Our Day at Griffith Obsevatory (and other Hollywood sights!)

Another lovely day here in Los Angeles! We’re sitting out on our balcony enjoying a bright sunrise with a chorus of birds yipping their morning routine. There’s been the cutest little hummingbird that flits around the balcony who’s been evading our camera the second we bring it out to try to get a shot of him. It’s so small when it’s flying around it almost looks like a bug of some sort. Cuteness! Other than the constant flutter of helicopters giving tourist rides, it’s quiet and pleasant to chill out with the sun cracking through the hazy horizon.

Yesterday was busy and very hot! We had brekkies down in the lobby, posted our last blog entry, then headed off for the Griffith Observatory. I was utterly unaware that Hollywood has a subway system, though it’s very limited, even less than our LRT it seemed. So we took that to connect with the most adorable little trolley that took us up the steep climb to the observatory. We got there just as the show was about to begin, which was fortunate because the place turned quickly into a tourist nightmare of epic proportions. (Though we would soon discover, not nearly so scary as Hollywood Boulevard in the afternoon!) The show was amazing! I thought it would be certain that I would fall asleep because I haven’t been sleeping well at all due to sinus stuff and a sore throat, but the minute the show began, I was jolted awake with interest. It was very enchanting, even if the narrating was a little over-the-top. We then had lunch at the Wolfgang Puck café where John had some kind of fancy sandwich and pasta salad and I had the Butternut Squash soup, both were Wolfie-delicious!! The view from up there can’t be beat, so we spent a good two hours alternating taking photos outside, and seeing the other exhibits inside. I starting disintegrating rapidly with aches and the lack of sleep, and it soon became almost un-navigatable (is that a word?) with hoards of people, so we took the route back to the hotel where we rested before our next thing.

Hey, the little hummingbird just hovered right by me in the tree, but of course when I got the camera he sped off! Sometimes beauty is for us to witness, not to capture, I guess.

Anyway, we decided to head to the El Capitan Theatre to see WALL-E. It turns out that the $16 ticket that originally made us choke was not only for the movie, but also for an organist while you wait, and then a big theatrical show with a bunch of Disney characters, starting with Jiminey Cricket and ending with Mickey Mouse and a bunch of star-shaped confetti dumped on our heads. We were more confused than anything, I guess we hadn’t read the marquee, but it was funny and the kids in the audience thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie was great, I know there’s been controversy about it, but we enjoyed it quite a bit. If you can get over yourself enough to enjoy it, it’s great animation and a story that seems to be a frequent theme of my dreams for the future of this planet. The theatre was very cool, and after the show we wandered around to look at all the photos of premiere’s they’ve hosted, as it turns out, they show exclusively Disney movies. It reminded me of the Heights back home.

Our walk home along Hollywood Boulevard was entertained with people watching. You’d never know it was a Sunday night jammed with people at 11:00 PM, a lot like New York, except much dirtier. The sidewalks are disgracefully filthy here, I mean, beyond disgusting. You really have to watch where your feet are landing because there is literally dogshit EVERYWHERE. The grubby roads led us back home to our lovely Magic Hotel where we had a couple of burritos that we’d picked up at a funky little grocery on the way, then off to bed!

Dang, my posts seem to be getting longer and longer!
Love to all ;)~
R&J