Optimus Prime Says Hi, By the Way

Now that Tim's summer workload is beginning to ease up a little, it looks like we're able to resurrect Family Fun Day on Thursdays. This week, we went to the Griffith Observatory, which overlooks LA from a cliffside in Griffith Park, and which recently underwent a massive renovation. It was a lot of fun! We felt very sciency by the time we left, and we congratulated ourselves for doing such a sciency thingie.

Here's the main building. If you look closely at the ground in the front courtyard, you'll see lines marking the orbits of the planets in our solar system. Ooooooh. Sciency.

Here's a very nice shot of the exterior of the planetarium.
Okay, okay, maybe our visit wasn't just for sciency enlightenment. We also wanted to meet the Autobots, who (we were under the impression) live at the Observatory, as shown in this video footage:
Optimus Prime says hi, by the way. We only got to chat with them briefly before they Transformed and Rolled Out (mumbling something about "...Witwicky..." and "...Decepticons at it again..." or something.)
Anyway, we bought tickets for the Water Is Life planetarium show, and then got in line. We thought that because it was summertime, the planetarium would be free of school field trips, but as it turns out, a million summer camps apparently like to come to the planetarium too. So, there was a massive line. (Tim's note: The line pictured below is actually in the exact spot where Optimus Prime stands in the above picture. Goosebumps!)
Waitin' in line.
Our completely apathetic child. (Look, Weston, science! Hooray science! No? Nothin'? Oh well.)
The planetarium show was a hoot, thanks to the crazy host/narrator lady. She should seriously do voices for the evil witches in Disney movies. She freaked us out so much that we were cracking up pretty much the whole time (so much for science...). Weston started screaming at one point when she bellowed a countdown to our "blast-off" into "outer space" (we were going to Mars to see if we could find water). So, Tim had to get up with the baby to calm him down. Man, that host lady was great. The show was really edu-taining too, and it's always fun to "fly" through "space," when they rotate the big space ball in the middle of the room so that you feel like you're actually flying.

Anyway, here's the ginormous telescope at the Observatory (sorry about the reflection):

The view of LA and its ubiquitous haze:
The Hollywood sign:
The Hollywood sign and a couple of people who got in the way:
There's a totally random (and very creepy) bust of James Dean at the Observatory. Apparently, the facility was featured in Rebel Without a Cause, for the first time in a positive, sciency light (or so the plaque said). Very random. His hollowed-out eyeballs and electrified hair gave me nightmares.
So, we had a good time. After the Observatory, I persuaded Tim to let us visit Sprinkles in Beverly Hills again, which we did (after I promised to drive, and promised to let him choose where we'd eat dinner). We got more delicious cupcakes (the vanilla/vanilla is still our favorite), and later went to Islands for dinner. Yay sciency/cupcakey/islandy fun!!