in the
The Tar-Nished Prince
One of the L.A. sights Prince Charles asked to visit during his trip to Los Angeles
was La Brea Tar Pits.
