L.A. Trip - Day 2: Griffith Observatory

We got back to the hotel, got the car, and took a crazy drive up into the hills toward Griffith Observatory.  We approached from the Southeast and drove up a maze of narrow, twisted roads through neighborhoods of houses built along and into the hillside.  Somewhere up there was a trail where you could hike up to the observatory, but after about a 1/2 mile of driving past cars parked bumper to bumper (reducing the already narrow road to less than a lane), we found a place to turn around and headed back to the main Eastern road and just drove there.

Even so, we had quite a hike uphill from our parking space along the side of the road to the observatory.  We knew ahead of time that (like everything in L.A.) there is much less parking than what is needed, and with all the cars parked along the main road we didn't try to park in the tiny lot actually at the observatory.  Instead we found an empty space someone had just pulled out of and walked climbed the rest of the way up.

So that's a parking lot over on the right, and everything from there is uphill.  The observatory is left of center at the bottom.  There's an itty-bitty parking lot just north of the observatory.  Heading Northwest from the observatory parking lot, the closest spot we could find was on the side of the road about 1/4 of the way down the first road to the left (in the upper left corner).  Then we walked up the rest of the way.
Screenshot from Google Earth.  I did not skydive just to bring you this parking explanation.

Fancy a hike?  There are miles of trails around the observatory.

We'll eventually make it

HOLLYWOOD.  When it was originally erected it read HOLLYWOODLAND and was an advertisement for a new real estate development.

Here's a clearer shot from near the observatory

...aaand of course there's the Elmo that was missing from Hollywood Blvd.

Once we got there, we looked around inside and out.  There are several exhibits inside the building, a planetarium, and a telescope the public can look through in the evening.  They also bring small telescopes out onto the lawn at night for public use, but we weren't staying that long.

As seen in Rebel Without a Cause.  And Bowfinger.  :)

Astronomers Monument featuring Hipparchus, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Herschel

The main exhibit hall

Promenade

City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
  And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone.  Be someone.  Be someone.
"Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman

Let's go see

The telescope.  Sorry for the glare - the photo was taken in a very small glass-enclosed standing area.  At night they open the door and you can look through the lens.

After the observatory we thought we'd drive down and check out downtown Los Angeles.  So we did.  It was a downtown all right.  Not much else to say about it.

Nothing to see here.  Just experiencing L.A. freeways.

We drove around and then headed to the beach.  As we left the downtown area we saw several homeless camps under the overpasses.  Literal camps with tents, dressers, couches, chairs, etc.  At one intersection we saw a homeless man on the opposite corner who had trained 5 or 6 pigeons to fly at his command.  They would travel from a tree to his shoulder, or to his head, or to a signpost then back to his head.  He'd point and one by one they'd go, over and over again.  It was fascinating to watch.

We drove back to the Playa del Rey beach area, but all the street parking was taken (it was Saturday), and since it was an unplanned stop, we didn't feel like paying to park in a lot.  After driving back and forth along the beachfront a couple of times we threw in the towel and left.

After a quick detour to Target to pee and not buy anything (that's right, that's how we roll), we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a highlight of the trip.  Make that 2 highlights.