A Night with the Stars. Not really.

We've wanted to visit the Griffith Observatory at night ever since we moved to LA, but never quite found the time. So, for our 7/15 Date Night I decided we were to head to the Observatory and (hopefully) make it in time for one of their shows, which was scheduled for 8:45pm. Since getting to Griffith means driving through Downtown LA, we didn't have a lot of time to waste, but dag-nabbit, we were gonna try!

We started the evening by taking the dog for his obligatory walk, jumping into the car, and racing off to Griffith. We knew the last show of the evening was scheduled to start at 8:45pm, and that they would stop selling tickets at 8:35pm. Luckily getting to Griffith isn't very difficult, but unluckily this is LA and traveling one mile in any direction can take upwards of 10 minutes, easy. Needless to say, the drive itself took us a while. On the up point, while we were creeping along North Vermont Ave we spotted a House of Pies! You can never say no to pie, so made a quick mental note, and continued on our way. By which I mean we turned our heads toward the road once more and waited.

Once we made it through traffic it was a quick shot through some residentials and through a tiny tunnel with a bright flashing sign directing us to the observatory! Excitedly we exited the tunnel to find ourselves with the wonderful, inviting lights of parked cars! How exc.. ! Wait. Where's the observatory, we asked ourselves? We can't even see it, but we see cars parked for it. Not good, we think to ourselves. This is overflow parking waayy down the mountain. At this point it's 8:30 and ticketing is about to close. So, it is decided that while wifey finds parking, I will run up the snaking road leading to the observatory and try to secure tickets.

Now, here's where we must observe that the road leading up the observatory is one for walking. And strolling. Perhaps hiking. But not running. No, that is a bad idea. And if you don't realize it first, your calves will gladly remind you. By the time I made it up to the observatory my calves were burning and sending hateful glares back to me. But, somehow, I made the half-mile hike up the mountain in a little over 5 minutes, just in time to grab some tickets before the booth closed.

Wifey is nowhere in sight, and the show was to start in about 10 minutes. Grabbed my phone, dialed the number, no reception. What? You kidding? Oh wait, we're talking about AT&T here. I walked around trying to find a spot of reception, and once I did, got Wifey on the line. Where are you, I asked. WAAYY down the mountain. Anywhere near where I was dropped off?. Nope - further down. Well, I said, you have about 8 minutes to get up here. I have two tickets and once they close the doors, they don't let anyone in.

Cue some cursing and loss of reception. Huh.

Five minutes went by, and tried calling Wifey again. She could see the observatory at this point, but still had some distance to go. Can she make it? Dunno, but she's gonna start running. Loss of reception again. Ok, we'll wait.

About 2 minutes before they close the doors I started to wonder what I'm going to do with two non-refundable tickets to a show we probably won't see, when a couple comes by asking a lady by the door about the show. They didn't have tickets, couldn't go in. I, however, did! So I offered it to them if they had cash, which they did! They paid me my $14 back, and I went back outside to see if Wifey is still alive.

She is, and the cursing has certainly died down. Much to my own personal relief!

Though we missed the show, we realized that we had about an hour or so to mill around the Observatory and just relax. After exploring the insides for a bit, we went to lie down on the lawn for a few minutes. We had hoped to see some stars, but it was a cloudy night and we saw nothing more than the LA nighttime lights. Slightly disappointing, but at that point we didn't quite care. It was just nice to be out!

I'm not sure how long we spent out there, on the lawn, but it was great. Just lazily looking at people wandering about, the scent of the fresh grass everywhere, hot summer air all around, talking about who-knows-what. It was like a picnic, at night, with no food or blankets. Ok, so it wasn't anything like a picnic. But it was still excellent.

We left the observatory at around 10pm to find the House of Pies we noticed earlier in the evening. I had some BBQ sandwich thing, and Wifey had a something with bacon on it. Both quite delicious! We couldn't resist getting a desert as well, and settled on a hot Pecan Pie a la Mode. After wolfing that down, a thoroughly fat & happy us jumped back in the car and returned home, thus concluding our evening.

So, we didn't get to see stars or even a show about stars, but ended up chillin' on the Griffith Observatory lawn and having pie. How could you possibly beat that?

-Hubby