Anyone who dismisses Los Angeles, California, as merely the hearth and home for celebrities behaving badly, movie moguls and traffic congestion is underestimating the City of Angels. The city is awash with tourist attractions, many of which are educational and ideal for kids. Whether tourists’ interests are geared towards science, Mother Nature or mechanics, there are plenty of sites that are fun for the entire family.
Perched on Mount Hollywood in the approximately 4,000 acres that make up Griffith Park, the Griffith Observatory is an astronomer’s oasis. The observatory has a 300-seat Samuel Oschin Planetarium where visitors can ogle the heavens via the Zeiss Universarium Mark IX star projector, a state-of-the-art projector that, according to the observatory, displays a more accurate look of cosmos than any other star projector in the world. When kids visit the observatory at night, they can look through the telescope itself that is on the rooftop dome. There is also the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater that seats 200.
Located on Miracle Mile, the Peterson Automotive Museum is a way for kids to learn the over-100-year history of the automobile. Approximately 300,000 square feet, the museum is dedicated to exploring how cars influenced America’s culture, especially that of Los Angeles. There are always a series of colorful rotating exhibits. As of 2011, ongoing exhibitions include “Streetscape: the Car and the City In Southern California,” where dioramas let kids see what streets and cars of Los Angeles were like as far back as 1901, and the “Hot Wheels Hall of Fame” showcase where kids can check out over 1,000 toy cars that have been produced by Mattel.
For a sense of the Jurassic era, families should visit the La Brea Tar Pits located on the Miracle Mile, just south of West Hollywood. With the smell of tar wafting in the air, kids can see models of bison and mammoths stuck in the tar pits to better understand how the real beasts became trapped. Kids can also get a sense of what it’s like to be a paleontologist and study fossils; they can learn how mammoths grew their teeth and check out the body of a saber-toothed cat. The site is home to roughly three million fossils.
Since 1903, the Huntington Botanical Gardens has charmed visitors with lavish gardens that stretch over 207 acres. For kids, there is the Helen and Peter Bing Children’s Garden, which is constructed around the four ancient elements: water, fire, earth and air. Kids can learn about water at the Sonic Pool, where vibrations stemming from the basin’s rim show how water ripples. The pool also has vortex and water bells where kids can alter the movement of water with their hands. The Rainbow Room represents fire with sunshine shivering through mist to create rainbows. The earth area has Pebble Chimes where kids can create music by hitting pebbles against metal rods, and in the air section families can stroll through an aromatic garden of lavender and rosemary.
