This Day in History: The Space Shuttle Came to Town

So, Space Shuttle Endeavor came to town recently.  Friday afternoon, a friend and I headed down to Inglewood to see it for ourselves.  It was like a street fair, tons of families hanging out, taking pictures and making incredibly bad jokes about the shuttle and the giant donut in the picture.  (How would you caption the photo above?  I know you've got a pun in you somewhere...!)

That's Randy's Donuts, if you're wondering (you can just read it on the side there).  A throwback from the days when every other building in LA looked like what it was:  The hat-shaped Derby, the bowl shaped Chili Bowl, the list goes on.  It probably has something to do with this being Hollywood.  We like our altered reality here.



The Brown Derby Restaurant, Los Angeles.  Courtesy of Wikipedia.

This is a town that loves mixing reality with fantasy, and rubbing elbows with the stars.  So it was interesting to see such a crowd gathered at four o'clock in the afternoon on a work day, and nary a celebrity in sight.  Scarred and weathered from years of rubbing elbows with the real stars, Endeavor passed by to share a little of her glory with the rest of clayfoots.

Even the Goodyear Blimp made an appearance in the sky overhead to pay her respects. (It's that little fish-shaped thing just to the left of the light stand and donut.  And yes, all vessels are ladies in my book, if you must know.)  Endeavor's new home will be the California Science Center.  For more pictures, check out this fantastic photo gallery from the Los Angeles Times.  Amazing.

Welcome home, you beauty.  You'll fit in just fine.