Too Cool.

LA is a cool place.

None more apparent than this last October, when the space shuttle Endeavor was flown on the back of a 747 over the city, making a big circle before landing at LAX.  Then, the shuttle was rolled through the streets, making a 12 mile journey through neighborhoods and parks, before reaching it's final resting place in the California Science Center.  Its journey started at night from LAX, and it moved at a snails pace past throngs of families and onlookers with cameras and binoculars.  Kids in jammies sat on their parent's shoulders and excitedly pointed at it, grazing by trees and brushing mailboxes.

{photo source

It was really effing cool.

I was slightly annoyed at the traffic disturbance as I happened to be picking a friend up from the airport at this time, but even my curmudgeon was quickly squashed by the sight of such grandeur.  It was so cool.

This is only one example of why LA's so cool.  Celebrities and moviemaking notwithstanding, LA is filled with crazy awesome fun for kids.  Disneyland.  Magic Mountain.  Universal Studios.  The beach is beautiful and spacious; everyone lives near one.  Anything ever released be it video games, sneakers, or new sports, is released first here.  There isn't anything you can't find, and growing up here with certain means has got to render oneself a well-stimulated, well-fed, and well-played childhood.

But is that a good thing?  I don't know, I tend to think that it's not entirely beneficial for children to have so much splendor in their early years.  If you are exposed to such amazement in your developing years, what have you to aspire to?  Are you every impressed by anything?

When I go down to Orange County and walk the white sand beaches down there, I just cant get over how gorgeous it is.  In my wise old age, I have discovered that I only feel this way because I don't take it for granted; it's so unlike the landscape I grew up in.  But I bet the kids down there take it for granted.  So when they go to other places, are they ever in awe?  Does anything ever compare?

The rest of the world is not Magic Mountain.  Hollywood and Highland is not a basic shopping centre.  The rest of the world has to wait to see new movies, and don't know people with access to screener dvds during awards season (you need one?  I've got a few...). Professional athletes and movie stars don't visit hospitals regularly everywhere else, and guess what.  Oranges aren't in season all year round.

So what happens when they grow up and disperse to other corners of the world; where it's just not as cool, people aren't as outwardly impressive, and entertainment isn't so neon lighted?  What are these kids set up to handle?  Yikes.  Get these kids to Spokane, stat.