We arose, breakfasted at the hotel (where we met Arlene; Not your typical Best Western Breakfast person Arlene is friendly, chatty, attentive, and interested in “her people”.) and headed over to the house.

At the appointed hour we departed in caravan for the Las Angeles National Cemetery (the military cemetery where Billie’s father is buried).  The service, led by the family’s pastor, was a short, personal, funny tribute to Thelma and the impact she had on all of us.

Following the service we searched out the grave of Billie’s great grandfather who served during the Spanish-American war, then headed to lunch.

Following lunch Billie, Steve, Cheryl and I drove over to the La Brea Tar Pits.

The tar pits are actually a group of “asphalt bogs” connected to underground oil deposits that have appeared at times over the past 30,000 years or so.  When present they served to trap animals, which became prey for other animals, some of whom were also caught in the tar and so forth.  Eventually the bones were fossilized and over the past century people have been excavating the pits:

finding all manner of birds and beasts including:

In addition to the pits themselves there are opportunities to see paleontologists working both at pit locations and in the lab as well as an excellent museum.

Having burned off lunch we crossed the street where we met cousin Ralph for burgers and catching up.  We had a great visit before he had to dash to his next appointment and we girded our loins to address the LA County Museum of Art.

The dog is the famous one, but the streetlights installation was much more popular with the museum-goers:

Inside we viewed:

As well as works by Cezanne, Picasso, Wedgwood, Whistler and Dali to name a few.

While I was wandering the halls of European art Cheryl visited the Asian building:

Having subjected our feet to sufficient suffering we retired to our home and hotel to prep for the new adventure on the morrow – The Huntington Library.