Shuttle Endeavour's tour of Los Angeles began thusly

[JediTricks]

http://www.jtreviews.com/photos/shuttle/

Nobody was expecting it to fly right at us from the ocean, everybody on Venice beach was looking north towards Malibu since it was one of the other confirmed flyover locations listed and we were in a straight line from that. Instead, the convoy came right at us nice and low and slow, it was impressive.

Then I sat down, took a few email addresses of folks who wanted copies of my shots, ordered something online that had just come in, packed up my photo bag and started to leave when the convoy came back from the south, flying parallel towards Santa Monica. I was kicking myself for not getting photos of the second pass, but was very happy with the first set anyway and got to gawk at it without a camera in my face.

The mood was excited and prideful and jubilant, a large mix of folks just like Venice normally has but all focused on the same thing for once.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I wanted to see it, but working 40+ miles away from its flight pattern made that unlikely. My mom said she heard it yesterday on its way to Edwards AFB. I do intend to see it at its resting place sometime.

[TeeEye7]

Edwards is "just over the hill" from my house. I didn't bother to check it out since its flight path was to go directly to the Bay Area. Glad I didn't bother. Some local folks sent there images to the local news media. There were nice, little dots against the sky. Being only 60 miles away, you think they could have veered a couple of miles in our direction.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

The front page of today's LA Times was an awesome photo! It's #12 in this series: http://framework.latimes.com/2012/09...ur-photos/#/11 (and the others in this online gallery are just as great; especially the ones above the plane via NASA's photos).

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Watching the news about those who got to see it move through the LA region, it's proof we've failed in education. Every person interviewed only used the word "amazing," since there are no other synonyms for the special, inspirational, astonishing, wonderful, sensational, awe-inspiring, momentous, incredible, unbelievable, remarkable, historic, one-in-a-lifetime event. Well, at least is wasn't just "great" or "cool." Plus, a few kids bragged about how they got out of school for it (which, if I had a child and lived near there, I'd have considered it, too), but one claimed she learned more watching the shuttle (moving at 2 miles per hour) than she would've in school that day.

[JediTricks]

Having gone to LAUSD schools, she did learn more watching a truck drive at 2mph than she did at school.

I didn't bother going out to see it yesterday, it was a tempting idea to watch it drive down the street, but I just didn't want to figure out the logistics of it all.

[JimJamBonds]

Nice pics JT, I like the ones of the squirel best!

[JediTricks]

Thanks. I saw a couple more today while I was in the pool, one had what looked like a walnut and he couldn't have been more pleased or protective of his prize as he scampered past. When he caught me looking through my sunglasses he shook his tail to warn me off (dunno why they think cute behavior seems aggressive to outsiders).

I didn't bother going out to see the shuttle's trek through the city streets. The timing looked problematic before they ran into 15 hours of delays, and I had more serious stuff to deal with at the time anyway. Turns out if I had stayed up later I could have basically walked under it and taken photos with my external flash all night long, it stopped overnight at my local WM.