One of the highlights of our Christmas break was visiting Griffith Park Observatory with the kids. Lilah has been learning a lot about planets at school and both kids recently enjoyed watching the National Geographic special about the rover missions to Mars so we figured the observatory would be a good place to go.
The observatory has a state of the art planetarium theater that presents several shows throughout the day. We ended up seeing a show about the origins of water in the universe. The kids had a blast as the 360 degree viewing experience really makes you feel like you’re out there in space.
There are dozens of other exhibits at the observatory, including a section that includes a station on each planet. These stations even include a scale you can step on to see what you would way on that particular planet. There was one planet where I only weighed about three pounds, I think it was Pluto. Luke laughed when we got to the Uranus station because a bigger kid at school taught him that depending on how you pronounce Uranus, it can mean different things. Of course, now Luke knows exactly what that pronunciation is and he loves to go around spouting off phrases that include the word Uranus in them, such as “Did you see your anus?” “Was that Uranus?” etc.
Anyway, you can really make a whole day out of visiting the observatory because in addition to what’s inside the place, there are also plenty of hiking trails and picnic areas around the observatory with panoramic views of the city and the famous Hollywood sign in the nearby hills. It’s definitely a worthwhile and relatively inexpensive trip (free to get in), if you have the time.
On a Side Note
I really liked this sequence candid photos I took of Lilah while in the Griffith Park Observatory cafeteria.
