March 10, 2012

March 10, 2012

This morning we drove over the San Gabriel mountains into Los Angeles. We arrived too early so we decided to stop at Grauman’s Chinese Theater to see the footprints in the cement that I remember from my childhood visit. I remember thinking at the time that only Shirley Temple’s prints were near my size. While walking to the Theater we also stumbled upon the “Walk of Fame” lining Hollywood Boulevard. Almost every actor and singer has a star embedded in the sidewalk. Also next door to Grauman’s is Kodak Theater. We stop and take a picture of where movie stars meet to give each other Oscar statues.

After this brief dalliance with Hollywood glitz we head to the very urban Hancock Park. This park contains the La Brea Tar Pits, where Ice Age mammals got stuck in gooey asphalt. What I thought was an historical artifact is still very active. Asphalt still seeps up in many spots in the grass. An oily sheen and smelly methane bubbles emanate from the park’s pond. La Brea also continues to be an active dig site with a seemingly endless supply of fossils. In the center of the park is the Page Museum displaying a tiny fraction of the fossils. They have found lots of almost every animal from the Ice Age. Dire Wolves and Saber-toothed cats have been found in the thousands. Scientists think these extinct carnivores just couldn’t resist pouncing on a struggling mammoth or buffalo. They even have found 400 Golden Eagles. No other spot matches the sheer concentration of fossils found at La Brea.

After lunch we drove north to Griffith Park. Griffith is the Central Park of Los Angeles. It sits on a beautiful hill overlooking LA. We wound our way up the narrow road packed with cars parked alongside. Griffith is a magnet for both tourists and locals. At the peak we stop at the observatory made famous in James Dean’s movie, Rebel without a Cause. From the deck we get a great view of the Hollywood sign and the city. We spend an hour perusing the Observatory's extensive exhibits on astronomy.

Aimee has been very patient with my touring. She wants payback now, so we drive to the Fashion district near downtown LA. It is a zoo of humanity. I drop Aimee off while I go looking for a spot to park. Aimee is in heaven. Here fabric is not sold by the yard, but by the pound!

The crowds of Los Angeles are getting to me, so we decide to cut short our tour and head southeast out of town. We spend the night in San Clemente, where Nixon had his western White House.