LaLa Land

Two weekends ago Ryan and I decided to mark a few things off our “LA To Do List” and went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the La Brea Tar Pits for the first time (they are right next to each other). Please comment whether you actually did or did not know that there are tar pits in the middle of Los Angeles! In fact, the tar pits were discovered when a construction crew was putting in a parking garage for the LACMA.

The tar pits are FULL of animal & plant remains. Animals that died a slow, painful and confusing death. All over the grounds there are little areas where tar is bubbling up from the earth. There is a museum on site with many of the bones they have found, as well as excavation sites and a laboratory where you can watch experts and volunteers cleaning tar off bones. It was actually really cool!

A few thoughts to take away:

• Tar smells REALLY terrible!
  

• There is a statue of a mother elephant sinking in the large tar pit in front of the museum, crying out in agony as she sinks. Yes, it’s great that they are showing what really happened so often over the years. But then they put a baby elephant statue on the bank with her trunk extended calling out to her mother with this horrific fear in her eyes. I found it disturbing.
  

• The most common bone found in the La Brea tar pits is the Dire Wolf. This is because they would hunt in packs and attempt to feed on animals that had separated from it's herd and/or looked weak. AKA animals that were trapped in the tar. Hence, the Dire Wolves became trapped themselves.

The LACMA, unfortunately, did not have many exhibits open that Ryan and I were too excited about (the photography one was closed!). Plus we were tired from walking all over the tar pits. We did take pictures outside where they have tons of street lights in rows that are pretty cool.

I know I say I hate LA (which I do) but I am not so hateful to say that it doesn’t have cool things to do. Hence our list.