Being A Tourist In Town Where I Grew Up - The Observatory, Travel Town, Visiting Dad

A spectacularly clear day when we left this morning for the Griffith Park Observatory.  The freeway was fairly empty and we made great time, with views of mountains all around with lots of snow.  More than I remember ever seeing.  Not just Mt. Baldy and Mt. Wilson, but all the way around.  Here's just a portion from the Observatory.

 Once we got to Los Feliz, just below the Observatory we hit traffic.  The Observatory doesn't open until noon and it was only 11:45 am, but it was a great day to see views from this spot and everyone was there.  I remember as a kid coming often with my dad and even bringing my son here when we still lived in LA.  The parking lot was where on the right about where that car is.

There is still a lot fairly close, but it was full and most people parked below in the Greek Theater parking lot and walked about a mile up.  A continuous stream of people.  It was like a pilgrimage.  People from all over the world.  You can see a bit of the crowd in the picture below.

Below you can see the Hollywood sign from the upper deck of the Observatory.  

One of the telescope domes.

Inside was pretty chaotic.  But admission is free and there are lots of great astronomy exhibits.  You do have to pay for the planetarium shows

 Here's some of the art deco designs along the roof.

Then off to the other side of Griffith Park to Travel Town.  

Another free attraction.

Although it doesn't call itself a museum, it seems much more a museum than yesterday's visit to the Cayton Children's Museum.




If the photo isn't clear enough, it says:  "DEDICATED TO PRESERVING FOR POSTERITY THE VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT THAT HELPED BUILD OUR STATE AND OUR NATION."

The highlight for the kids was the two loops around Travel Town on the miniature train.  And buying snacks in the gift shop.

I took this picture of the hillside from the train to show how green things are after the recent rains.




And about a mile from Travel Town is the cemetery where my father is buried, so we went to visit him as well.  It too is in Griffith Park, a place that he and I spent a lot of time when I was a kid.

 As we pulled up near the grave site, there were deer visiting too.

The light was great as the sun was getting lower in the west.  Sunset in LA has been right about 5pm these days.  (LA is on the east side of the Pacific Time zone, so it's light at 6am, but dark early now.  Check a map.  LA is further east than Reno, Nevada!)

Gramping Trumps Blogging

Grandkids are a great source of energy.  LA has defied the weather predictions.  Yesterday there was just the slightest drizzles.  Today there were ominous clouds off on the horizon as we set out for the Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits.

This is one of those places I spent a lot of time as a kid.  Before the museum and the other neighboring museums.  Before most of the big buildings along Wilshire.  When there were just a few fenced off tar pits and concrete replicas of giant sloths, saber tooth tigers, and other critters.

For those who don't know, these tar pits, smack in the middle of Los Angeles, trapped many, many Pleistocene Era animals.   Here's a the largest tar pit there with a replica of three mastodons, one trapped in the tar.

 From Live Science:

The Pleistocene Epoch is typically defined as the time period that began about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago. The most recent Ice Age occurred then, as glaciers covered huge parts of the planet Earth.

I guess those folks who believe in a literal bible and that the earth is only 6000-15,000 years old just don't take their kids to places like this where their beliefs will be challenged.


Dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period.  From the Natural History Museum (London):

". . .  66 million years ago, over a relatively short time, dinosaurs disappeared completely (except for birds). Many other animals also died out, including pterosaurs, large marine reptiles, and ammonites."

So this was after dinosaurs were gone and there's no dinosaur bones at the La Brea Tar Pits.

I was very skeptical about them messing up "my park" when they began the Page Museum, but they hid most of the building under this build up grass hill that kids can climb up.  And the frieze on top depicts the various large animals found here.









It's hard to pick favorites.  The saber tooth tigers have to be up there.

This is still a very active excavation and you can see workers meticulously cleaning bones that come out of the hard asphalt.  They also find insects and even seeds of plants.










Then we regrouped at Santa Monica Beach so the kids could play at the sandy playground near the Santa Monica pier.  Unfortunately the carousel was closed for a private party.

The clouds were moving in and the wind was blowing, but the kids had a good time.  It still hasn't begun to rain, but it's coming surely.

I remember Christmas Eve being a day of horrible traffic in LA, but today it was almost a ghost town.

2000 Pound Pumpkin And Other Alaska State Fair Shots

That's the champion pumpkin grower just after his pumpkin was weighed.  That's 907 kilos!  A lot bigger than last year, due, he things, to our warm summer.

From Time:  (The quotes are from different pages in the slide show)

"State and county fairs have been organized in the United States since 1841, when the first such gathering was organized in Syracuse, New York. Food — both its production and enjoyment — has been their centerpiece from the very beginning."

"Credit for the idea of the state fair is often given to Elkanah Watson, a wealthy New England farmer and businessman who showcased his sheep in the public square of Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1807."

You can learn about the history of  the Alaska State Fair at their website.  I can't cut and paste from there so you'll have to just go there yourself.  But it began in Anchorage, it says, in 1926, and moved to Palmer in 1936.

I hadn't been to a fair for quite a while.  And I was amazed at how much it had grown.  If I recall right, last time I went the maps identified all the food booths.  This time there was a color fold out guide and map, just for Tuesday August 27!  But having a 6 year old in the house was a strong incentive to go.

I have to admit that the highlight, for me, was seeing about 100 or so Sandhill Cranes in the field on the road you turn off the highway to get to the fair.  (No pics because it was tricky parking there and my camera was in the back of the car.)

But here are some pics of the fair itself.  Starting with things up in the air.

There were animals  and crops and flowers:

And lots of prizes

A goat milking contest.

And more exotic animals:

And lots and lots and lots of food. And people seemed to be spending lots of money.  We all had a great time

Joel Sartore's Photo Ark

 Here's a post I forgot to put up.  We stopped at the Annenberg Space For Photography when we were in Los Angeles.

These posters were on the street light poles on my bike ride to the beach, but I'd never been to the Annenberg.

This museum is in Century City and is free, but parking is $4.50.  But if you get there after 4:30pm, it's only $1.50.  Since it's a small space and it closes at 6:00pm, there's enough time.

Joel Sartore is the photographer.

The photos are magnificent.  I only had my little camera to take pictures of pictures.  This one is a close up of his photo.

Despite humans' greater abilities to think and communicate, those abilities too often are used to destroy the natural habitats of these animals.  Whether by turning natural spaces - forests, plains, jungles, shorelines, wetlands - into farmland, oil fields,  mines, housing, battlefields, or simply cutting the trees or taking all the fish, we have radically endangered a multitude of species.

And that's not to mention how climate change further threatens the animal world.

This exhibit is a reminder of the mass plundering humans have done and the diversity of amazing animals we're likely going to wipe off the face of the earth.   Sorry this is blurry, but it's all I have of this message.

Some Things To Chew On: "angry mob;" '[if] you admit to using pot in the past, you can be banned;” "“'I didn’t do anything illegal."

Trump and the November Elections

An LA Times piece on Trump has this sentence:

"He has taken to describing Democrats as “an angry mob,” “wacko” and “unhinged” and has said they seek to drive the country “maybe into poverty and ultimately into chaos.”

This is Trump's way, apparently, of firing up 'his base' to go out and vote.  Demonize the 'enemy.'   I can't comprehend how Republicans blaming Democrats for the level of conflict in DC these days can keep a straight face when they manufacture and then repeat inflammatory lies like this constantly.

An essay by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stigletz

"Will the US electorate declare that Trump is not what America is about? Will voters renounce his racism, misogyny, nativism, and protectionism? Will they say that his “America First” rejection of the international rule of law is not what the US stands for? Or will they make it clear that Trump’s win was not a historical accident resulting from a Republican primary process that produced a flawed nominee and a Democratic primary process that produced Trump’s ideal opponent?"

He talks about the importance of turnout.  But lets also remember that in many states, the districts have been gerrymandered so they give Republicans a big majority of Congressional seats even though they get just a slight the majority in total statewide vote. And there's the voter suppression campaigns in many states  (which he does mention.)  And the massive disinformation campaigns which the president contributes so heavily to.   But given the vast number of people who don't vote, getting them to vote IS the best antidote for the Republican schemes to thwart majority rule.

And here's a Vox interview on the contradictions in people's views of government and voting:

"In the book, you cite Mitt Romney’s famous “47 percent” comment from 2013, in which he claimed that 47 percent of the population are dependent upon the government and will vote for the Democratic candidate no matter what. But data shows that it’s the so-called “red states” that contribute the least to the federal coffers and rely the most on federal services — and of course, nearly all of those states voted for Romney. What the hell is going on here?
Suzanne Mettler:  Yeah, this is quite frustrating. I spent a lot of time looking at the state of Kentucky to try to make sense of this. Kentucky is a very poor state. And when you look at congressional districts there, you find a bunch of them where the average person gets more than 30 or 40 or 50 percent of their income from federal social benefits.
Yet those same districts are electing very conservative members of Congress who promise to introduce work requirements for food stamps and repeal the Affordable Care Act and so forth. It’s really puzzling.
I think there are a couple of things that might explain this. One is that I found that people who benefit from more visible social programs, like food stamps, are much less likely to vote."

Honesty About Marijuana With Border Officials Leads To Being Banned

US Border Patrol Banning Canadians Who Admit To Having Smoked Marijuana, Ever“If you’re a Canadian tourist in Seattle and you’re over the age of 21, you can buy marijuana. But if on your next trip to the U.S., you’re questioned by border agents and you admit to using pot in the past, you can be banned,” he said. “It’s totally backwards and doesn’t make sense.”
Last year, more than a dozen members of Congress wrote to U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, as well as to U.S. border officials, to express concerns about Canadians and other noncitizens being targeted at U.S. ports of entry.
“We ask that your respective agencies develop policies that ban penalizing noncitizens based on their use or possession of marijuana if they are visiting or residing in states that have enacted marijuana use laws,” the lawmakers wrote."

OK, Rep. Young, why is your party administration doing this sort of stuff.  Does this happen when Canadians cross the border into Alaska?


Hunting Ethics Breach With Appropriate Results

A member of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission resigned after posting pictures of himself and a family of baboons he had killed.  He was at first surprised at the protests against his actions and said,

“'I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t do anything unethical. I didn’t do anything immoral,' Fischer said.
'I look at the way Idaho’s Fish and Game statute says we’re supposed to manage all animals for Idaho, and any surplus of animals we have we manage through hunting, fishing and trapping. Africa does the same thing.'
But Steve Alder, executive director of the pro-hunting group Idaho for Wildlife, said he was glad — though not surprised — the governor had called for the resignation and suggested that this would be “a milestone” in how future commissioners might be selected.

It's good to see in a big hunting state like Idaho, that the reaction was swift and that Fischer, rather than deny any wrong doing and fight back, like so many are doing these days, wrote a letter that took responsibility and apologized.  

"In his letter of resignation, dated Oct. 15, Fischer apologized for sending the photos and said he hoped his actions “would not harm the integrity and ethic” of the Fish and Game Department.
“I recently made some poor judgments that resulted in sharing photos of a hunt in which I did not display an appropriate level of sportsmanship and respect for the animals I harvested,” Fischer wrote. 'While these actions were out of character for me, I fully accept responsibility and feel it is best for the citizens of Idaho and sportsmen and women that I resign my post.'”

I'd hope this would be the results of a similar incident in Alaska, but with our forever member of Congress' office wall full of animal heads, I doubt it.  But maybe forever will end Nov 6.  [Later in the day I saw this was reprinted in the Anchorage Daily News (ADN).]

Sexual Assault 

I’m a sexual assault survivor. And a conservative. The Kavanaugh hearings were excruciating.

The text of this story is worth reading, but more striking even is the picture that accompanied the story.

There's Kavanaugh testifying and behind him the men's legs are covered in long trousers and the women's legs are bare.  This may say more about our sexualized culture and the roles of men and women in it, than most articles I've read.  How many Senators' offices require women to wear dresses and heels?  Or if not require, let it be known they are preferred? 

The Energy Of Youngins

I accompanied my granddaughter to the Learning Farm for a half day of farm stuff.










There was goat feeding.

Chicken feeding.  

Collecting eggs.

A ride on a horse.

Some snack and story time.  

Cleaning out the horse stalls.

At first Z was afraid of feeding the goats.  The chickens were different because you crunched up the crackers then dropped them on the ground.  She didn't have to put her fingers near their mouths.  But later, when we played with the baby goats, she asked for a cracker to feed the mom and then she was hooked.  

This was a fun activity to do together.  We opted for half day, but you could stay the whole day.  Some kids come several days a week.  When I asked if some parents use the farm as day care, the lady said, yes.  I was the only adult who stayed with their kid.  

When we got home, there was a quick lunch and then Grandma took her swimming while Grandpa took a nap.