Day 8, Oct 21 - Yes, Virginia, there is public transport in LA

The car went back today. It was actually a relief to hand the keys over. No more searching for parking, no more trying to backtrack after missing my turn, no more trying to get across 5 lanes of traffic, no more worrying that I didn't lock the car...

Ok, I know...I worry about things most people don't think about. But, after the first few days of getting set up in the apt, I just felt like I was missing part of the city as I couldn't look at what I was passing because I had to keep an eye on the traffic. With a pass, I am looking forward to having more flexibility in travel with starts & stops as things look interesting.

So as my first foray into LA's public trasit system, I took the "flyaway" bus from LAX to downtown Union Station. It's a direct bus, no stops in between & costs $4. From there, a rapid bus got me back to Silverlake for $1.25. The trip, in total, took about an hour. Granted, this isn't an option when you have a suitcase, backpack, purse & two cats in tow, but it does show that the powers that be in LA are thinking about reducing the number of car trips needed.

They also have a "TAP" card system. It's a reusable, refillable card for bus & rail travel. One thing I like about it is that you can refill the card online & the balance is guaranteed against loss.

The thing I have yet to figure out is all the different bus & rail lines. Metro, Dash, Red Line, Orange Line, Metrolink. The good thing is that the buses have the racks on the front to carry bikes & bikes are also allowed on the rail system (for now, from what I've been reading.)

And, of course, the buses are all clean air.

So far, I'm impressed.

Day 7, Oct 20th - Close Encounter of the First Kind

Yes, I found THE house.

Now, I'd like to take credit for having amazing navigational skills. That I remembered the many times I had to look at footage of this place, along with aerials and was able to coordinate all of this information to zone in on her location. The truth is, I used Google Earth. Just entering "Kathy Griffin's house" into google came up with the results in google earth, including an aerial shot which is almost exactly the same as the ones used on the D-list as well as her exact address. On the internet no one may know you're a dog, but they can find you no matter who you are.

I find it amusing that, as editors on the D-list, we were made to choose shots that will not give away the house number or show the name of the house as if this is some closely guarded secret. About 15 minutes on the web gave it all away. Actually, I'm surprised it wasn't listed as a "local attraction" on my gps.


I also went to Griffith's Park & hiked up to the Observatory. On a clear day you can see....downtown?

It would have been a good idea if I had used the internet a bit more in scheduling my day. It's closed on Mondays.

And the weirdest thing I saw today was at a Starbucks....in a laundromat.