Summer Trip: Days 10-12

On we go! 

Thursday

As mentioned, while in LA we stayed in a very nice B&B. I've generally had good experiences at bed n' breakfasts, but this one was really nice. We got there Wednesday just in time for wine and cheese, and then in the morning, breakfast!

This is half of the breakfast bar

I mention this only because this place gave you a bunch of lovely options for breakfast, and also eggs made to order or omelet or souffle (which changed daily), as part of the cost of staying there, and meanwhile Paris Vegas, raking in money enough to make Croesus revolve in his grave, charges $15 to connect a third device to the wi-fi. 

Anyway, enough of our capitalist nightmare. Here's the view of the wetlands off the balcony of the B&B.

I mean, I know it's overcast here, but it was really nice

So Thursday we got up and headed out for the endeavor that was really the impetus for the whole trip: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures!

We somehow managed to find parking and walked past the La Brea Museum (which we'd planned on visiting but ran out of time):

"MAMA! NOOOO!"

Rar.

Me with an ARG mammoth

WHO'S A GOOD KITTY

Past a bunch of things near the art museum:

This building isn't the art museum, though it kinda looks like it should be

And into the Academy Museum. Now, the thing that sparked us going this year was the exhibit on Jaws for the 50th anniversary, so we headed straight there.

DUN-DUN

Finally realized my dream of getting eaten by a shark

And then the rest of the museum!

OSCAR!

I WANNA PUSH YOU AROUND WELL I WILL

RAR

I'm a production designer!

Also a big exhibit on Bong Joon Ho's films, which I didn't know was there but was very cool. 

The creature from The Host

GIANT PIGGIE

And then we went to a screening of Notorious hosted by Guillermo del Toro, which was really awesome, but I do not have pictures. Long day!

Friday

Friday, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. 

See?

I do love aquariums. Here are some pictures!

Michelle petting jellyfish

BIRB

GET THAT TAIL. GET IT.

We finished up there, and headed the heck back to the B&B for rest and watching soccer, because after two days of walking around and looking at stuff we kinda wanted some downtime.

Saturday

Saturday was our last day in LA. We woke up and went to the beach so that Michelle could stand in the Pacific Ocean. 

See?

A warm place with no memory

The plan from there was, initially, to go into Arizona and go to the Grand Canyon. And here we ran into some problems. 

The hotel we were booked into emailed us and said they were expecting a power outage. We didn't want to get stuck in a hotel with no power (and no AC, which is not good for me), so we switched hotels to one further south that had a train that took people in to see the Canyon. Cool? Cool. 

We got lunch at the In-n-Out on the way, as I'd never eaten there

But when we got there, we learned that because of the wildfires, the train wasn't running. WHOMP-WHOMP. So we initially toy with staying there for both of our booked nights and just finding other stuff to do...

Like...look at trains? 

But like, this hotel was in pretty bad shape.

Another still from Backrooms?

The "game room"

So instead, we decided to cut that short and stay an extra night in Oklahoma with Michelle's mom. But first we had to endure the hell of...Santa Rosa. 

(It was fine. Not hellish at all.)