A walk from the earth to the moon

Closer  C.2012

Giant steps are what you take walking on the moon

I hope my leg don't break walking on the moon...

I love being a tourist in my own city, especially when friends from out of town come to visit. Even if I’ve visited an eye rolling “overrated” hot spot a hundred times, it’s a completely new experience with each visit, and it's always enjoyable with the right company. I admit I take a lot of these "tourist" places for granted. It’s so easy to do so, and more often than not, the only time we notice certain spots is when the place itself closes or we lose someone who wanted to visit it.  One place I definitely took for granted was the Griffith Park Observatory.

I remember the field trips to the Observatory as a kid and I always had fun. Well, as much fun as a place of education could offer. As I got a little older I remember I began to put off plans to visit.  I swore I’d attend some of the musical shows “soon”. Then it closed down for renovations for several years during my early 20s. I can't say it was sudden. It was announced all over but I simply kept putting it off until I missed my chance. Once it reopened I fell back into the same pattern of “oh I’ll visit soon”. Before I knew it, another several years went by. I wish I had visited under different circmstances, but I finally made it back to the observatory last May, on what would've been my mother’s birthday to be exact. It was a gorgeous spring evening and I did something I’d never bothered to do before. I stood in the long line in order to look through the Zeiss telescope.  That night I finally saw the moon, up close and personal. Even though the whole process was a bit of an assembly line, and I only saw it for a few seconds, it was absolutely breathtaking. Many of my favorite songs and movie scenes center around the moon. My all time favorite author, Jules Verne, wrote an incredibly imaginative story about a few civil war vets who wanted to build a rocket ship to the moon. From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune, 1865) 

"Nothing can astound an American. It has often been asserted that the word "impossible" is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise..."~Jules Verne, From the earth to the moon

Anyway, I had the chance to visit the observatory again last week with some friends that came to visit. We had some time to kill before a night out in Hollywood so it felt like a fitting way to begin their vacation. The telescope wasn’t open when we arrived but the view of the city was still enjoyable in spite of the colorful layer of smog. I have no doubt I'll be visiting this place more often. I feel lucky to have a place like this within reach. A place that makes the moon within reach.

"What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary"~ George Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life