Journal entry for November 29, 2001

Today's summary: L.A. trip, Day Three. La Brea, cruising, Yamashiro.

First stop: the La Brea Tar Pits! Mmmm. Fossilicious. Outside there's a tar lake with some fake dying mastodons in it. Inside they have reconstructions of mastodons, sabretoothed tigers, dire wolves, and so on.

There was an interesting interactive exhibit, "See What It's Like To Be Stuck In Tar". Basically it's a big vat of tar inside of a transparent case, and through the top of the case is this metal plunger type thing. So, you can pull up on the metal plunger and see just how heavy and sticky the tar is. It took an amazing amount of strength to yank the plunger out of the tar! And when I let go, it sank back in... very... slowly... probably took 30 seconds for the tar to completely settle. No wonder all those animals got fatally stuck, eh?

Another interesting part of the museum wasn't really an exhibit at all -- it's their fossil laboratory, with big view windows so you can see the scientists and students at work in there. Each workstation has a sign that says what that person is working on ("I'm cleaning fossils collected back in 1930!", "I'm sorting and classifying mouse skulls", etc.). Everybody inside pretends they don't see anybody outside, which was amusing in a way.

In the gift shop I bought a ViewMaster reel -- which is good, since so few of my photos actually turned out. I also bought a book called "Rancho La Brea, DEATH TRAP and TREASURE TROVE"... mostly because I got a kick out of the title, but it's a good book too. Got my brother a little plushie sabretoothed tiger, which to me looks like some kind of cute little vampire gopher.

After that, I did a whole lotta cruising through Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the famous Rodeo Drive and Melrose, Sunset Strip, and so on. Nobody was with me that day and I didn't much feel like paying $$$ to window-shop... so, rather than parking, I just drove around everywhere. As a result I got to see a lot, but didn't get many photos. I did get one of a Hollywood Video store IN Hollywood, though. I'm so easily amused!

Somewhat less amusing was what I saw next, on the freeway. Right before it got dark, I was stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway (I forget which one) and we finally inched forward to the source... a man lying motionless on the side of the road on his belly, face visible, eyes closed. The cops were there, standing around. His position was rather awkward and initially I was assuming that those cops had arrested him and bound his hands behind his back... but then I realized just how awkward the position actually was, and that none of the cops were paying ANY attention to him at all. In fact they were kind of standing back, and then I wasn't so sure his hands were really tied there.

So... I think he might've actually been dead. He was right below the edge of an overpass -- I wonder if he jumped? Or maybe his hands actually were tied behind his back as I thought at first, and somebody threw him off? I don't think he could have walked into traffic, since there were walls on either side of the road there. It was very eerie. I've never seen a dead person before, not right there like that...

Once it was dark, I continued onward to a famous Japanesey restaraunt at the top of a hill, Yamashiro, and treated myself to dinner. I was trying not to think about dead people, and conveniently this place was very distracting due to the incredible panoramic view, from downtown L.A. all the way to Beverly Hills. Really amazing. I tried to take pictures but it was so dark... This was just not a good photo day. The food was good, if expensive. I had a California roll (in California, yes, haha. As previously mentioned, I am easily amused), and some other unidentifiable goodies. I really enjoyed it, although I wished my husband was there to see the view.

I keep wondering what happened to that guy on the road, though. I feel so bad for him. I hope it was fast, at least.