great takes on family travel in the U.S.

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

I’m familiar with the reactions: the sad eyes, the whining, the frantic efforts to hide in the laundry room. No, I’m not talking about your cat when faced with a vet visit, but your children when you mention that you’ll be taking them to ‘somewhere educational.’

Sure, you’ll get more cheers for Chuck E. Cheese’s, but sometimes it’s nice to take the kids somewhere that teaches them more than how quickly a roll of quarters can disappear when you’re mesmerized by a large waltzing mouse. Here are some of my favorite ‘smart’ destinations in Los Angeles. I’ll bet they’ll forget all about that dancing rodent.

We just went to the newly revamped Griffith Observatory and can’t wait to go back. It had been closed for almost five years for renovations, and was well worth the wait. The new Planetarium Show is amazing and had our kids captivated – you would have thought it was a SpongeBob marathon. The displays are beautiful – a large room with huge planet models overhead and a screen showing a live feed from the space station was my favorite. I have to mention their amazing Café at the End of the Universe – my husband pointed out that I saved my most enthusiastic response for the snack-break portion of our visit. But the Peets coffee, croissants and a killer view made me as happy as seeing a ten-foot glowing model of Mars.

One of my favorite locations is also one of the oldest: The Museum of Natural History in Exposition Park that opened its doors in 1913. I’ve been going there since I was a child, and have been taking my kids there since they were toddlers. Sometimes we take a break from wandering around the animal dioramas, grab a snack and wander the famous Rose Garden for awhile. Next door is the amazing California Science Center, which has free admission and is home to the popular BodyWorks exhibit centered around Tess, a fifty-foot body simulator. Oh, and there’s a McDonalds downstairs, in case the whining starts up and needs to be quieted by a bag of french fries.

Then there’s the KidSpace Museum in Pasadena, which is popular with younger children. I took my 9 and 11-year-olds there recently and found that they had outgrown most of it, although they did still enjoy the regularly scheduled nature shows and hiking around the outdoor gardens. The little ones will love the whimsical hands-on exhibits.

Last but not least I have to mention the beach. Because there’s not one single location in the city that I feel has taught my kids as much. They’ve learned about marine life, birds and the properties of water. It’s led to discussions about homelessness and compassion when we’ve given money to a man asking for help, and the meaning of war when we came upon a memorial to fallen soldiers erected in the sand in Santa Monica. With nothing to distract us we’ve sat on our towels and talked about everything from school bullies to Michelangelo to why we love Jack Black. And the best part? The kids had no idea they’d been ‘learning’ all day long.

What are your favorite ‘smart’ destinations in your city?

[photo: GriffithObservatory.org]