LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA MARCH 1, 2014

And yet another automobile museum!!  This time the famous Petersen Automotive Museum in downtown  Los Angeles. There are actually two museums here...one is downstairs in the "Vault" which is only available via a guided tour and there are NO PICTURES allowed!   We took this tour and it was so very interesting and some of the cars we saw which we could not take pictures of were: a Ferrari that Elvis Presley gave his girlfriend Linda Thompson..he later shot the steering wheel after an argument; a custom 1935 Duesenberg that Clark Gable bought for Carole Lombard; Saddam Hussein's Mercedes that he used in his parades and Steve McQueen's Hudson...these are just a small sampling of what we saw in the Vault.

Upstairs in the museum is a display of the  evolution of the automobile.  We were able to take pictures here.   At the left are Woodys.

This is a 1959 Outlaw "Big Daddy" Roth.  This is the 1st custom rod not based on a production car.

Juan & Eva Peron's (Argentina) 1939 Packard

Ghostbuster vehicle used in the movie.

1949 "Cadzilla" commissioned by ZZ Topp's Billy Gibson in 1988. Note the superheroes in the background with their cars designed by KIA in conjunction with DC Entertainment.

Guess who this belonged to?   Yep, Liberace's 1962 Rolls Royce....Glitzy!

1939 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante $1million +

1954 Plymouth Sniper designed & built by Chip Foose

OL' Yaller --description to the right.

After the Petersen Museum we took a drive through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive...it was a very rainy, stormy day..we enjoyed the sights between storms.  At left is Rodeo Drive.

Gary spotted this Bugatti Veyron 1001HP parked on the street in front of a store called BiJan..which was also the license plate on the car.   He was so excited to see it, he yelled for me to hand him the camera...I thought he saw some wild animal on the street the way he reacted.  But no, it was a car! It goes for about $1.3million!

Signs on the famous stores on Rodeo Drive...needless to say, I did not enter any.  Who can afford these prices?!

Rainy views of Beverly Hills...again, it NEVER rains in sunny California?!

I KNEW I would see Ellen while in Hollywood!   Here she is on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.    It was the night before the Oscars and in the left picture you can just see the white tents covering the red carpet while it continues to rain in sunny California!

POMONA, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Our KOA in Pomona just happened to be across the street from the NHRA (national hot rod association) museum and the Pomona National Drag Strip much to Gary's delight.  So on one of the 3 rainy days in LA (it never rains in California?!) he headed over there to check out the museum.

Hot Rods!

A Von Dutch motorcyle...Dry Lakes Bike  1947 Speed Twin with Supercharger

The Moonliner  circa 1964 Best Performance: 285mph. One of several streamliners in the museum.

Exact duplicate of a 1929 Model A Street Roadster owned by Wally Parks who served as Editor of Hot Rod Magazine in the early 1950s.

Challenger 1....Mickey Thompson's 4 Pontiac engine powered record holder. First American automobile to exceed 400mph.  Circa 1960

LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 27, 2014

JP GETTY MUSEUM OFF ROUTE 405  LOS ANGELES 

Looking up at the  JP Getty Museum from RT. 405

View from the tram which takes us up to the museum.

Entrance to the museum above and walking between the buildings below.

Views of Los Angeles from the decks of the building. Just beautiful!

"Interior with Soldiers and Women" Jacob Duck @1650

"Rembrandt Laughing" self portrait @ 1628

"Shipping in a Calm at Flushing" Jan van de Cappelle @ 1649

Below are samples of just some of the art in the museum...this place was immense and full of beautiful art of all kinds. We spent at least 4 hours here.

"An Old Man in Military Costume" Rembrandt @ 1630-31

This is the Sketching Gallery where art students can try their hand at drawing the masters.  Samples of their work on the right.  Thought of you Alyssa Jacobs!

Tapestry Room --this had tapestries dating about 1641-1729

Planisphere Clock @1745-49.   This reminded me of the talking clock from the animated Beauty and the Beast which I have watched about a million times with Brooklyn.

Bed - French (Paris) about 1775-80



WE TRAVELED TO SANTA MONICA PIER AFTER THE MUSEUM

Here we are at the official end of route 66....Santa Monica Pier...notice that a seagull joined us at the sign!

A view of the whole pier

A view of the beach from Santa Monica Pier

POMONA, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 25-26, 2014

On our way to LA via Palm Springs....thousands of windmills!

Pomona!

Our KOA coming up!

Here is our RV site in the KOA Pomona campground.

A visit to Ronald Reagan's Presidential Library in Simi Valley.  The whole road up to the Library was lined with a flag for each president in chronological order...here is Ronald Reagan's..

The entrance to the Library. 

Statues of President Reagan and Nancy.

Replica of the oval office during President Reagan's term and a close up of a sign on his desk.  He had so many inspiring quotes that we have included a few below.   Sure wish this wisdom prevailed today.

This is an amazing statistic!

Uh..."let us act together"   Wouldn't that be a great thing?

Very wise words....so applicable to today!!

Here we are leaving the Reagan Library in style!

After the library we drove along Malibu Beach....beautiful scenery on US 1!   As we approached US 1 from the library a snazzy looking Mercedes pulled up along side of us and said he liked our sign on the back of the jeep...the NO Obama sign.

A beautiful view of Malibu Beach on  US 1.   We drove this in 1986 with Angela and Jon.

Found a great seafood restaurant near the beach...Malibu Seafood.  Reminded us of Doug's Fish Fry in Cortland which we are missing.