So, it's "catboy's choice@ day. Apparently I've been dragged around so it's my turn.

I wanted to be a science nerd. There's an observatory in the Hollywood Hills. It was a location for Terminator, Rebel Without a Cause, the Rocketeer and a lot of other movies, and is an excellent vantage point for seeing the Hollywood sign, but most importantly of all, it's an observatory! They have telescopes there.

flickums was not that interested. She was, however very  keen on petting some dogs that had shown up. This was obviously some sort of charity looking for homes for dogs. Flick took a liking to Sheena the husky, and was very upset that we wouldn't be able to take her home.

Observatory had a small visitor centre, mostly aimed at kids. There's the usual selection of exhibits - some models of planets and stars,  Faucault's pendulum, brass markings indicating scale distances of planetary orbits, but they also had a Tesla Coil and they demonstrate it at the weekends! It was the weekend!!

So having seen that, I wanted to go to Santa Monica Pier. Flickums persuaded me that we should take a short detour to Union Station which doubled as the police station in Blade Runner.

So after that brief detour, we got on the train to Santa Monica. It was more of a train than a tram, but the lack of street running means it's probably best classified as light rail. Anyway, it was a long journey, but there was a very talkative conspiracy theorist telling us all about everything from his Portuguese ex-wife to how we all have a chromosome 2 and how he's a private investigator. Given some of the crazies we encountered, this was one of the more pleasant ones.

So, we arrived. Santa Monica is a seaside resort and as a seaside cat, I find all seaside resorts comfortingly similar. There are shops selling beach stuff, and a pier. Santa Monica has a sandy beach and it's actually pleasantly warm and busy even in February, so definitely a nice place to visit.

I was hoping it would be more stereotypically Californian, with people playing frisbee, driving dune bugs around and roller-blading along the promenade but that was not to be. There were buskers on the pier, including some Stormtroopers who let people take photos with them for a substantial tip, and a chap playing a "Tale As Old As Time" from Beauty And The Beast on violin. Rides were extortionately expensive so gave them a miss.

A lady came up and started chatting to us, complimenting flickums a lot, before asking for money. She was very nice though, and this was the politest beggar I'd ever encountered so I figure she earned $10.

We got the the end of the pier, and looked out over the ocean. That was really all I wanted to do there. Soak up the seaside ambiance. There was a small display showing the history of the pier. Apparently the inspiration for Popeye - Olaf Olsen - was one of the people who spent a lot of time on the pier. At one point there was a proposal to replace the pier with a bridge to an artificial island, showing that politicians sometimes just don't get it.

I felt at this point I'd soaked up enough seaside atmosphere. so we returned and headed to Hollywood Boulevard, stiopped to look at the Apollo 11 'star" (actually a moon), and grabbed dinner, but we were really here for my final pick of the day,  I wanted to go to the Scum and Villainy cantina. A Star Wars themed bar, with many a cocktail. I had a "Stay Puft Martini", a Tiki Temple of Doom (served with the Indiana Jones theme accompanying) and a cocknocker (alcohol free).

Really nice place. Cocktails were surprisingly cheap. Staff seemed highly geeky! Door the the gents' was painted up as the TARDIS.

It was a pleasant last full day.