It's ASPHALT, not Tar

We love museums. The more scientific, the better. When I was single, I lived in Southern California for many years, but I hated, hated going south of Ventura, or anywhere close to Los Angeles. So, even though I had always been intrigued by what I was told about the La Brea Tar Pits, I never made a trip there.

Until now.

Sabre Tooth Kitty

Spring break this year found all of us in Southern California visiting good friends, and family, and a side trip to the Page Museum's La Brea Tar Pits. Of course, we made this trip courtesy of our friend Erin, who drove the Streets of L.A. most skillfully (I served as a mediocre navigator).

I had no idea that the site was completely surrounded by the City. In my mind the pits should be without modern buildings, cars and parking garages surrounding them. Quite a juxtaposition of modern artifacts against those which are thousands and millions of years old.

The most remarkable factoid that we learned was that the black, thick, smelly stuff oozing up to the surface of the parking lot and grass, not to mention the pits being excavated, is really asphalt and not, NOT tar. That asphalt is the earth-made substance, and tar is the man-made substance.

Uh, how come no one told me this before? ::sigh:: I've missed out on so much.

Our Guide explaining about the Sabre Tooth Cat's Jaw

Our guide explain that the Sabre Tooth Cat, once thought to be a tiger is no longer considered to be related to tigers or lions. If you look closely at the top picture, you see that the skeleton sports a very short tail. And it is much smaller than its contempory tiger or lion (which were much larger than those of today). It is thought that the Sabre Tooth Cat is related more closely to the modern Bob Cat, who also sports a very short tail.