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Haley Kalil Shares Wildly Entertaining Vacation Video With Her Squad | Celebrity Insider
Instagram/@haleyybaylee
Haley Kalil has recently been the topic of conversation mainly because of the video she uploaded from a trip with friends. The video clip is a hilarious compilation of fun and laughter with the model and her crew, not to mention some hilarious clothes, and a fall that the viewers will keep talking about. This kind of genuine content is a hallmark of Haley Kalil‘s social media presence.
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Haley Kalil is labeling her most recent trip a therapeutic one and on the whole, it is difficult to disagree with her point after watching the short clip. It is a video that instantly brings fun along with her friends Shayna Belen, Matthew Cancel, and Samantha Jaymes. There are such lyrics as “We just wanna see you shake that” and “Every day I’m shuffling” in the background music thus the video turns into a masterclass in having a good time. It is the kind of content that makes one want to be included in the group.
The video opens with the group looking fashionable and active. Nevertheless, the true astonishment occurs when the video gradually unfolds. There was a scene in which Haley experienced a minor mishap that instantly drew the viewers’ attention. One viewer said with amusement, “LMAO, THE WAY YOU FELL.” Such a genuine and spontaneous moment is what makes the video endearing. It is not about perfection; it is about living the moment and laughing at oneself.
Another thing that made the video notable and striking to the viewers was the fashion collaboration of the group. One witty commenter remarked, “Lol it seems like you all decided to match your coats.” Truly, at the end of the video, the whole crew is wearing identical denim jackets which convey a fashionable yet unified vibe that even caused minor interrogations among the commenters. A lot of people were asking, “Where did all the Jean jackets come from lol?” and “Where did you get those similar jackets?” It seems that Haley and her friends have unknowingly started a fashion trend, though she has previously been open about her own fashion fails.
The joyous and chaotic spirit of the trip was beautifully captured in the video. One fellow viewer, in reference to a friend who was in the video, humorously said, “lmaoooooo @samanthajaymes_ I know the last drink face all too well.” This reference to the universally familiar “end of the night” feeling was shared by many. Another user added to the hilarity by tracing the route, saying, “Started in front of an Irish pub; ended up falling down across the street from some nondescript bank.” The storytelling in the comments was almost like an extension of the video itself.
Amidst all the fun, there was a little bit of the opposite side when it came to praising Haley’s ability to maintain her cool. Someone remarked, “girl you ate in this,” and by this, he/she was referring to a contemporary compliment meaning she completely conquered the moment. The video even provoked nostalgia in some, one person saying, “Making me want to go back to drinking,” while another was just echoing, “🤭 how fun. I’m Haley after the last drink.”
But it was not only about slip-ups, the technical aspect was also recognized, one person stating, “I think the use of AI was very high in this video.” This suggests that the quick editing and the visually stimulating ways had a lot to do with the upbeat mood of the video which made it more than just a clip – a production. Her approach to content often includes a humorous take on beauty tropes.
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Haley Kalil’s post is a classic example of how the sharing of real and happy moments can lead to a positive wave of interaction. It was not a polished, filtered version of a vacation; instead, it was a dirty, real, funny, and somewhat disorganized journey with friends. The combination of the matching jackets, the comical fall, and the whole party-like atmosphere turned the simple travelogue into a hot topic. This reminds us that the best content often comes from just being yourself and having fun, and the internet loved every second of it in return. She has also been known to ask candid questions and stun followers with dramatic new looks.
Around 7 a.m. Saturday, in a lot beside the shuttered Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, a strange set of cars and trucks began to gather. Three Model A’s. A couple of ’60 convertibles. A 1964 Chevrolet Impala station wagon. Also, a big bull on trailer wheels.
“Am I in the right place?” asked a man in one of the Model A’s.
“Going to Chicago?” asked a guy in a white Denali.
“I wish I could do the whole thing,” said Joe Hernandez of Pasadena, wistfully standing by.
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This was the starting line for roughly 70 drivers who gathered to celebrate the centennial of Route 66 with a 2,448-mile, 20-day caravan to Chicago. Most had come from outside California to share an adventure with fellow “roadies” and boost awareness of the classic scenery and independent businesses along the eight-state route.
But soaring gas prices and hesitant international travelers have added uncertainty to a trip that was always going to be a logistical challenge. Day 1 alone might terrify an L.A. commuter: From the Pacific to Pasadena by surface streets, including miles on Santa Monica and Colorado boulevards.
“I don’t know how it’s all going to happen,” said Gary Daggett, president of the Old Route 66 Assn. of Texas. But he and his wife, Stephanie, have more than a little Route 66 experience to draw upon.
Mike and Lisa Visket of Prescott, Ariz., pose in Santa Monica at the pier in their Route 66 clothing on June 6, 2026.
“This is our 30th trip over 20 years,” Daggett said. “You can’t see everything. There’s so much…. You start meeting the people, you get hooked on the people.”
Shortly before their 8:30 departure time, organizer Rhys Martin called drivers together.
“Leaving here is going to be a little complicated,” he said.
Martin, who is part of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, is president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Assn., and serves as manager of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserve Route 66 initiative. For the journey, he is driving a ’64 Chevy Impala station wagon with a GPS unit inside so that armchair travelers can follow his journey on the web.
“It’s going to be impossible to keep everybody together,” he said during preparations. “We’re encouraging people to spread out and support independent businesses rather than all going to one place and demolishing the kitchen.”
William Cooke of Pinon Hills participates in a caravan from Santa Monica Pier to Chicago, celebrating the centennial of Route 66.
In song and literature, the route is celebrated as an east-to-west journey. This caravan, running in the opposite direction, will travel from California through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri to Illinois.
From Santa Monica, the Day 1 schedule took drivers to Beverly Hills City Hall, Grand Central Market downtown for lunch, the Chicken Boy statue and Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in Highland Park, then an overnight in Pasadena.
Day 2 takes the group from Pasadena to Barstow. Day 3, from Barstow to Needles. On June 25, the caravan is due to arrive in downtown Chicago.
The loose procession was led by a core group of 15 cars, including representatives of all eight states on the route. Since anyone can join or leave the caravan at any time, the number of vehicles will vary by the hour.
Through the decades, the road has grown from an American artifact into a global symbol of small-town Americana. Many merchants, restaurateurs and hoteliers along 66 now say that their summer customers are mostly travelers from abroad, especially Europe. One of the caravan’s drivers, in a rented pickup truck, was Dries Bessels, co-founder of the Dutch Route 66 Assn.
Brady Wilson of Amarillo, Texas, displays an assortment of Route 66 pins on his cowboy hat. Wilson is part of a caravan of Route 66 enthusiasts who set out from Santa Monica Pier on June 6, 2026, for Chicago.
Though the Model A’s will surely raise eyebrows on the road, the caravan’s most startling element is the fiberglass bull representing the Amarillo-based Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant, one of the event’s sponsors.
“It’s the same one my dad brought home in ’71. His name is Big Moo,” said Danny Lee, who co-owns the restaurant with his brother, Bobby Lee. “He’s 12 and a half feet high. About 500 pounds. It’s all fiberglass.”
In 21 cities along the drive, the Big Texan team aims to stage nightly steak-eating contests, giving free dinners to anyone who can eat 72 ounces of steak, a baked potato, three shrimp, a side salad and a roll in 60 minutes.
The caravan’s first challenge came at the Santa Monica Pier, where there was no room for the cars due to a construction project, World Cup preparations and a Children’s Hospital fundraiser. Instead, the caravan gathered by the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Drivers strolled over the pier for a photo op, then returned to their cars.
“Herding cats,” said George Kulakowski of Huntington Beach, at the wheel of a 1931 Ford Model A Panel Delivery truck.
Participants in a Route 66 centennial caravan pose for a photo before they depart from Santa Monica Pier on June 2, 2026, for Chicago along the historic highway.
Another challenge awaited in West Hollywood, where Santa Monica Boulevard (aka Route 66) was busy with crowds for the city’s WeHo Pride Street Fair. By plans laid ahead of time, most caravan vehicles detoured around the party while select caravan cars followed a police escort through the action.
This way, Martin said, “another community along Route 66 gets to share its identity with the community at large.”
Allison Lehn of Boston participates in a caravan from Santa Monica Pier to Chicago, celebrating the centennial of Route 66.
By 11:15 a.m., Martin’s car had reached Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. Meanwhile, assorted other parades and caravans are traveling Route 66 in other states this year; most of them concentrate on short segments.
By 12:45 p.m., caravaners had met the mayor of Beverly Hills and rolled through West Hollywood’s Pride festivities, arriving at Grand Central Market, running slightly ahead of time.
On May 30, an estimated 3,596 classic cars joined a “Capital Cruise” on Route 66 in Tulsa, Okla., becoming a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the largest parade of classic cars, drawing an estimated 100,000 spectators and overwhelming local traffic.
In Arizona, the Williams Historic Route 66 Car Show was set for Friday and Saturday. In Texas, the Amarillo-based Texas Route 66 Festival is running Thursday through June 13.
William Cooke of Pinon Hills, left, and Sarah Jane Woodall of Tecopa, Calif., drive along Wilshire Boulevard in a 1960 Edsel Ranger Convertible as part of a Route 66 centennial caravan.
In those states and beyond, the caravan from Santa Monica will find hotels and motels in every kind of condition, vintage neon, road food, blue states, red states and purple states.
As a package of Times stories described in May, some landmarks date to the highway’s days as a scene of Depression desperation in the 1930s, others to its giddy postwar years in the late 1940s and ‘50s.
Route 66 was created in 1926 as a highway stitching together hundreds of local roads. Nicknamed “the Main Street of America” by its boosters and “the Mother Road” by John Steinbeck in “The Grapes of Wrath,” the highway inspired Bobby Troup’s song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” in 1946.
But economic life along Route 66 has been precarious since the late 1960s, when interstate highways and chain hotels began stealing traffic away from the older, slower road. After Route 66 was decommissioned as a highway in 1985, about 85% of the old route remained in use, often as small-town thoroughfares, country highways and frontage roads alongside Interstate 40.
Efforts to save and rebuild the route as a historic resource began in the late 1980s and gained ground after the 2006 release of the Pixar/Disney animated features “Cars,” which tells the story of the highway’s rise and fall. In small towns such as Tucumcari, N.M., and Seligman, Ariz., the highway remains central to local identity and economy.
A vehicle in the Route 66 caravan is photographed June 6, 2026.
This year’s centennial improvements along the route “are things that are going to go into the future,” Martin said. “The real impact is going to be next year and the years after.”
Fantasy Wedding Planner!
Taylor & Travis
Wedding details are scarce, but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate the event of the season. Channel your inner wedding planner and use your Swiftie knowledge to dream up your own fantasy version of how their big day might look. Your selections will be saved below. Share them with friends and see if you agree!
Where would the wedding be held?
Holiday House
An oceanside retreat in Rhode Island
Venue Holiday House
Swift’s mansion was the subject of her track “The Last Great American Dynasty,” which tells the story of its former owner, an oil heiress known for throwing swanky soirees. Swift herself has been known to throw star-studded summer bashes at the seaside compound.
Madison Square Garden
The iconic Manhattan fixture
Venue Madison Square Garden
The perfect choice for a woman who penned the words “Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you” and whose love affair with New York City has been well documented in many a lyric.
Arrowhead Stadium
A Kansas City venue big enough for two celebs who know everyone
Venue Arrowhead Stadium
Both Swift and Kelce have performed here: Kelce on the field and Swift during a stop on her Eras Tour, where Kelce tried and failed to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. He later recounted his disappointment on “New Heights,” the podcast he hosts with his brother, Jason Kelce.
Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn
A rustic, intimate retreat near California’s redwood forest
Venue Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn
Swift loves this area, from recommending it to Vogue in 2016 for a romantic getaway to taking a falconry class there in 2018. This secluded spot in Northern California comes with “Folklore” album energy and just enough rooms for a small guest list.
Who would be the maid of honor?
Abigail Anderson Berard
Childhood bestie
Maid of Honor Abigail Anderson Berard
Yes, that is the Abigail from Swift’s song “Fifteen.” Berard and Swift met in English class on the first day of their freshman year at Hendersonville High School in Tennessee. Swift was also a bridesmaid in Berard’s wedding.
Maid of Honor Karlie Kloss
A wild-card pick. The model and the singer were once thick as thieves, sharing a Vogue cover in 2015 and strutting the Victoria’s Secret runway together, but their relationship seems to have cooled in recent years.
Selena Gomez
Singer, actor, beauty mogul
Maid of Honor Selena Gomez
They have been friends since the days when they were each dating a Jonas brother, and Swift appeared in behind-the-scenes footage of Gomez’s own wedding to Benny Blanco in 2025.
Lena Dunham
Voice of a generation
Maid of Honor Lena Dunham
Swift, clad in a silver pleated dress, was part of the bridal party when the writer and actor married the Peruvian-British musician Luis Felber in 2021.
Maid of Honor Ashley Avignone
A longtime friend who is often seen with Swift at football games and has appeared in the music video for “22.” Avignone is a designer, so maybe Swift will let her choose her own dress.
Pick a surprise musical guest
Ed Sheeran
English singer-songwriter
Musical guest Ed Sheeran
Sheeran and Swift go way back, collaborating on songs like “End Game” and “Everything Has Changed.” Rumor has it you can still hear the screams echoing through London from when he surprised attendees by performing onstage with Swift during a stop on the Eras Tour.
Musical guest Haim
The trio opened for Swift on the “1989” tour. Plus, lyrically at least, Swift has admitted to being close enough to the sisters to help them commit and cover up a fictitious murder in her song “No Body, No Crime.”
Kendrick Lamar
Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper
Musical guest Kendrick Lamar
The two have hyped each other up plenty in interviews over the years, and the rapper appeared on two Swift tracks, the original “Bad Blood (Remix)” and Taylor’s rerecorded version a few years later.
Stevie Nicks
Legendary singer-songwriter
Musical guest Stevie Nicks
She’s Stevie Nicks. Need we say more? (The two have been close since a joint performance at the Grammy Awards in 2010, and Swift name-dropped Nicks on her song “Clara Bow.”)
boygenius
Indie-rock super group
Musical guest boygenius
The three-member band has been on hiatus since 2024, but if anybody can get them back onstage (for one night only!), it’s Swift.
What’s on the dinner menu?
Chicken Tenders
A nostalgic comfort-food favorite
Main Course Chicken Tenders
With seemingly ranch. IYKYK.
Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que
Accompanied with wet wipes
Main Course Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que
The gas station-turned-barbecue joint is a favorite of Kelce and his teammates.
Cacio e Pepe
A taste of Italy
Main Course Cacio e Pepe
Swift has been repeatedly spotted at Via Carota, even as recently as this spring. The Italian hot spot in Manhattan is known for the signature pasta dish, made with Pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper.
Mustard-Roasted Fish
An understated crowd-pleaser with coastal charm
Main Course Mustard-Roasted Fish
What’s a wedding without fish? Plus, Ina Garten herself cooked this recipe with Swift back in 2014. (Paired with whiskey sours.)
How would Swift wear her hair?
Down
Long, wavy and streaming down her back
Hairstyle Down
Very “runnin’ with my dress unbuttoned, screamin’, ‘But, Daddy, I love him’” vibes, to quote a song from Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department.”
A Platinum Bob
Something unexpected
Hairstyle A Platinum Bob
The return of Bleachella.
An Up-Do
Just a classic look
Hairstyle An Up-Do
Knotted and pinned to the nape of her neck, complete with Swift’s signature bangs — a red carpet staple for Swift.
Hairstyle A Braid
“Evermore” cover art inspired.
Who would she choose to design her wedding look?
Ralph Lauren
An American icon for an iconic American wedding
Designer Ralph Lauren
Both Swift and Kelce were wearing the brand in their engagement announcement photos.
Vivienne Westwood
Romantic draping and a cinched corset
Designer Vivienne Westwood
Swift has already worn one white gown by the designer, who made her a custom taffeta gown for the Eras Tour. Maybe she’ll just rewear it. Secondhand is very in for bridal these days!
Stella McCartney
Stylish and sustainably made
Designer Stella McCartney
Swift has sung about the British designer and, during her “Lover” era, collaborated with McCartney in 2019 on the “Stella x Taylor Swift” capsule collection inspired by the album.
Oscar de la Renta
Feminine and embellished
Designer Oscar de la Renta
From the stage to the red carpet, Swift is an Oscar de la Renta gal. She made the whole place shimmer in a sequined T-shirt dress by the designer during the Eras Tour and wore a blingy mini to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2022.
What about the wedding favors?
Custom Matchbooks
Inexpensive and easy for guests to tuck into a pocket or purse
Wedding Favor Custom Matchbooks
Perfect if you’ve got a picture to burn, a little reference to the inflammatory track off Swift’s debut album.
Personalized Golf Balls
If you don’t golf, these have excellent regifting potential
Wedding Favor Personalized Golf Balls
“Taylor and Travis Fore-ever!” Fitting for Kelce, an amateur golfer who is known to frequent the links in his off-season.
Blue Crew-Neck Sweatshirts
A cozy option
Wedding Favor Blue Crew-Neck Sweatshirts
The “it” item of the Eras Tour is back and better than ever with a new custom design specifically for the wedding.
Sourdough Bread
A gift that will surely not be tossed out in the hotel room trash when guests check out
Wedding Favor Sourdough Bread
The loaves will be made by Swift, a hobby baker, herself. She’ll carefully score each ball of dough with a knife so the top of the final loaf reads “TNT.” Plus a jar of starter for anybody looking to bake their own.
What would be the dress code?
“Enchanted” White Tie
A storybook-inspired aesthetic
Dress Code “Enchanted” White Tie
Big, romantic ball gowns and tuxedos with tails. No exceptions!
Just Your Basic Black Tie
Traditional, yet fashion forward
Dress Code Just Your Basic Black Tie
“The ties were black, the lies were white,” as the Swift lyric goes.
“Cowboy Like Me” Cocktail
Rodeo, but make it formal
Dress Code “Cowboy Like Me” Cocktail
Western-themed attire for all. Think bolo ties and boots, a nod to Swift’s country music roots.
“So High School” Prom
A joyful parade of sequins, vintage tulle and boutonnieres
Dress Code “So High School” Prom
A theme-y option for a little millennial whimsy! Draw inspiration from a song rumored to be about Swift and Kelce’s romance, and don your finest ’50s-style prom fits. It’s also a nod to their engagement announcement, where Swift and Kelce referred to themselves as an English teacher and a gym teacher.
A Vodka Diet Coke
Make it a double
Signature Drink A Vodka Diet Coke
Basic, but a favorite of Swift’s.
An Old Fashioned
Extra cherries, please
Signature Drink An Old Fashioned
Because “nothin’ good starts in a getaway car”— an allusion to her song “Getaway Car,” where the cocktail was a memorable mention in the lyrics.
A Big Yeti
Imagine how fun it will be to order this from the bartender
Signature Drink A Big Yeti
This is Kelce’s drink on the menu at 1587 Prime, the steakhouse he owns with his teammate Patrick Mahomes. It is made with Bourbon, Rye with nocino (an Italian walnut liqueur), Demerara sugar, and bitters.
Domaine de Terres Blanches Sancerre
A classic glass of crisp white
Signature Drink Domaine de Terres Blanches Sancerre
There was a run on this particular bottle of white wine after Swift was seen sipping it in a clip in “The End of an Era,” a documentary about her most recent tour. (It’s OK if you want to ask the bartender to put an ice cube in it, Swift would!)
What role would Swift’s three cats — Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson and Benjamin Button — play in the wedding?
(Swift’s cats not pictured)
Flower Felines
Four paws and flower crowns required
Cat Role Flower Felines
The trio will walk down the aisle, each escorted on a leash by the actor the cat was named for: Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay and Brad Pitt.
Cardboard Cutouts of Their Heads
The photo booth gets a very furry update
Cat Role Cardboard Cutouts of Their Heads
Purrrrrfect props for when the dance floor gets wild.
Cocktail Napkins
Purple with silver lettering
Cat Role Cocktail Napkins
Little embossed cat faces everywhere.
Guests
They’ll have the salmon, please
Cat Role Guests
The cats are obviously just invited. Weird that you even had to ask.
Who would you choose as best man?
Jason Kelce
Retired professional football player
Best Man Jason Kelce
He’s the brother of the groom.
Jason Kelce
Retired professional football player
Best Man Jason Kelce
It would only be fair since Travis was Jason’s best man back in 2018.
Jason Kelce
Retired professional football player
Best Man Jason Kelce
No, really, it has to be Jason.
Jason Kelce
Retired professional football player
Best Man Jason Kelce
It’s going to be Jason Kelce.
Milk Bar Birthday Cake
The ultimate rainbow cake
Dessert Milk Bar Birthday Cake
Swift is a longtime fan of this flavor, an elevated take on Funfetti by the pastry chef Christina Tosi. It was on the menu at her 34th birthday, and back in 2016, she told Vogue it was the best birthday cake she’d ever eaten.
Homemade Chai Sugar Cookies
A classic sugar cookie with a twist
Dessert Homemade Chai Sugar Cookies
Baked with Swift’s own recipe from her Tumblr days.
Red Velvet Cake
A southern classic
Dessert Red Velvet Cake
A recreation of the wedding dessert featured in Swift’s music video “I Bet You Think About Me.” (A bit of a chaotic choice given the song’s subject material, but still delicious!)
Doughnut Wall
Who doesn’t love a glazed doughnut?
Dessert Doughnut Wall
Specifically made of plain, glazed offerings from LaMar’s doughnuts in Kansas City, which Kelce and his brother taste-tested and rated a 10-out-of-10 on their podcast.
Which side would Andrea Swift, mother of the bride, wear her signature side ponytail for the occasion?
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My Fantasy Picks for
Taylor & Travis’s Wedding
The back rooms of the La Brea Tar Pits are, at the moment, a maze of packing crates tagged with handwritten sticky notes that say things like “bison skulls” or “camel hip.”
Every bone, down to the last dire wolf rib, must be carefully sheathed in a custom foam shell. Sloth jaws and sabertooth fangs and a truly astonishing amount of ancient vertebrae — all of it will be swaddled, catalogued and crated for the next two years.
On July 6, the La Brea Tar Pits will close its doors for a massive renovation. When it reopens in summer 2028, the remodeled Hancock Park museum will be the centerpiece of the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, a scientific hub dedicated to an era of natural history better preserved here than anywhere else on Earth.
The new grounds, which will largely hew to the current building’s footprint, will better show off the museum’s collection and explain how much the ecosystem preserved in the pits can tell us about where our current one is heading.
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1. Bins of labeled fossils. 2. A detail of a Columbian mammoth being restored inside the Fossil Lab.
But first, somebody has to pack it all up — all 3.5 million fossils, each fragile and irreplaceable, like a house move out of a nightmare.
The same bounty that makes the Tar Pits the best place on Earth to study its slice of the late Pleistocene epoch also makes for a move of truly mammoth proportions.
Moving the museum to a different part of Los Angeles is out of the question. Nature chose its location some 60,000 years ago, when crude petroleum that formed millions of years earlier began seeping to the surface.
For the next 49,000 years, the sticky pits captured virtually everything that fell or walked onto them, from grains of pollen borne by the wind to hapless ancient camels and Columbian mammoths.
The result is a near-complete record of virtually everything that lived in the place now called Los Angeles in the late Pleistocene.
Workers prepare fossils to be packaged and moved.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Fossilized dire wolf skulls are displayed before being packed away.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
“No city anywhere has anything that’s comparable,” said Regan Dunn, a paleobotanist and curator at the La Brea Tar Pits. “You have this trap, basically, that was just sitting here and collecting all of Los Angeles life for the last 60,000 years.”
It’s an era of natural history with striking parallels to our own — climate change, extinction, devastating fires, a wobbling balance between humans and the rest of the natural world.
In 2023, Dunn and fellow curator Emily Lindsey drew on the collection for a research study documenting how the collapse of biodiversity in the Ice Age coincided with the arrival of humans and the fires they struggled to contain.
“The story [at the Tar Pits] is critical to our understanding not just of Los Angeles, but of what’s happening in the world,” said Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County. “The story of extinction and resilience related to climate and ecological change … is just so relevant.”
It’s not a story visitors can easily follow at the current museum, staff said.
Senior Preparator Laura Tewksbury, left, restores part of a fossilized mammoth hip, alongside Judith Sydner-Gordon, right, inside the Fossil Lab — an active paleontology lab within the museum.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The building, formally known as the George C. Page Museum, opened in 1977, when both the collection and scientists’ understanding of it were significantly smaller.
Some early misconceptions are still reflected in the exhibits. The half-submerged mammoth sculpture in the museum’s iconic outdoor Lake Pit gives the common but inaccurate impression that the tar worked like quicksand, sucking its victims fatally downward. In reality, just a few inches of the sticky stuff was enough to snare a heavy animal in place until it either died of exposure or fell prey to predators, who then became trapped themselves.
Exhibits covering bugs and plants, now understood to be a crucial part of the Ice Age ecosystem, are currently limited to two small wall displays last updated in the 1980s. The saber-toothed cat that appears mirage-like through a window, an optical illusion known as a Pepper’s Ghost, doesn’t reflect modern knowledge of the animal’s anatomy. (The illusion takes up a ton of space, and likely won’t be part of the remodeled museum, Dunn said.)
Early in the planning process, the museum surveyed local community members and museumgoers about which features should carry over to the new design.
The grassy hills around the building that slope at the ideal angle for children to roll down like logs — those had to stay. So did the tar pulls, an interactive exhibit where visitors test their strength against levers submerged in buckets of asphalt.
The outdoor mammoth family sculptures were also nonnegotiable. They will remain in the next iteration, with some landscape alterations to make the scene more scientifically accurate, Bettison-Varga said.
Fossil Lab Manager Stephany Potze restores a rib from a dire wolf pup.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The new layout will make better use of the building’s interior, Bettison-Varga said, with more space for exhibits, storage, research and educational programs.
The lush greenery in the leafy inner courtyard will be replaced with plants more closely related to those of the late Pleistocene, such as cypress and toyon. All of the current mounted Ice Age mammal skeletons will return, along with four new ones: a baby bison, a baby dire wolf, a giant ground sloth constructed of real fossils (the one currently on display is a plaster cast) and Zed, the most complete Columbian mammoth ever found, whose giant remains have been undergoing conservation at the museum for nearly 20 years. He will be displayed as he most likely died — in combat with another male.
A corps of volunteers and employees are working nonstop to pack up the collections, which will be relocated to other NHM properties during the renovation, Dunn said.
On a recent afternoon, volunteers bustled around the museum wheeling carts of jaws and vertebrae carefully organized by species. Visitors peered into the Fish Bowl, the glass-walled lab where white-coated preparators carefully clean fossils. A piece of Zed’s pelvis and ribs sat on a center table.
Volunteer preparator Ricky Whitman restores part of a Columbian mammoth neck vertebrae.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Excavations at the active pits and conservation of fossils will continue during the closure, albeit in different conditions than many fossil handlers are used to.
The museum is working on mobile programming as an alternative for the roughly 34,000 schoolchildren who visit each year on field trips, virtually all of whom spend part of their visit pressed against the glass of the Fish Bowl watching scientists at work. Some of them press questions scribbled on pieces of paper or typed in their phone against the glass, and the preparators answer them with notes of their own. (An expanded Fish Bowl-type lab will be part of the new design, too.)
It’s going to be weird cleaning fossils without anybody watching, volunteer preparators said.
“There are a lot of kids, neighborhood kids, that I get to see as they grow up. It’s a lot of fun,” said Senior Preparator Laura Tewksbury.
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Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoPasadena motorist knocked unconscious in unprovoked assault after other driver flashes high beams at him
