Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [76]
A quick jaunt south of Downtown LA by DASH bus Click here, the family-friendly Exposition Park began as an agricultural fairground in 1872, then devolved into a magnet for the down-and-out, and finally emerged as a patch of public greenery in 1913. It contains three quality museums, a lovely Rose Garden (Map; admission free; 8:30am-sunset Apr-Dec) and the 1923 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Map; 213-747-7111; www.lacoliseum.com; 3911 S Figueroa St). The last hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games, the 1959 baseball World Series and two Super Bowls. The adjacent indoor Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (Map; 213-748-6136; 3939 S Figueroa St) dates from 1959 and is used for rock concerts, ice shows, the circus and even the occasional rodeo. Parking costs $6.
There are a few eateries in and near the park, but for a treat, head to nearby Mercado La Paloma (Map; 213-748-1963; 3655 S Grand Ave; admission free; 8am-6:30pm), an abandoned warehouse turned into a delightful Mexican marketplace with an art gallery, quality crafts stalls and numerous food stalls, including the excellent Chichen Itza.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF LA COUNTY
Dinos to diamonds, bears to beetles, hissing roaches to African elephants – this old-school museum (Map; 213-763-3466; www.nhm.org; 900 Exposition Blvd; adult/child/senior & student $9/2/6.50; 9:30am-5pm Mon-Fri, from 10am Sat & Sun; ) will take you around the world and back millions of years in time. It’s all housed in a beautiful 1913 renaissance-style building that stood in for Columbia University in the first Spider-Man movie – yup, this was where Peter Parker was bitten by the radioactive arachnid.
The special exhibits usually draw the biggest crowds, but don’t miss out on a spin around the permanent halls to see such trophy displays as a tyrannosaurus rex skull and a megamouth, one of the world’s rarest and creepiest sharks. Historical exhibits include prized Navajo textiles, baskets and jewelry in the Hall of Native American Cultures. If diamonds are your best friend, head to the Gem & Mineral Hall with its walk-through gem tunnel and a Fort Knox–worthy gold collection. Summers see the opening of the Pavilion of Wings (separate admission adult/senior & student/child 5-12 $3/2/1; mid-Apr–early Sep) on the South Lawn, an enchanting landscape where some 30 species of butterflies roam freely.
Kids will have plenty of ooh and aah moments in the spruced-up Discovery Center where they can make friends with Cecil the iguana and Peace, a 9ft boa; dig for dinosaur fossils; handle bones, antlers and minerals; and get close to tarantulas, scorpions and other creepy-crawlies.
For grown-ups, the museum turns up the volume during its First Fridays event series, which combines a lecture with guided tours and a party (with booze and live music) in the African mammal hall. Check the website for upcoming dates.
CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER
A simulated earthquake, baby chicks hatching and a giant techno-doll named Tess bring out the kid in all of us at this multimedia museum (Map; 323-724-3623; www.californiasciencecenter.org; 700 State Dr; admission free; 10am-5pm; ) with plenty of buttons to push, lights to switch on and knobs to pull.
The enormous space is divided into three themed areas. Upstairs on the left, World of Life focuses mostly on the human body. You can ‘hop on’ a red blood cell for a computer fly-through of the circulatory system, ask Gertie how long your colon really is, watch open-heart surgery and learn about homeostasis from Tess, billed as ‘50ft of brains, beauty and biology.’ Tots may have trouble understanding the science, but they will remember Tess.
On the right, Creative World is all about the ingenious ways humans have devised to communicate with each other, transport things and build structures. Meet a family of crash-test dummies, fly a virtual hovercraft and get all shook up during a fake earthquake.
Aircraft and space travel take center stage in the Sketch Foundation Gallery, in an adjacent Frank Gehry building (yes, he’s everywhere). Spirits will soar at the sight