Los Angeles Day 6: Getty Centre, Mount Wilson, Silver Lake

Photo of the day: The gorgeous architecture of Getty Centre. Photo credit: Aaron.

Getty Centre

Aaron had planned to do a road trip up to the mountains today and our first stop was at the Getty Centre, which we did not get to see yesterday. Like the Getty Villa, entrance is free but parking is $15 ($10 after 3pm). Again, if you plan on visiting both the Getty Centre and Getty Villa on the same day, you only need to pay for parking once. It is not as simple as presenting the parking ticket though. Apparently, you will need to go to the information desk to pick up a voucher to present at the other museum. There is a tram which connected the parking lot to the museum and it provided a nice view on your way up. At the entrance, there was a restaurant with gorgeous views of the city, as well as a cafe and coffee cart for snacks. We decided to relax and sit down for some wine and cheese at the restaurant before exploring the centre. There were multiple free guided tours at the centre, each lasting around 45 minutes. We managed to catch the architecture tour and it was very informative and interesting learning about the story behind the design of the Getty Centre. Apparently, after Mr. Getty died, he left a hefty sum of money in the Getty Trust. With this large sum, the Getty Centre was built over 17 years as designed by the award winning architect, Richard Meier. The stones found on the walls of the building are from the same quarry as those used to build The Colosseum in Rome. The square tiles throughout the site were all 30 by 30 inches and this same theme was found throughout the building, on the walls, windows and even the seat cushions and garden hedges! There were also informative iPod audioguides you can borrow for free if you leave your ID with them. As someone who does not particularly love museums or art, I still spent 2 hours here wandering around and admiring the architecture and outdoor sculptures.

In-and-Out

We ended up spending more time than we intended at the museum, and we were once again hungry. Aaron had already planned out a route for our drive and we were running behind our schedule, especially with the always present traffic of LA. On our way, we had to stop by In-and-Out. From our fancy breakfast on the hip-top this morning, we now turned to some greasy burgers and fries for lunch. We tried the cheeseburger and fries, both regular and "animal style". We were both impressed by how the burgers had load of vegetables and was definitely more substantial than a cheeseburger you can get at McDonald’s. I cannot distinguish the burger "animal style" vs. the regular burger to be honest. We were both not a fan of the fries compared to McDonald’s tasty salty delights. The "animal style" fries, however, was quite tasty, with its secret sauce and grilled onions. I would probably come back here for its burgers, but I’ll stick to McDonald fries.

Mount Wilson

After lunch, Aaron had a ball driving along more windy mountain roads with the top down. We finally made it to Mount Wilson. Unfortunately, the observatory was closed by the time we got there. On our way back, we got to enjoy the view at various lookout points.

Silver Lake

For dinner, we had originally wanted to go check out the 626 area for some soupy Asian noodles; however, from our research, we found out that there was a good Taiwanese restaurant in Silver Lake which was ranked as the number one Chinese restaurant in America on Foursquare. We knew we had to try it! We have not yet been to this area during this trip and we were very intrigued with all the restaurants here. We found a very popular Northern Thai restaurant close to where we parked. Our plan was to check out Pine and Crane, the Taiwanese restaurant, then restaurant-hop here afterwards. Pine and Crane was not easy to find as the roads were blocked off for an outdoor movie event. As soon as we saw the long line in front of the restaurant, we knew we were at the right place. It was actually quite nice that there was an outdoor movie showing, as we were able to enjoy that while waiting in line. The line moved quite quickly and we reached the front counter in maybe less than 30 minutes. We ordered the beef noodles and Dan Dan noodles, along with a side of their seaweed salad. We saw many people ordering their bubble tea so I ordered the Salted Cream Jasmine Green Tea with boba and Aaron had the Taro Milk Tea. We were then given a number and were seated pretty quickly. The drinks arrived first and we were both very impressed. My Salted Cream Jasmine Green Tea was aesthetically pleasing with its layers of cream, tea and boba. After some mixing, I took the first sip and was further impressed with its taste! I haven’t had too much bubble tea in the recent years and when I tried it again the week before in Vancouver, I felt it was overly sweet and artificial tasting. This had a strong tea flavour and was not too sweet. It was the perfect balance. Aaron’s Taro Milk Tea had real chucks of taro in it! The seaweed salad was refreshing, similar to a Japanese wakame salad with more flavours from the bell peppers. Then the Dan Dan Noodles arrived. I’ve had quite a few different versions of Dan Dan in the past and this was probably my favourite. It was not too oily compared to other ones. The sauce/soup was amazingly delicious. The best part was the noodles which had the texture of instant noodles and soaked up the flavours of the sauce so well. This meal kept getting better as the beef noodles was truly the star of the night. The beef was so tender and flavourful. The soup had a good profile of salty and sour. The noodles were thick and looked handmade. Then there was some bok choy as well to change the taste and texture up. This was the best beef noodles I’ve had in North America. It is comp
arable to the first time we had the Rod Yiam beef noodles in Chiang Mai. We had already toned down our ordering by not getting appetizers but we were both too stuffed to eat any more. We were both super pleased with this meal but wished we had another stomach to order more food here or to check out the Thai place we had intended to also visit. I guess that will have to wait. We ended the night driving down Hollywood Boulevard and it was even more lively now than during the day.