The Petersen Automotive Museum has always been on my radar, for obvious reasons.  But it seemed that every time I tried to take the car-loving Stevie, the place would be closed.  It looked like just a hole in the wall, and was right across the street from LACMA, so I was never heartbroken – it was no problem to find something else to do.

But the last time it closed, it was shut down completely for renovations.  I didn’t really give it much thought and certainly didn’t have many high expectations of the place once it reopened… but whoa.  One year and $125 million dollars later – I am impressed.

The building is one of the most eye-catching on Wilshire Blvd.  And the inside is 3 floors of pristine vehicles with displays about the history of cars, cars in the movies, concept cars, etc, etc, etc.  They did an amazing job.

When Stevie first walked in, he was pretty pumped.  He gets this excited walk, where he speeds up and holds his head high and swings his arms.  I can always tell when he’s feelin’ it.  That cuteness lasted approximately 9 minutes, when he said “I want to get going.”

Uh huh, it is still a museum after all.

But he hung in there, with the help of Tati, for a quick walk-through of all three levels.  He cooperated when I asked for a couple pictures.  And, most importantly, no meltdowns. That’s about all I could hope for.  After getting behind the wheel of a test-Maserati, he even said “I want to come back here one day…  Now let’s go each lunch.”

We walked around and found a restaurant with fry sauce, and all seemed right with the world for a moment.