Planets and Trains

Day 20:

Anaheim is a good base because it's central to the different places we need to go, the different things we need to do during our week in L.A.  On Sunday, we left before 9am, driving to Griffith Observatory, where we located the Hollywood sign.   

Going into the observatory, we caught the first show of the day in the planetarium.  The kids enjoyed the show and learned a lot.  In Alaska, most of the time when the stars are out, it's too cold to want to stand and look at them, so we've kind of skipped that part of our lives, but I know that in Texas, the night is sometimes the best time of day to be outside, so we really want to cultivate the kids' natural interest in space.

Jenny and Jonathan before the show at the planetarium in the Griffith Observatory.

After the planetarium, we stayed in the observatory, which is essentially an astronomy museum.  In one room all the planets were on display.  Ben and Beka obviously learned more because they could read the panels for themselves, but even Kimberly and Daniel enjoyed standing on the scales and seeing how much they would weigh on different planets.

Kimi and Daniel play with their new binoculars in front of the Hollywood sign at Griffith Observatory.

After the gift shop, we got pictures with the Hollywood sign and drove around Griffith Park to Travel Town, basically a museum of old motorized transportation, especially trains.  They had old steam engines and cars and cabooses from long ago.  We counted at least four birthday parties while we were there.  Inside an open-air building, an N-gauge track roughly the size of our motor-home was set up with two trains running around.

Daniel stands amid train cars at Travel Town, in Griffith Park.

While we were there, we met Auntie Terri, who is Jenny's mother's best friend and brought her son, Justin Popp, his wife Mary and their three children, Drew, Ryland and J.J.  We ate sandwiches Jenny had brought into the park along with some other things the Popps brought with them. 

Terri Strawn is attacked by Jonathan and his sharp nails.

We truly had a great time!!  It was good for Ben to run around with some boys his own age.  Kim played with the boys while Rebekah and Ryland became friends.  What we were most amazed about was that we have so much in common with them.  They are working on getting some land and trying to be self-sufficient in the upcoming weeks, months and years.  He wants to use solar power to generate electricity for his home.  These are both things Jenny and I have been discussing and we were impressed to see someone working toward those ends.

Before we left Travel Town, we all took a train ride around the park.

After riding around the park on the train, we took pictures of everyone and walked out to the minivan.  Being new friends on Facebook, we promised we would write and they told us they would read our blog.

All the kids pose for a picture at Travel Town in Griffith Park.

Leaving Griffith Park, we stopped at Glendale Galleria, originally thinking we would get dinner there.  I guess it was probably a mistake because Daniel hadn't had his nap and every time he saw something he wanted, he threw a fit about it.  Leaving the mall, we headed home, stopping to eat on the way back to the RV park.

Rebekah, who had been the best behaved throughout the day, was allowed to go to the pool in the RV park with Mom as a reward.  While they were there, the fireworks started.  Ben and Kimi were already sleeping, but Ben and I came outside where we met Rebekah and watched the fireworks before they went to bed for the night.