LA.4, Griffith Park and The Observatory

After two days of art, Dillard and I switched it up with some exercise. We went hiking in Griffith Park. Of course, as far as I can tell, in LA it's impossible to escape the views and the sun.



We went up and down some mountains, saw lots of skinny people with skinny dogs, got lost a couple of times, and asked for directions from everyone we passed. There were also more six packed abs than I've personally ever seen before. And what's up with hipsters hiking? You have to work really hard to look like you don't care and you're going for a hike up a mountain.



We went to the Griffin Observatory--once again you could see from the mountains to the ocean.



The architecture of the observatory is wonderful, as is its situation, proudly and staid-ly surveying LA, almost like a sphinx. 

There's a rotunda in the lobby...

...on top of a Foucault pendulum. (I'll tell you what: I remember the moment that I found out that "pendulum" was pronounced with a "j" sound rather than a "d"--it shook my whole world! What other words was/am I pronouncing wrong?! That discovery was just around the time that I was learning about Foucault's pendulum in school. I made one out of a tripod and a lazy susan. The discovery also shook my whole world--how cool to watch the world turn!)


The observatory was filled with fascinating exhibits like a camera obscura that projected a continually rotating view of the landscape outside (including the Hollywood sign) and this live view of the sun, where you can watch the movement of the sun's surface as it flares up in real time.



And this picture of the heat of our bodies. Well, I'm not exactly sure what it was, but there was a video of us in cool colors so I took a picture--here's Dillard and me (look at my nose!).