Reach for the Stars

Griffith Observatory

Location: Griffith Observatory

Entertainment Value: Suped up Imax Experience to the 10th power...Dome Style!

Entertainment Cost: $7 for the Valkyrie show at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium
Food Location: Orochon
Food Cost: $8-10 for a huge bowl of Ramen with custom toppings

Imagine being inside the sun, shielded from any harm or discomfort by top notch magical immunity that only a hypothetical like this could afford. Though the temperature is a cool 65 degrees, the room is filled with bright orange and tinged red colors, bombarding your visual senses, convincing you that you are indeed inside the sun, watching each atom colliding into the other. Next, you break free of the sun's inner core, hovering above the horizon of the surface, witnessing the solar arches protrude ballarinas on the tip of their toes.

You are transposed into a wild ride of astrological wonders, visually superior to Disney's Back to the Future ride (and without the sudden jolts). We start under the Los Angeles twilight, then are transposed to the artic Icelands. There we witness the stubborn sun that won't go down during the summers and the perpetual darkness during the winters.  With a familiar summer movie trailer voice, our real time narrator gives detailed and timely explanations about how the star filled universe we see today were once perceived in Norse Mythology as Gods like Lode, Thu, and Breid, who commanded the skies, the earth, and the underworld. Constellations like Hellewagon, Friggerock, and Dain watched  the battles on earth, between Niflheim, the Ice God, and Muspell, the Fire God. The best  part of the show was witnessing the aurora. If you were ever confused as to how an aurora comes about, even the slowest learner can understand the technicalities behind a graphically astounding display of earth's magnetic field. I could go on and on about an aurora birth, but why not see it for yourself? Watch as if you are the God that made it. It is incredible to witness such graphic effects come to a full 180. The Valkyrie show is a must see; if not for the dome sized screens, the high definition scenary, then for the actor that narrates real time throughout the entire show, or the beauty of watching the heavens in an angel's point of view .

If for some reason you are not able to obtain a ticket, (Note: Tickets are not available for pre-sale and must be bought one hour before the show starts, so make sure you arrive on time!)  you can still watch the pendulum, the statue of famous astronomers, the many interactive booths, touch meteorites, peak  through telescopes, and best of all, the watch the astounding panoramic view of Los Angeles. Lastly, if you want to find a place that gives a good hike, Griffith Park has dozens of trails with picnic tables and scenic points. You can see the Hollywood sign so clearly it's almost as if you could touch it. And the best part of it all? Well,  to the tune of the old adage, "The best things are free". 

Shipwreck Trail & Wayfarer's Chapel

Shipwreck Trail and Wayfarer's Chapel
Location:
Paseo Del Mar & Flat Rock Point

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275


Entertainment: Free
Food: San Pedro's Best Sandwich in Town $7.00 for a Meatball Cheese Sandwich

Four miles west of Rancho Palos Verdes is its regal neighbor, Palos Verdes. Traveling through the two cities via the winding ocean coast road of Palos Verdes Dr. is like witnessing richness at it's finest. Palos Verdes has the mega million mansions, the crisp cool ocean breeze, the seventy five degree sun bath, and the peninsula view.

Our destination is Palos Verdes' Shipwreck trail--the danger behind its name is telling of the trail itself. We started off on a plateau that insidiously gave us a view of the horizon abruptly delineated by the ocean. At the starting vantage point, it looked more like Christopher Columbus's theory come true--we were at world's end.

And so it seemed, for the trail immediately started with a sharp drop, steep and wrought
with rocks. Nature was a devil in red dress, for its beauty and danger bid us forward with its breathtaking view and its many fatal scenarios playing through our minds with each step down the treacherous cliff. The thought of pseudo rock climbing without any rope was exhilarating--I could feel my blood pump harder, my hand clamming up, and the same time that I told myself not to, I kept looking down. Periodically, I would slide down, like a cat on a leash, and let the gravity inch me downwards towards the rocky shoreline.

Once we (Josh, John, Tank, Kathy, Cynthia, David, Lisa, Gus, and I ) set foot, nature did not want to give us a break. We immediately started skip skopping on jagged rocks, sizes that ranged from boulders to pebbles, while trying to avoid kelp, litter, and insects. There were these particular insects that looked like a mix between rollie-pollies and silver fish with huge antennas that made my skin itch and my nerves on edge while hopping towards my destination. There were a few reflexive squeals that had to be made known to my team, but after awhile I got the hang of hopping on the bigger boulders to avoid the many crawling creatures scattering around like cockroaches in a sewer (Now that is a place I would not mind ever visiting).

We passed by a human made shack built on the piedmont surrounded by native flowers and shrubbery; our friend, Lisa, was the only one who dared to make the mini-climb and take a picture of it. From the base of the slope looking up, it looked like a surfer version of a fairy tale cottage--a "kissing shaft" for teens to make out.

After a good quarter of a mile of rock hopping (it felt like a video game after the first five minutes), we finally reached our tide pool destination along with a run down rusted boat. Unfortunately, the it was high tide so we weren't able to catch the many rumored sea creatures like octopus, lobster, and other shell fishes that allegedly lives around that eco community.

The hike lasted a good hour and a half, and it wasn't until we on our way to our next destination, Wayfarer's Chapel, that we begin to have our doubts that we were actually on the Shipwreck Trail, since the Shipwreck Trail is slated to be around 2.5 miles long and our 1 mile journey just didn't see to quite add up.

Wayfarer's Chapel is the best place to have your wedding, if you are living around the South Bay area. It overlooks the fluorescent coastal bluff landscape, while surrounded by roses, latana, cape honeysuckle, etc. Once you step foot into the glass chapel, ambient music accompanies the sound of water trickling down the fountain. Wayfarer's Chapel is named for travelers who seek spiritual nourishment--the serenity that surrounds the environment is a blessing for all who wishes for some self reflection and mental peace.

Lastly, we ate a hearty meal and what Lisa likes to call, "The best kept secret of San Pedro Sandwiches", where all the locals and mill guys know of. Get the Belly Buster that includes pastrami, hot links, meatball, and chicken smelted with jack cheese and hearty tomato sauce festooned with as many peppercinnis as your stomach lining can take. It's called Busy Bees and rightly named since there are no dining tables, but only a To-Go line in a liquor store setting.

Overall, it was an adventurous day that started with rocky climbs, beach side coolness, aristocratic casualty, and ended with finding Eden.

Trump's Way

Day 3
Location: Trump's Golf Course, Rancho Palos Verdes
Entertainment Cost: Free

Food Cost: Free if you have awesome friends by the name of Lisa and Gus. (Thanks for the chips, granola bars, drinks, and, of course, the PHO!!)

For those that can't afford $300 dollar tee off at Trump Golf, an alternative way to enjoy the prestigious ocean view of the Pacific Palisades is to walk alongside the lush greens and peachy sand dunes coating its trails. Although a 12 mile course round trip, there is a shorter route you can sneak off to that leads you down a crooked dirt path to the tide pools of the Pacific coast. There is where you will find the many sea creatures such as purple shelled crabs with pink tinged corners hiding behind sea green and almond brown coral, starfish, sea anemones, shelled crabs crawling furtively between nooks in communities where both sea life and plant life coexist in the biorhythm we call mother nature.

Not many Californians can say that they enjoy their commute. I know I certainly begrudge the idea of driving--especially when we are conditioned to sit through traffic on our way to work or to pick up some groceries by way of many stoplights, turtle drivers, and overcrowded roads. However, driving the five mile winding hillside that looms over the coastline, its fresh breeze, open road, and crystal clear oceanside view felt more like a cruise. Now I understand the essence of the word, "cruise", simultaneously reliving the term "joyride" from back when we were still teens, when we were still eager to find any excuse to be behind the wheel. On our left side, we saw the infinite ripples of the ocean, only smoothed out by the silver lining that separates the optic departure between water from sky. The nuance of that lining is so slight that to the untrained eye, one might even believe we are on a rock floating above the sky. To a fanciful imagination, we could well be living in James Cameron's Avatar world.

Two seconds into the trail, we (Josh, Kathy, Cynthia, David, Gus, Lisa, and I) all noticed how smooth and wide the pavement is. It felt like trails for the rich--well quite literally considering that the mega mansions behind us are most likely the routine joggers. Next, I noticed how diverse the native plants flourished. Now I'm definitely not a biologist, botanist, ecologist, and anything of the nature (get my pun? HA!), but just from a cursory glance, one can notice the color scheme layered artfully against the backdrop of the cliff and PV mansions.

By the time we crossed the wooden bridge that connects the botany with the beginning of the descending dirt path towards the shore, we were all caught by the breathtaking view of the kelp scattered throughout the beige, pale blue, and algae green colors of the waters. I could distinctly smell the salt and seaweed of the Pacific Ocean bidding to us to come closer. By the time we were at the bottom, there was a community of creatures galore in every step we took on the coral reefs and tide pools. If we had a bucket, we would've all had crabs for dinner tonight for it was plentiful. A couple of our guys easily picked it up by the torso and back shell while the other sea anemones and starfish creatures we found were protected by the fickle tides that teased us with sporadic moments of high and low.

 

 

Like many SoCo natives, when it comes to exercising, we often gain more than lose do to our ability to eat more calories than we burn on a particular event. In any case, by the time we headed back, we all sweating, hungry, but most of all feeling wholesome. Pho at Saigon Bistro was a perfect way to celebrate a  "Trump" victory to another nice, fulfilling day.