8 October 2014
Weather: Sunny & 30C
We had a 7:00 am start to get ready, had breakfast and got the
9:00 am bus from MacArthur Park to the California Science Centre, taking bus
route 200. When travelling on buses in the U.S. you need to have the
exact change as they do not have change. We arrived at the
California Science Centre with plenty of time so we walked around Exposition
Park.
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| SR-71 Blackbird in front of the California Science Centre |
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| California Science Centre |
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| Justin lifting a Toyota Tundra in front of the California Science Centre |
The Science Centre opens at 10:00 am and we went straight to the
Samuel Oschin Pavilion to see the Endeavour Space Shuttle as we had a 10:00 am
shuttle ticket. That day they had the payload doors open as they were
going to install the payload the following day. All part of their plans
to display the shuttle how it would have been on the launch pad.
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| Endeavour Space Shuttle, California Science Centre |
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| Endeavour Space Shuttle, California Space Centre |
We looked at all the exhibits within the Science Centre including
trying out the machine which shows your body temperature. There is heat
lamps so you can compare your body temperature when it is cool in the air conditioning and
heated by the lamps. We found this both interesting and fun. Having
Raynaud’s disease, I wanted to see how my body fares. My body did not
change its temperature when hot and cold but my fingers were purple which was
not on their colour scale. Justin’s image was different, he was red,
yellow and white on the colour temperature reading but as his body cooled one
of his arms remained hotter than the other. We also had a go on the
earthquake simulator, followed by lunch at the Science Centre.
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| Exposition Park |
After lunch, we walked through the Rose Garden of Exposition Park
to the Natural History Museum Los Angeles County. We saw all the exhibits of the museum but the
best were the Dinosaur Hall and North American Mammals Hall.
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| T. rex, Natural History Museum Los Angeles County |
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| The only moose we got to see on our trip, Natural History Museum Los Angeles County |
While in the Dinosaur Hall we saw Chris the
guide we had the day before at La Brea Tar Pits working in the museum. I had mentioned to him that I would like to
see some hummingbirds but understand they migrate for winter. Chris informed me that the hummingbirds in
the garden at the museum are there year-round.
So, once we were finished seeing the exhibits inside the museum we
headed around to the Hummingbird feeders and sure enough the Allen’s
Hummingbirds were there. This was one of
the highlights of the trip. After
spending some time with the hummingbirds, we went to the Edible Garden before
leaving, getting the bus back to our hotel.
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| Allen's Hummingbird |
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| Allen's Hummingbird |
We enjoyed a couple hours of down time chilling in our room before
getting some dinner. This time Justin
drove to Chinatown where we chose to eat at the Plum Tree Restaurant. We ordered soft noodles with vegetables,
steamed vegetable dumplings and crispy beef with rice which had tangerine
sauce. The food was very nice. After dinner, we returned to the hotel, our
day over. The location of the hotel is
amongst a Latin American community which spoke little to no English, if one
speaks Spanish they would probably have more success communicating with the
locals.
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