October, 17, 2006 archives

it’s halloweentime at disneyland, and we made a quick run to disneyland on sunday to have lunch at club 33, the members-only (and guests) club that has its entrance next to the blue bayou restaurant.

disneyland itself is dressed up for halloween, including changes to the haunted mansion. we’ve actually been to disneyland twice since it started, and we’ll probably go back again next week.

we didn’t do anything else at disneyland on sunday, because we got there just before lunch and had to get back to los angeles to catch our shuttle to take in the newly-renovated griffith observatory. we scored some pre-opening passes thanks to my los angeles conservancy membership. mack reed has a great set of photos, so i’ve just shared this one of the “no smoking — the smog is bad enough!” sign that i thought was funny, and the obligatory shot of people (my fiancée celia and our friend helena) by the albert einstein statue.

apparently this was the first day that they were letting people in to see the telescope, and we talked to a couple of the operators. it was cloudy, so there was nothing to see through the telescope. they showed us how the dome can be moved around, and talked about the new telescopes that were added that included high-definition cameras so the images could be displayed down below and on a screen in the telescope room. they also have some work to do in order to figure out how things perform after the addition of the new telescopes. (all explained much more coherently than i’m explaining it here, along with a hint of bitterness about the management of the observatory.)

when we were returning home after our long day out, we noticed that the fountains at the department of water and power headquarters were running, so we stopped to take some pictures and take in the view.

you didn’t need to have any inside connections for this one, but that made it all the more exclusive. there were probably fewer people who took the time to enjoy these gorgeous fountains and the view of downtown than there were at club 33 or the griffith observatory on sunday.

(random footnote: we saw curtis “booger” armstrong going into the cafe at the end of the universe at the observatory.)