Museum Day

Yesterday, I drove up to L.A. to go to a couple museums I've been wanting to see.

First stop was the La Brea Tar Pits.

 The museum entry .

This is the lake, which is bubbling methane gas and smells like new phone poles.  The tar pits are right in downtown L.A. and are part of a city park.  There are numerous smaller pits throughout the park which are protected by iron fences.

 The tar pits trapped animals during and since the last ice age, a span of about 55,000 years.  Many of the animals are extinct, such as this bison, which was larger than modern bison.

 An adult and young mastodon.

 A mammoth, standing 13 feet tall at the shoulder.

 Dire Wolves, larger than today's gray wolf.

 The lab, called "The Fishbowl", is active seven days a week.  This man is searching for micro-fossils in the matrix removed from around larger bones.

 Another view of the lab.  Notice the Sabre-Toothed Cat skull.  These are common finds in the tar, or asphalt.

 Pit 19 is being actively worked on.

 This is Project 23.  A few years ago, fossils embedded in tar were unearthed where a new underground parking garage was being built.  Huge blocks of the tar were cut out and boxed in 23 giant tree boxes.  It takes years to chip and clean away the fossils from one box.  Volunteers work seven days a week.

The "Observation Pit" is open to tours.  This is an actual pit, and shows how the slow churning of the tar makes a jumble out of bones from different animals.

My next stop was the Petersen Automotive Museum just down the street.  (Internet photo)

One of my favorite cars was this Round Door Rolls.  Only one was built.

 This is the same car from the rear.  It was originally built in 1925, and then had this body made by a Belgian designer in 1934.  It was rescued in derelict condition in the early 50's.

 This was the world's first car powered by compressed natural gas.  It was an Italian Fiat that was converted to CNG because gasoline was so hard to come by during WWII.

 I love the lines on this '37 Horch.

 They had just about every movie car you could think of.  This was Walter White's car on Breaking Bad.

I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves as magnificent art pieces.  These are just a small sampling of the cars on display.  Every car or motorcycle displayed at the museum has some historical importance.

The End