Up close and semi personal with a space shuttle

A must see in LA: California Science Centre. Main attraction = Endeavour. Need I say more? But if that isn't enough you'll also see a myriad of other stuff to keep everyone entertained for hours!

When we first drove into the carpark the one thing that caught our attention was the Blackbird, a strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Kien has a picture of a Blackbird in one of his aircraft books, so he was pretty happy to see one in real life.

Also out front is this cool leverage system to lift a truck.







We finally got our tickets and went inside.







We walked through a maze of exhibits, including this one:



Now, I know Carl Sagan said we're made of star stuff, but when you're touching something that's recently been in space it just feels damn special.

And now here is a gazillion photos of Endeavour.









I hadn't anticipated on how beat up the space shuttle would look in real life, or how small each individual heat tile on the underside of the fuselage actually are, and when you are seeing maybe 20,000 of them with identification numbers it truly is an impressive sight to behold.







Then there are the Solid Rocket Boosters. What's amazing is that SRB weighs approximately 590,000 kg (1,300,000 lb) at launch, EACH.











Seeing all of this reminds me of how brilliant some human beings are!





The only disappointing thing for Kien is that the space shuttle did not launch. He kept asking us, "Is the space shuttle going to take off? When is the space shuttle taking off?". I had to distract him from bursting into tears when telling him it wasn't going to take off.

There were many (many!) other exhibits, but Matthew was starving and it wasn't going down too well. So we left the building via the aquarium.







We sat outside and had something to eat, and then the kids ran around the rose garden for a bit.











We had intended to come back again before we left LA, but time wasn't our friend. Ah well, something to look forward to the next time we are in town.

Travel Town Museum

Located in the northwest corner of Los Angeles, Griffith Park is home to the Travel Town Museum. This is a great outdoor museum featuring 43 railroad engines, cars and other rolling stock from the 1880s to the 1930s.











Best of all we were able to climb onto the full size steam engine, cabooses and passenger cars.







We took the small train that did a loop around the perimeter, and that was pretty cool for the kids.





Of course all the cameras came out when we were seated ready for the train to go. Having some shade was pretty awesome - I think the heat rose to 37°C - so yeah, we were sweatin'.







The tickets were so cheap at $2.75 per person, and considering it is free to get into the museum I think the train ride is a bargain!





Certainly was a fun way to spend a couple of hours in LA.

Here we are in LA

Wow-wee, since we've landed in LA I haven't really had a chance to sit down for a stretch to bang out a post. Not that we've been extremely busy or anything, just that when Lynette and I are together there are these endless streams of sentences we exchange and before long it's 5am and we've been talking since the kids were in bed!

Our flight here was as good as it can get. Kien was brilliant. As soon as he got onto the aircraft and into his seat he settled in and watched a movie. He didn't spill his pre-takeoff juice, and was very compliant with putting and keeping his belt on when it was time to do so.



He wasn't interested in any dinner, but was happy to continue watching the inflight entertainment while Jef and I enjoyed our meal, uninterrupted. After the dinner service was over I made his bed up for him and he happily lay there all by himself and drifted off to sleep cuddling his one eyed koala.



He slept through the night, and continued to stay asleep all through the breakfast service, and finally woke up about an hour before landing.

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The last time we were here was back in Jan/Feb 2012, so it's good to see the kids settling in and picking up where they left off, only a tad older.









This one was just a baby back then, and now he's like a little bulldozer. He's young, but he sure is feisty. This was him running off with the glider after he grabbed it off his brother.



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It's so hot! I love the heat, but man, this is insane without a breeze for relief. We took the kids to the park and I just had to park myself under a tree with a baby.







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3 boys in a bath - oh boy! The little one wants to be in on all the action. The big boys would rather not have that happen. So the little one thinks its fun to pour water on everyone's heads. Yeah, good times.





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On Monday we wrangled all the kids to a restaurant for my birthday dinner. Here's the scene trying to get everyone organised.



Dinner was good. The place we originally intended to go to was closed so we ended up at Marie Callender's. My birthday cake was a pie - us non-Americans would call it a cheesecake. I forgot to take a photo of it because we boxed it to take home since all the kids needed to get to bed.



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That's all the photos I've processed so far this trip - pretty slack, right? Lynette and I have decided we need to cap our nightly discussions. I've just looked at the time and it's 1:30am already. I need to get myself to bed.

Snippets of life

Bath time at our place is usually a long and drawn out affair. He will quite often not want to go and have a bath to begin with, but once he's in there he doesn't usually want to get out in a hurry either. This is a typical bathing session I got on video a few weeks back.

Bathtime at our place from Lien on Vimeo.

He always has his bath in the that green tub now. He thinks that is his big boy bath. A week ago I ran the big bath for him (for the sake of novelty), and he put his bath toys into the green tub to play with. I come back 15 minutes later to find he had bailed water into the green tub and was sitting in it with all his bath friends.

As an aside, Kien put his shark into timeout the other day, because it was being naughty, he told me.

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Our apartment entrance way has sprung to life. Our neighbour planted some bulbs over Autumn and all of a sudden there is a burst of colour.



All of my green leafy vegetables are ready to be eaten and I've been harvesting them for salads and soups. Who says I can't grow my own food while living in an apartment?

I'm growing Bok choy, Parsley, Mesclun salad mix, Coriander, Basil.