We called Jed and Lesley to let them know that we were done in Beverly Hills for the day and would be back to their place as soon as traffic moved a bit. It was strange as we had had no problem on the 405 or any other major highway. But, as Jed commented, sitting in cars is an LA pastime. We do like to experience cities as the natives do. Then we heard Lesley in the background asking if we'd seen the Griffith Observatory. That sounded great and since it was a beautiful, clear day we headed up. By the way, yay for internet in the car and gps. It makes us last minute planners much more successful in their endeavers and keeps us happy while sitting in traffic.
Griffith Park was amazing from the first view. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Park of LA, though much more untamed. We found this beautiful as you will see in our hundreds of pictures :). After winding around the path for a while we were told that the observatory parking lot was full, but street parking was available. Now, the observatory is on the top of a hill. This meant that we got to follow another windy path back down the hill to find parking. Kat got to practice her parallel parking skills and then we were out. I immediately posed for the first of many pictures before we began our ascent. 
It was wonderfully sunny and the wind felt great. Since we stopped just about every ten feet for a picture the climb up didn't seem so bad. The valley was flush with green and the city was just barely visible in the distance. The first half was a dirt path with a metal pole through the middle, strange. The second half was paved and we soon reached the top. First pictures up there were of the Hollywood sign - very cool. After about 15 minutes and a single picture in the actual observatory we went outside and proceeded to take fifty bajillion more pictures. The view was just amazing and the clouds kept getting cooler and cooler. (side note: Kat and I are currently debating which cloud pictures are better, these or the ones we took two days later at mojave, no consensus). The picture taking continued on the way down and the ride home, right up until Kat made me put the camera away.
With just a bit of daylight left, Jed got his low rider bike out of the garage and we headed up the hill to take pictures. We looked so cool. This was followed by a trip to an amazing Thai restaurant where we ate an amazing amount of food. I tried coconut curry (yum) and mushrooms (still icky). I gave my mushrooms to Kat and Damian gave his to Lesley. Yup, I'm a grownup. Overall, the food was great and I definitely need to include more Thai food in my life. Thanks for the intro, guys! The decorations were also pretty neat in there. I really liked one of the lights which looked like a cross between a snowflake ands a rose, with wavy white material in a ball shape. It's too bad the picture did not come out at all. On the wall behind Jed was probably our favorite piece, a square with some sort of tin foil. If you blew on it, some of the loose pieces waved.
The night ended with Jed, Kat and I heading to Lighthouse for some reggae. It was a sweet bar with some neat pictures and a relaxed feel. In between sets we walked down a pier. It was amazingly (yes, amazing is the word of the day) peaceful to be out there in the dark listening to the waves below. We were the only ones out there and it felt like we were at the end of the world staring into the ocean expanse. We also made friends with two seagulls. The end of an amazing time in LA.
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