Took a day off from our usual routine to head down the Coastal Highway to visit "The Getty Villa" in Pacific Palisades. The villa is one of two campuses that house "The J. Paul Getty Museum." The other, the main location, is "The Getty Center" in the Brentwood neighborhood. The villa is modeled after the Villa dei Papiri, a Roman country house in Herculancum buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Because most of the Villa dei Papiri remains unexcavated, many of the Getty Villa's architectural details are based on elements drawn from other ancient Roman homes in the towns of Pompei, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. (Brochure)
The above video describes the history, collections, and setting of the Getty Villa.
On approaching the villa one gets the sense of entering an archaeological dig, an intentional design theme.
The above photo looks back from where the previous ones were taken.
As the villa starts coming into sight the first glimpses are of the herb garden, the exterior wall of the outer peristyle and, to the left, the upper floor of the museum.
This close up again shows the museum's upper floor with a glimpse of the outer peristyle's first floor columns.
This view is of the museum's main entry opposite from the outdoor theater. See photo below.
Outdoor theater and museum from opposite side.
Approaching the museum.
The above and below photos show the portico's ceiling.
The museum entrance looking through to the open air atrium and beyond to the inner peristyle. The people in line on the right are waiting to see the 12 minute video presented here earlier.
The above photo show the portico of the inner peristyle. The following few photos give additional peristyle views.
This photo looks back across the peristyle, through the atrium, out the main entry to the outdoor theater.
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden exists on approximately 74 acres of land situated primarily in Mission Canyon. The garden was originally designed to emphasize plants from the Pacific area of North America but now consists almost exclusively of native California plants. These plantings comprise seven distinct sections.
Garden entrance
Garden shop
One of the first sections one comes upon after entering the gardens is the Desert Section. It is designed for species that thrive in the state's coastal or interior regions. Here we see Opuntia Littoralis (the Coastal Prickly-pear).
The desert section also contains Agave plants and the only palm native to California.
The meadow section consists of grasses representative of California and showy annuals such as the California poppy.
Beauty abounds in the meadow section, unknown plant.
The Redwood section lays at the upper part of the canyon section. Though they are not native to this part of California irrigation helps provide the right conditions for them to flourish. As the burned trunks show they are rather fire hardy. This area experienced a major fire in 2009 but the redwoods live on. See related fire articles (Jesusita Fire and Bobcat-Fawn rescue).
Heading into the canyon section we encounter a few boulders and...
riparian woodlands of Western Sycamore and White Adler.
Coming out of the Canyon section we come upon a Japanese Teahouse & Garden.
The entrance is the little door on the left and the panels on the right are meant to side to the left giving those inside a view of the garden while enjoying their tea as the next scene shows.
Beyond the Japanese teahouse lay two sections that simply didn't get photographed to well. The first is the Arroyo section, covering plants such as Giant Sequia, and Port Orford-Cedars. The other is the Manzanita section covering shrubs in the chaparral family. One last section, the Ceanothus section consists primarily of a California lilac species with blossoms ranging from colbalt blue to white. I'll close this posting with a few parting photos.
