4th of July weekend: Busy and Adventurous
4 of us rented a car for the weekend, and went to Santa Monica Friday night, Hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains Saturday, to Uncle Mark and Carrie's beach house on Sunday, to the L.A. County Art Museum Monday, and to the Venice Beach area for fireworks on Tuesday. No pictures of Santa Monica, because I forgot my camera battery. No beach pictures because of the sand.
Zach, just as we are beginning our journey. We hiked to Switzer Falls in the San Gabriel Mountains, just north of Pasadena.
Rebecca, again just as we begun our hike.
From left to right: Me, Zach, Ryan, Rebecca. (Finally! A picture of me in California!)
Taking a break before getting to the falls.
Once we got to the falls, it was time for a snack break!
Zach and I climbed up above the waterfall to see what there was to see. This was a nice, peaceful pool just before the water went over the (maybe 30 ft.) cliff.
Since we were up in the mountains anyhow, we drove up to the Mount Wilson observatory. We just barely missed their 4:00 closing time so we didn't go in, but we did get a great view of L.A. We were even able to pick out Caltech from the "Cake Building" (See "My First Weekend" set of photos)!
Me and Rebecca up on Mount Wilson.
We went to the L.A. County Art Museum, and right outside are the La Brea Tar Pits. I think these are supposed to be some kind of animal that they found evidence of there.
It seems that the tar pits are still being actively excavated.
The mom is stuck in the tar, and the dad and the baby can't help her. So sad. While we were there, bubbles kept coming to the surface. It was a little creepy, and gross.
Me with the Hollywood sign in the background! After the museum, we went to see Superman Returns at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood where they do all of the big primeres. Good movie, great experience.
Say it isn't so! All that space dedicated to crazy Scientology-ness. There is a small Scientology place near the Caltech campus, and Caltech students are banned from going in there because they have made fun of them so many times. I guess Tom Cruise and all of them have to have somewhere to do their thing...whatever works for them.
The Walk of Fame, with all sorts of characters. If Spongebob were facing the other direction, it would be clear that he was more "Spongebob Trianglepants" than "Spongebob Squarepants".
Me at Grauman's Chinese Theater!
Ryan at the Chinese Theater.
The walkway up to the Chinese Theater is where all the handprints are. Does anyone know who Sid was? A lot of them were dedicated to Sid. Anyhow, here is the Star Trek spot.
And the Star Wars signatures.
After the fireworks, it was pretty clear that we weren't going to be going anywhere for a long time, due to all the traffic. We decided that it would be more fun to walk around than sit in the car forever. So we walked all the way out to the end of the Venice Beach pier. These guys came out not too long after we got there, and they were pretty drunk. They kept telling everyone to have an "American night", and they were offering each other $500 "American dollars" to jump off the pier and swim back (no one did), they saw a girl riding her bike out there, and they gave her an "American beer" because she had cool "American socks". Then they saw this sign, and had to get up there and hold their "American beers" next to the "American sign" that prohibits alcohol on the pier. They felt pretty "American", and I thought they were funny, so here they are.