Hollywood & Santa Monica

Today Mum and I did a trip up to the Hollywood area and then across to the beach at Santa Monica.

We stopped at Griffith Park and the newly renovated observatory. This was the first time I had been up to the observatory and it had actually been open. We went inside and looked around at the displays (think museum, but with an astronomy bent). We walked around the outside of the building and checked out the view. It was unfortunately a bit of a hazy day, but we could still make out downtown LA and Century City.

Then we drove down into Hollywood proper and as with all other tourists I have taken up there (including myself the first time) she was adequately underwhelmed. Hollywood is not what most people think it is, with most movie studios long gone from the area and now it really is just a big tourist trap, with lots of souvenir stores and gimmicky places to visit (for a fee of course). We did walk along the walk of fame (the stars in the sidewalk) and had a look around the Kodak Theater complex (where the Academy Awards are handed out each year, except maybe this year because of the writers strike).

We then took a drive along Sunset Boulevard and did a quick detour up into Beverly Hills to check out some of the nice streets and big homes. That was followed by a quick drive along Rodeo Drive (no point stopping since we could not afford anything) and we headed over towards Santa Monica.

At Santa Monica we parked by the 3rd Street Promenade and walked down to the pier. The ferris wheel and other rides were closed (it is winter after all), but their lights were still on and made for interesting experiments with nightime photography between my Mum and I.


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