Star Gazing

Today, the Misers splurged, and it felt great! We went to the Griffith Observatory, and spent $14 to see "Water Is Life" in the Samuel Oschin Planetarium. Tickets are $7 per adult, with kids under two admitted free for the first showing only. Although she was a little scared at first when the lights went down, Bee became completely mesmerised by the show, as did Sparky and I. It was amazing to see the universe, the planets, the constellation up there so clear and bright in the Planetarium Sky, plus the narration was interesting and educational - the whole thing was very well done and worth every cent. The Misers are a Night Sky loving family, Bee always points out the moon and the stars, and she is especially noticing Venus these days. So this was a highly rated outing for us. And if you don't feel like seeing the show, the Observatory is a great place just to visit. The building is beautiful, the views  amazing, and the exhibits are excellent. On the surrounding grounds are statues of astronomers, a very accurate sun dial, a map of our solar system, and strangely enough, a bust of James Dean. Apparently this is because his film "Rebel Without A Cause" was filmed there. It is Hollywood, after all. 

On the terraces and walkways outside of the Observatory there are telescopes that offer you closeup views of Los Angeles. Sparky put 50¢ into one, and looked around the hills to see what he could see. He happened upon a swimming pool nearby and said, "Hey, I think that's Jennifer Aniston's butt!" Before I could look through the telescope to confirm this (like I know what her butt looks like) the telescope shut off and went black. But since The Misers don't spend another 50¢, we will never really know. 

A friend of mine from Minnesota had this to say about my blog: "Splended reading, one more site to bookmark. There's a guy here who writes about the Twins and for the first year his only readers were his mom and his brother. He then wrote a piece where he used the phrase "Jennifer Aniston's butt" and his traffic exploded as people who googled Jennifer Aniston ended up clicking on his site. You may wish to consider similar tactics." So that is what I've done. Mentioned her name three times, in fact. A cheap shot I admit, but cheap is my middle name. And I promise I will do it again. But seriously, if you haven't been to the Observatory yet, hurry up and go already - just visiting is free!