I'm a member of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), so I get to visit the museum whenever I want. Theoretically, at least. I hardly ever go, but I like to option of being able to. In addition to the "free" admission, I also get tickets to certain special exhibitions.

The current special exhibition right now at LACMA is called "Pompeii and the Roman Villa." Stephen and I decided to check it out on Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

First, we stopped at the museum restaurant, Pentimento. It's very overpriced, but that's typical of museum restaurants. The menu is pretty limited, but the choices we made were delicious.

After lunch we stopped in to see the artwork. The special collection is pretty nice, though probably not worth $25. Good thing my tickets were theoretically free (though I did have to pay a lot for the membership). There's a lot of sculpture recovered from Pompeii and its environs. There are also several later depictions of what life would have been like in the days before Vesuvius erupted. Overall, it's a very good exhibition, and I would recommend it if you can afford it.

July's field trip is actually a trip to LACMA, but we're just going general admission; it's much cheaper. Let me know if you're interested in joining us.