DLTK's Blog
I Miss Leonard Nimoy
DL minus TK: Hollywood Day 2 continued
Early in our relationship, Darren discovered that despite the odds and, perhaps his best intentions, he had unexpectedly become friends with a geek.
He was, is and always will be… athletic. He plays hockey and tennis. Golf and volleyball. He can ski, skate, ride a bike, ride a kayak, catch a baseball and throw a football. Weirdly, he can’t float but that’s a story for another day.
Other than float, I couldn’t do any of those things when we met…
But I knew the difference between a Klingon and a Cylon. I always secretly felt that Wedge Antilles was way cooler than Luke Skywalker. I had a poster of Mothra on my bedroom wall. And I knew what to do with a 20 sided die.
How we ended up madly in love (and best friends) is one of the great unsolvable mysteries of the universe — one that “42” doesn’t even come close to answering.
After 25 years together, I can now ride a bike (slowly), throw a (wobbly) football and skate if the rink isn’t too crowded. And Darren usually knows if he’s watching a Star Wars or a Star Trek movie. So when he saw the tears in my eyes when we stumbled across the Leonard Nimoy star on Hollywood Boulevard he didn’t skip a beat but just let me quietly mourn the loss of a personal hero.
He was slightly more confused when my moment of silent reflection was capped off with the statement, “we’re going to Griffith Observatory this evening!”
For those of you who have never been. Go. If you get the chance, take your kids.
It’s about a $10 uberX ride from The Chinese Theater (Hollywood Boulevard) or maybe about $20 from LA Live. You won’t have cell service up there but there’s free wifi and a taxi/rideshare stand that will get you back to your hotel after.
We arrived before sunset and sat out on the terrace with a salad and cup of coffee for supper… admiring the Hollywood sign,
making sure a snake didn’t eat us,
watching mule deer munch grass,
chuckling at all the selfies (6 per minute by our count), enjoying the sun set over the city and marvelling as we watched the city light the world back up after the sun fell.
Entry is free. Exhibits are free — I touched a rock from Mars. Use of the telescope was free. The view of the city, the sunset and the Hollywood sign were free. My extra large coffee cost $4.
The show in the Oschin planetarium had a fee, but we skipped that and watched the free Griffith Observatory history movie instead (shown at the top of each hour). Hosted by… Leonard Nimoy.
It was awesome. Honestly you guys… someone figured out how to lift that entire freaking concrete building without breaking it just so they could build a second floor with more free stuff underneath it. Humans are amazing!
And apart from the observatory (which I would happily visit again and again) there are a myriad of paths you can walk around on (you guessed it, they’re all free). We loved seeing the trees full of woodpeckers and really happy looking dogs and children and parents and young couples in love and old couples even more in love — as we walked around on the trails.
The love, well… that’s not free. It’s priceless. So was Leonard Nimoy.
Disclaimer: As always, my opinions are my own. I don’t get free moon rocks for writing my reviews. No one involved is ever even aware I’m doing it.
You might also enjoy visiting these sections on DLTK's Sites:
About Leanne:
Wife, mom and the woman behind the scenes of the DLTK's Crafts for Kids websites. The websites are a terrific hobby -- run by (me) Leanne, a mom with two girls as my official craft testers and my husband as my technical support. DLTK are the first initials of each of the people in my family (I'm the L!). Whenever we send out little cards or whatnot, we sign 'love DLTK' ... when I started the website I used the initials. Had I known the website would get actual strangers visiting it, I would have picked a less mysterious name but we're all stuck with it now!
You can view my other blog posts here.