Urban Light by Chris Burden

We did lots of touristy tour bussing around the place today and have seen all manner of lovely LA sights.

Beverly Hills is of course gorgeous and Rodeo Drive is of course expensive but what we really liked seeing was the Tar Pits at La Brea, an amazing light installation outside of the Modern Art Gallery (LACMA) and Johnny Ramone's rather cool gravestone at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery :o)

I have to admit it was also quite nice to see fab shack that is The House Of Blues and Whisky A GoGo too, even if we didn?t actually go inside. Loving all the wee ramshackle huts and funny houses dotted all around, it's all such a mad mixture.
Oh and we also really enjoyed some amazing examples of very cool Googie architecture such as Johnny's Diner with its mental shape and mad neon lights. (It was the place where they had breakfast in Reservoir Dogs, which may not be an interesting factoid to most people but we were most impressed.)

Our big event today though was going up to the Observatory in Griffith Park (for the films buffs out there - James Dean's dramatic fight scene in Rebel Without A Cause was filmed here and it still looks exactly the same - though without James Dean of course - although there is a rather strange monument to him there with his face in bronze affixed to a pillar!).
It was so very beautiful high up there and it was the perfect spot for taking photos of the Hollywood Sign (oh yes, we have millions of those!). We took a picnic with us and had a lovely peaceful time sitting in the sun beside the astronomers monument, eating sandwiches and carrot cake and a having wee glass of wine. Most civilised!

When we made it back down from the Hollywood Hills we had a second run around on the tour bus just so that we could see all the wonderful neon lights everywhere. Love them. Unfortunately the bus driver went a bit too fast to get any decent pictures but it was still amazing to look at.

Exhausted now! Travelling to San Francisco tomorrow so plenty of time to rest on the train :o)