We Went Observing

Last Saturday, Tim and I found ourselves in the mood for observing, so naturally we went to the one place that exists just for that purpose: the Observatory! (And did I mention that it's free? That's right, you can go observing for FREE!)

We've actually visited the Griffith Observatory once before, when Weston was just five months old. That was back when I was an extremely over-eager, hyperactive new mom who felt the need to expose Weston to a wide variety of enriching, intellectually stimulating opportunities looooooooong before he would get ANYTHING out of them. Hahaha! Anyway, these days I'm trying to retrace our steps a little bit, seeing as Weston is at the age now where he might actually be slightly enriched and/or intellectually stimulated (or so I tell myself).

Surprisingly, learning about our solar system is much less entertaining to a toddler than running amuck and occasionally stopping to look at sparkly things. So, this is basically what transpired during our visit:

First, some awkward forced smiles (we try so hard to make our photo album look jolly):

Then some spastic running:
Then some elusive hummingbird chasing:

Then some crouching and jumping:

And finally, some blatant intrusions on another family's fun. (Seriously. Weston saw this Asian family playing together, and he immediately bolted towards them to join in. No hesitation whatsoever. Where is Weston in this picture, you might ask? He's RIGHT behind the dad, looking eagerly up at him. The little girl on the left is staring at Weston.)

Apparently Weston is hard-up for family playtime these days. Haha! But maybe he's on to something; in the future we'll probably just attach ourselves to other families during outings like this, and see how long it goes (and how many of their sandwiches we can eat) before they call security.

Anyway, eventually we moved our observing inside, and we saw this lovely ceiling of the central dome:

We looked something like this:

Beneath the dome was a huge pendulum that was swinging back and forth, and supposedly it had something to do with the earth's axis or rotation or something. I don't know. (Do you think I actually read any placards when I'm at a museum with my hyper-hypo two-year-old? Heh heh. Nope.)

Then we proceeded to look at various sciency thingies:

"Weston, here's a picture of the sun! Weston! The SUN! Like in the sky! Weston?! Where'd you go?"

Thirty seconds later, we made our way downstairs to the exhibits about meteorites and the planets (pretty cool-looking, huh?):

I've always got to be quick about cute pictures, and fortunately I managed to get this one:

One thing that was especially neat was this size-comparison of the planets in our solar system. You can see how miniscule the first four planets are, compared to giant Jupiter. (I wonder if Jupiter is self-conscious. Don't worry, Jupiter, you're beautiful and attractive, too.)

Next we moved to the outdoor balcony for some relaxation and refreshment, and I got a picture of Tim as he pondered the vastness of the universe (or thought about whether or not he wanted a cereal bar):

Then I attempted to take a picture of the Hollywood sign in the distance, except that someone's giant Jupiter head got in the way (I mean, someone's beautiful, attractive head):

That beautiful, attractive someone got a picture of me and the kiddo, too. Just look at the delight on his precious little face:

Overall (and as usual), Weston had the most fun playing with the stupid crap in the gift shop:

Here, he's eagerly awaiting a demonstration of one of those semi-sphere bouncy things. Tim told him that he was going to make it bounce off the floor, and Weston took that to mean that he should sit on the floor to watch. So, he sat on the floor in the middle of the gift shop:

Haha! To science!!