A Fun Weekend in LA

A few weekends ago, Ossil had a conference at UCLA.  He has had several of these conferences,  and so we have come to know the UCLA area pretty well, and all the fun things to do around there for a low price.  This time, we went to the the La Brea Tar pits, and the California ScienCenter.  The Tar pits were very interesting, and we had never been there.  It is so strange, because it is right in the middle of LA, on Wilshire.  We had to drive across Rodeo Drive to get there.  It is strange, because it is like a park with a medium sized museum on it.  The museum is nice.  It has a live lab where you can see the scientist working on each little or big bone.  It also has all kinds of bones of animals that got stuck in the asphalt (not tar).  They got stuck, like on flypaper, and then slowly starved to death, or wolves or other animals would come and eat them, and some of these animals got stuck themselves.  There are so many bones there, it is unbelievable.  I think the earth had some oil that came up from inside the earth and got thick and sticky.  The neatest bones in the museum were that of a huge Mammoth, and a Sabertooth Cat.  But they have so many bones, a lot of animals got stuck there.  Outside on the grounds, there is a few little buildings.  One of the buildings is an excavation site.  You go into a room with a lot of windows and look down in the 20ft deep pit (probably deeper), and you can see just black stuff everywhere.  It is sectioned off in areas.  The excavators work in the summer, so the asphalt will be softer and it will be easier to get the bones out etc.  It is really hot down there in the summer, and really stinky.  Looks like fun.  If you walk around the grounds, you will see a green field and seemingly oddly placed little fenced off areas.  The size of a crib, but a little smaller.  If you look inside, there will be just a big space where natural asphalt is coming up through the ground.  It is so strange.  We actually found a spot where they hadn't put up a fence yet.  Right in the middle of the grass, back stuff is slowly oozing up.  It is amazing.  It was so strange, and so fascinating.   Also, the price was good, about  $17 total for me and the kids and parking.  

We tried hard to save money, so we had a sack lunch we brought from home and ate it in the car after we saw the "tar pits".  Then we drove over to exposition park close to USC.  That is where they have the California ScienCenter.  It is such a fun place, and it is free, with a suggested donation of $5 for adults.  So after parking, the price was about $13.  Pretty good price I think.  The CSC is a total hands on museum.  It tells kids about science principles, and they can touch almost everything.  They also have a few displays.  They had one about drugs, how they are made and where they come from, and how they can damage your brain and how they hurt society, etc.  I didn't really enjoy that one, so we kind of went fast.  However, that would be good for teenagers.  They also had CSI: The Experience there.  That was soooooo fun.  There are three different "crimes".  We had the one most young kids get, because this really is an exhibit for older kids.  Ours was that a hiker was in the desert, and came upon a human skeleton.  That isn't too scary for kids, because of halloween.  So we had to examine the scene, and take notes on everything we could possibly think of.  Then we had to go to the lab and examine the bullet that was found in the skull, the hair that was found on the man (there was a tuft of hair stuck to his button on his shirt), things like that.  We went from lab station to lab station working on the clues and solving the mystery.  If you have older kids, and you get a chance to do the CSI experience, you really should.  My kids were a little scared, but we did the least scary one, and it wasn't too bad.  Csitheexperience.org for more information.  It will be at the California ScienCenter until April 26th, and it is free.  Then it moves to Portland for several months, and then to Fortworth, etc.  I don't think it is free at all museums, just at Cal ScienCenter.  They also had a show about homeostasis that was fun.  They have a 50 foot "person" laying in the middle of the stage, and you can see the heart, and veins, etc.  And they show what happens when someone gets hot, or tired from exercise or needs food.  How your body keeps itself in balance.  That is really fun too.  The Sci Center actually has 2 buildings.  Most people don't know about the other building, because it is behind the big building.  It is all space and aeronautics.  They have a reentry pod from a space mission - actually several, as well as replicas of satellites, and real fighter jets and a real helicopter children can sit in, as well as displays to learn about the science of flight, and weightlessness etc.  That one is also really fun.  

   The Sci Center is right next to the LA Colosseum where the Olympics was held.  So we walked to the front and took pictures.  They didn't have it all fancy like the the Chinese, they tried to make it roman-ish.  So it was more traditional than flashy.  

After wards, on our way home, we stopped at Rubio's fish tacos.  One of my favorite foods is the gourmet tacos.  The shrimp one was to die for.  All in all a fun, rather inexpensive trip.  Oh yea, Ossil had a good time in his meetings.  He wanted us to come with him because he didn't want to be alone all day.  We are really glad we went.