Griffith Park Observatory and High Speed Chases

Chalise got another job a few weeks ago and they like to schedule her to work on Saturdays.  As such we are seriously limited on opportunities to get out and see the attractions of Los Angeles.  Last weekend though we were finally both free and we went and saw the Griffith Park Observatory.  This place was pretty awesome - I would go back a few more times and not be bored.  Some rich guy, last name of Griffith, donated some land to the city of Los Angeles back in the early part of last century.  At the time the city wasn't sure if they wanted it because it was far away (it's seriously like 5 minutes away from downtown LA, I don't know what they were thinking) and ginormous.  Luckily they made the right choice and took it and now Griffith Park is like the Central Park of Los Angeles.  This dude Griffith also really liked astronomy and wanted to build an observatory to give to the public.  Apparently Los Angeles was a good place for astronomy at the time because of the good weather and good air quality (this can't be the case anymore).  So they built this observatory and made it a museum.  I like museums pretty intensely (unless their modern art then it's the other end of the spectrum) and loved every second of it.  Chalise likes them too but lets just say she'd already "seen" everything when I was still reading all the signs in the entryway!  They had tons of stuff about physics and chemistry, including explanations of the origin of elements, atomic spectra, electromagnetic radiation, etc; as well as lots of stuff about space exploration and astronomy.  Like I said - COOL!

This is me with a nice view of the ocean from the top of the hill.  Oh wait...  you can't see the ocean because of the smog!

Don't mock our faces the sun was shining right in our eyes and I was trying to take the picture myself.  Anyway that's downtown LA in the distance.

I want this telescope in my bedroom.  Apparently it's open for public viewing (that is - the public does the viewing not the being viewed) every night from sundown until 9:30 - you know I'm going back there.

If you can't see it that's the Hollywood sign she's eating.  I made her do this.

Us, Griffith Park, Observatory.  That's it.

This brings us to the next topic of high speed chases.  I'm not the type that daydreams about being involved in high speed chases - I prefer actually doing it to just dreaming about it.  That's right folks I have basically been involved (and by been involved I mean witnessed from a distance) in two crazy police chases this month.  Strangely enough my police chasing days began with me watching a story on the news about some people who robbed a bank in South Central LA and then, whilst being pursued by police, started chucking the cash out the windows and hordes of hilarious people starting grabbing up all the money and saying funny things about it in news interviews.  That very evening I began my ride home from school by bicycle via Figueroa Drive with a premonition of pending excitement (that part's not true but it adds to the drama).  Somewhere between the Staples Center and the high rises I heard sirens at six o'clock, spatially speaking, and slowly moved to the right.  This is not an unusual occurrence but this time when I turned around I was amazed to see one dumpy old Honda Civic driving about 25 mph with a train of at least 20 cops.  Do not be fooled by my tendency for hyperbole - there was seriously AT LEAST 20 cop cars behind this car - not to mention two choppers above us just circling through the maze of skyrises above.  I'm pretty sure I saw the guy inside the Honda!  Who knows he might have even seen me.

The sidewalks were plastered with people who'd come out to take pictures with their iphones and post it on Facebook (you know that's what they were all going to do).  The caravan went passed me and I continued on but about 3 blocks later the cops started doing crazy stuff - it was almost like a parade where the motorcycle cops break formation and start doing loops and twirls and weaves and such - only these ones were in cars and the streets were not cleared.  There were cop cars going every way on all the streets around us and blocking all the intersections in certain directions.  After about 10 minutes of watching in awe I decided the action had gone somewhere else and I went home.  We looked it up online and found out that they finally stopped the fugitive (who was a suspected murderer) on Wilshire and 7th and he got out firing an AK-47 and was shot by police - he survived and no cops or bystanders were injured.  If only I had been two blocks West I would have seen the whole show from the saddle of my 12 speed!  On second thought I'm quite glad there was some distance between me and all those bullets.

Pretty crazy huh?  Well it's not over.  The following Saturday I went to a friends house to watch the BYU/Utah game and left, on my bike, feeling like I wanted to commit a violent crime.  Much to my chagrin the streets were already swarming with cop cars and there was a chopper with a spotlight searching the block to my left.  I asked the cops if it was safe to keep going the direction I needed and they said "yeah - just stay on this street.  Don't go anywhere else."  Comforting.  I rode the rest of the way home without incident and have since decided to end my career as a criminal pursuit specialist.