A Visit to the Huntington Library in Pasadena

In an effort for the kids not to spend the entire summer holed up in their room on electronic entertainment and to broaden their cultural horizons, we took advantage of the Huntington Library's free day.

They give the tickets away on the first of the month for the following month. I had to fight the hoards on line by hovering over the "get tickets" button well before 9 AM when the ticket agency opened because I discovered the month before that Free Tickets are like Free Money and they were snatched up and gone within 2 minutes of opening. Making me have to try again next time.

And it also happens to be a pretty freakin' long way away from our house. Probably an hour by the time we navigated the freeways (and stopped to let me use the bathroom). Or maybe it just seemed like an hour with all the "Are we there yet?" and "How come it looks like we're going to Disneyland? Isn't this the way we go when we go to Disneyland? Why don't we just go there instead...???"

Eventually we arrived, parked and headed in.

This used to be a private residence back in the day.

I loved this:

Beautiful flowers:

The view from the top of the hill. You can see out into Pasadena.

First we made our way down into the Japanese Gardens:
Love this giant bell. There used to be something you could strike it with but I guess people abused the privilege so it's not there anymore.

They have this beautiful tea room open to look at but you can't go inside:

Zen Garden:

The Bonsai Tree Garden.
These were SO incredible:

We went into the giant greenhouse which was incredibly humid but the plants were beautiful:

The orchids in a cage:

The center dome:

This plant (on the right) is in the process of producing one HUGE leaf that will be 15 foot tall.:

This looks like something out of Dr. Seuss:

They thought this huge leaf was worth posing in front of:

Hey, go stand in front of the giant urn and I will take a picture...
No not go look goofy.....
Smile... stand there and just smile....
Oh never mind....

We finally made it into the main residence which was incredible:

A Gutenberg Bible:

Sarah, Jeff & Jeffery admiring Blue Boy:

Pinky across the gallery:

George Washington:

I couldn't use my flash so this picture is blurry but it gives you the idea of how impressive the galleries were:

Outside looking out at the grounds:

Summer Fun at the California Science Center & Griffith Park Observatory

As I feared, I have had no time over this summer to do much on my blog. 

SOON the kids will be back in school and I will be able to get back to regularly scheduled programming!

But in the mean time I am trying to keep up with picture trip reports.

On Thursday I took the troops downtown to see the science center.

I think Alex was 3 the last time we visited.

The cast of characters included:

Me (well you knew that since I took all the pictures)

4 of my own personal kids:

Sarah (We picked her up on the way there)

Alex (He needed a break from all that tiring Black Ops he's been forced to endure these past weeks)

The Partners in Crime, Jeffrey & Katherine

and The Twins, Jacob and Olivia who are spending most of their summer with us.

So we arrived bright and early, er, wait.... I mean in time for lunch at the California Science Center which shares real estate with the Colosseum (where many of the 1984 Olympic games were held) and The Natural History Museum:

First stop.... a picture in front of a SR-71 Blackbird:

For some reason the dry ice fog didn't show up when I took the picture:

The kids were fascinated with how small the Apollo capsules were:

Jeffrey listening to the Doppler effect:

Katherine and Olivia looking at the satellite exhibit:

The crew playing virtual soccer:

Alex trying out the ping pong ball machine:

Jacob trying his hand at it:

Sarah checking out some information on the wall:

All 4 of them trying to pick up balls with different types of bird beaks:

Jeffery & Jacob take a ride on a snowmobile:

Katherine, Jacob and Olivia check out the frozen wall:

Sarah and the girls find some dessert bugs and lizards:

Waiting to get splashed by the flash flood:

Alex showing Jeffrey how one of the machines work:

Smashing their hands in the ocean depth pressure machine:

Checking out the 2 story deep salt water tanks:

The kids loved watching the divers feed the fish:

Katherine looking into the under water periscope:

Getting some close up looks at the fish:

We were first in line when they opened up the touch tank:

Jeffrey and Jacob head for the 3rd floor:

Planes from the next door Air & Space museum are on display here while the other museum is being renovated:

Because we didn't do enough already today, we stopped at the Griffith Park Observatory:

Somehow we got inside, despite the contradictory signs:

The boys checking out the "Big Picture" from the new viewing platform:

Katherine and Jacob looking at Meteorites:

Jeffrey sits with Griffith J Griffith and demonstrates how little sky is actually shown on the "Big Picture" wall.

The planets shown in correct proportion:

View of the Hollywood Sign from the lower observation deck:

The gang's all here!

All in all we had a really great day!!