I have lived in LA for 18 years and I had never in those years been to the Griffith Observatory. That is why I put it on Mommy and Miss P's Summer Adventure Bucket List. What is this list you ask? Well, my girl is about to start preschool in the fall and Mommy had an overwhelming need to spend time with her this summer before she hits yet another milestone. I've managed to be able to work from home for the months of July and August which allows me to be super flexible in my time I spend with my girl. Luckily, there is extra time for us to fit in several adventures during the weekdays. Today's adventure was a trip up the hill to Griffith Observatory. We live fairly close but in all of the years I have lived near the massive park I have never been. Now that I have been I wonder why I didn't go sooner because the view and the observatory is absolutely wonderful! The observatory doesn't open until noon on weekdays so I thought I was being good by leaving over an hour early, boy was I wrong. Apparently LA has a ton of tourists in the summer and they like to visit the observatory. So we climbed the huge hill in our car to find a backlog of cars circling for parking. I was a bit bummed because I thought we were going to have to turn around but luckily someone pulled out close to me and I took their spot! My goal was to get tickets to the Samuel Oschin Planetarium. They have several shows throughout the day but only children under 5 can go to the very first show. I was worried with the amount of people already at the observatory that the tickets may be gone but luckily for us I was able to purchase a ticket and we went and got in line early so we got good seats. The show we bought tickets to was a family friendly show called "Water Is Life" which leads viewers on search for water and possibly life beyond Earth. I wasn't sure how the girl was going to reach to this show but it was similar to being in a movie theatre which she is comfortable with. She immediately found the big dome interesting. When the show started I had to remind her to use whispers because she was commenting rather loudly at the marvel of the show. It was pretty darn neat! If I was a three-year-old I would have commented too. The show was actually really interesting (you know for being a science-y type show). It was narrated by a well known person (I was told but didn't know who she was) who did have a really pleasant voice. Her voice was so soothing that I could have fell asleep if I didn't have an active toddler with me. The show wasn't too long nor too short and was perfect for the attention span of a three-year-old. I have to say, Miss P and I had a really great time. Afterward we took in the outdoor views of the observatory which were amazing on a beautiful sunny day. The wind was blowing our hair around. We tried to explore the inside of the observatory but there were just too many tourists and frankly, some of the individual exhibits were probably too old for P. We grabbed a bit to eat at the "End of the Universe Cafe." Then we took some more pictures as we could see the HOLLYWOOD sign perfectly from the observatory. After the observatory we drove down the big hill too the ponies and choo choo for some rides.
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