I'm still very happy with how my laser eye surgery turned out. It's great waking up seeing, and not worrying about forgetting where I put my glasses or having to take my contacts out at night. On the airplane now as I'm writing this, no greasy eyeglass frames or gritty contacts. Just clear vision when I open my eyes from a nap.
It's weird to think that you can run out of things to see and do in Los Angeles, but I think we've hit most of the tourist spots that we wanted to see. Probably the rest of LA would be the restaurants and nightlife that would actually require moving in and living in the city to properly appreciate. Also, because we are on a baggage quota, we luckily can't enjoy all the shopping here.
The last place we wanted to see was Griffith Observatory, left to the last day because it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
In the morning, after finishing editing the LA video for our blog, we packed up checking our luggage weight on the scale, checked out and went to do some shopping. Trader Joes was along the way and we snagged a bunch of granola bars, dried fruits and nuts, and cookies realizing that the few days before our yacht charter on Tahaa could get quite expensive in terms of food. The hotel we are staying at is on a private island meaning we're pretty much at their mercy in terms of meals.
Our staple for lunch these last couple of days was Subway, as here, most of their 12" subs are $5. I also picked up a haircut kit for $10 which included a clipper, scissors and a bunch of attachments for ten bucks! Shannon thought Ben would probably need a hair cut too, so we'll have that service on board. What a deal!
The Griffith Observatory was a great astronomy center perched atop of Griffith Park. It's very impressive how they have managed to make the observatory free.
We were greeted by Foucault's pendulum, proof that the earth was spinning on an axis. I wanted to see one of these ever since the one in Paris' university was away on tour when I visited it in 2002. There were basic exhibits on tides, seasons, day and night, that Shannon found to be a good review. The most interesting exhibits to me were the alpha-hydrogen filtered telescope on the sun, the plates that detected cosmic rays, and displays about the planets.
We also watched one of the planetarium movies and waited until 7pm when the public telescope opened. The observatory would have offered spectacular views of the city, but for whatever reason, it was very doggy, and instead of getting better towards the evening, it actually got worse. Unfortunately, that also meant that there was nothing to see from the telescope which was disappointing. That thing was massive! The astronomer, a woman very interested in her work, was disappointed too because she had two targets she wanted to see tonight including Jupiter. She still gave a nice talk about the telescope and its history.
Driving through LA was manageable, but frustrating at times when the navigation wasn't quite there. It was video game like going pretty fast on busy five to six lane freeways. Each day, we saw the aftermath of some pretty impressive crashes, like an SUV completely upside down at an intersection or a couple of cars written off on one of the side lanes. Having to commute to work daily in rush hour traffic would probably drive me crazy though.
For such a big city, you'd think public transit would've much better than it is, but the Metro does go down to Santa Monica or Marina Del Rey. Since we pretty much went to Hollywood each day, staying up there would have made more sense in retrospect, and even then, you'd have to get a car to get to places like WB studio and the Observatory.
We made it in time to the airport, rearranged our luggage and had no problems with checking our bags in. I wasn't sure if we'd be over weight or not. Tahiti is such the honeymoon destination. Our ticketing agent asked us how our wedding was. I guess when you're young and going to Tahiti, then it's probably a safe bet that you're on your honeymoon.
I was pretty excited to go. LA was really just a stop over and it is hard to believe that our trip is actually starting now. In a few hours, we're going to be in paradise pretty much. I can't think of another place that would be as beautiful as Tahiti, and probably our hotel Le Tahaa.
Everyone was eagerly line up way before Air Tahiti announced their general boarding. So exciting! There were the young couples like us, the woman totally decked out in sun gear with a nice cotton dress and wide brimmed hat, there were people with kids, a wife with a huge diamond on her finger.
The plane going to Papeete was pretty big. Bigger than I thought it would be carrying passengers eight seats across, to such a tiny island country. Weather dot com indicates that we may have lucked out in terms of weather with only 10-20% chance of precipitation the whole week. I hope that stays true and that the winds would be perfect for sailing.
In the meantime, I'm totally stoked about seeing French Polynesia, landing, breathing in the Pacific air, flying to Raiatea and then by boat to Le Tahaa for nothing but rest and relaxation. Nothing to do out there but hang out in the hotel and snorkel.
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