Last Days In LA & The United States Of America

Bloody Tourists

We drove back from Santa Babara and into the big city of LA. On the way back Brenna wanted to take me to one of her favourite places in her home town - The Griffith Observatory. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, the observatory displays views of the Los Angeles Basin (including downtown LA) to the South-East, Hollywood to the South, and the Pacific Ocean to the South-West. The view from up there is extraordinary, and a good spot to see the Hollywood Sign, which so many people come to this city to see.

Its a beautiful park, with full 360 degree views from the top of the hill and we stayed there for sunset to really get the full affect. The showpiece however is the observatory. Its an amazingly crafted building and inside is a fabulous exhibition of all things space related, which includes a giant Faucault Pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth, a Zeiss refracting telescope and a machine which allows you to choose a meteorite of your design and then hurl at a planet also of your choosing . We spent a good few hours walking around and learning deep answers to the existence of our universe, but mostly just hurling meteorites at planets.

The masterpiece though, is the planetarium. It must be about 45 minutes long and was brilliantly done. As you lie back in your seat, the ceiling above turns into the night sky, and with a word-perfect narrator (wannabe hollywood actor) explained with precision all that we know about the universe we live in and the history of how we now come to such conclusions about it. I wanted to stay just to see it all again, but instead decided to buy Steven Hawkings book - "A Brief History Of Time" which is a mere doddle to read and understand but dont ask me to explain it, that would take about as long as the formation of the solar system!!!

On my last few days in LA, we based ourselves at Brennas student house in Claremont. Before I left, we visited the famous Venice Beach, where we were harassed by the usual nutcases that reside there. If you like to people watch - I cant think of a better place in the world to do it. We also took a ride on the also very famous Mulholland Drive and stopped off for view-point photos. Its a great road for cruising along and admiring the city of LA. We also passed through Beverly Hills, where huge houses and fancy sports cars dominate. Im sure many a person (aspiring actor / actress) has driven through this part of the world hoping their talents will take them all the way to the top (Beverly Hills). For me, its not really my thing and I would take a house in Southgate any day!!!

Our last few days for me were also filled with much eating. We went to as many amazing places to dine, as often as we could. The food portions are still ridiculously large and sometimes not of the healthiest standard, but the thing that makes food in the USA so brilliant - is that you can find anything you want and have it cooked any way you like. The options are so varied that I would often be eating things just to try them rather than to fill an apetite.

My last day in The States we actually spent in Inglewood - the notoriously dodgy part of town. It was close to LAX airport and it made our lives easier to stay in that part of the city. I had covered a lot in my short time to Los Angeles and had some wonderful experiences here and in Vegas. Unfortunately it was time to head back to Ecuador and resume my normal working life. It was sad to say goodbye to Brenna too - im not sure when or if I will ever see her again, but you never know I guess. I took my plane back to Quito - 11 hours later I was back in South America...................