The space shuttle Endeavour was doing a ceremonial flyby through California on the back of a massive jet. It had spent the week being flown over the country before coming home to California, where it will be displayed in the California Science Center pretty soon and I can go and check it out - yay!
So we toyed with the idea of going up to the Hollywood Hills to watch it, but word from one of Nick's friends at the Getty was that it was rammed. We thought the Griffiths Observatory would be much the same, and the last thing we wanted to do was miss the whole thing as we were stuck in traffic.
So we settled for the top of a 6 storey car park at The Arclight, a rather lovely cinema, where I saw actor Richard Schiff (aka Toby Ziegler from The West Wing) the last time I went. It gave us a pretty good 360 degree view of LA, and allowed us optimum shuttle time! Here is the view from said car park:
We got there around 11ish, and there were already a fair few people up there, trying to sit in what little shade there was! It was bloody boiling, and I had made the school girl error of not bringing a hat.
I got my 3 Nikons ready - manual SLR, Digital SLR and point and push, and waited expectantly looking out to the sea...after about 10 minutes a lady next to us said it was just flying into Santa Barbara, so we knew it was going to be a wee while yet! The cameras (which were rather heavy) all came off again, and we sipped soda whilst waiting for this momentous event.
It flew almost directly over us. I was grinning like a loon, saying 'wow' quite a lot, mixed in with a few 'awesomes'...At times like this I wish I had invested in a much better lens for my digital SLR.
It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and is the last time it will be seen. Genuinely a great event! Fingers crossed I got a great shot of it over the Hollywood sign with my film camera...
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