On our second day in LA, Olive broke her finger on those swings behind her.
We just got home from a three week trip to Los Angeles to visit my family, and it was the coldest May there in four decades! Even though we’ve visited every year since we moved to the Philippines 3.5 years ago, this was the first time that America really felt different to me. Perhaps it’s that we’ve become used to our simple island lives, and the abundance of everything in America is overwhelming. Perhaps it’s because I had major sticker shock on how the cost of everything, particularly food, has risen and it was difficult to imagine moving back! Whatever the reasons, living abroad has definitely changed us.
As I mentioned in this post, I wanted to take an unschooling approach to this trip and visit as many museums as we could. We were limited by the fact that my US driver’s license had recently expired, and I couldn’t renew it in LA without a utility bill with my name and local address on it. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because instead of driving around vast LA meeting up with friends like I usually do, I had a barbecue at my parents’ house and saw everyone at once, which left more time to spend with my family. Plus we love public transportation! My parents live in a suburb 30 minutes outside of LA, and it takes us 30 minutes to get to downtown LA by train whereas it would be 2 hours in rush hour traffic… both ways. With trains and uber, we were able to get most anywhere.
We weren’t able to go to the three farthest museums on our list due to time (lots of errands!), the Getty, Skirball, and Griffith Observatory, which are the top 3 museums on Tripadvisor, but all far away from anything else. But we did make it to the Broad Museum and Natural History Museum in downtown LA; the La Brea Tar Pits and Los Angeles Country Museum of Art in the Fairfax District; and the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana.
The Broad Museum is a cool, but smaller, contemporary art museum, and definitely worth a visit if you’re in downtown LA.. You can find my post about it here. They have several exhibits that kids will love, and admission is free except for special exhibits. If you haven’t gotten your art fill, the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) is located just across the street. They recently received a $10 million donation so entrance will soon be free for the next several years!
We went to the La Brea Tar Pits on our last visit to LA, but my kids loved it so much they asked to go again. There really isn’t a museum like this anywhere in the US that I know of; it’s an active fossil dig site where millions of fossils have been recovered!
they currently have a mammoth exhibit
The LACMA (Los Angeles County Musuem of Art) is right next door to the La Brea Tar Pits, and houses the largest art collection in the Western United States. It’s a huge museum so you may want to decide which exhibits you want to see if you’re going with young children; for instance we had to see the Korean pottery and art exhibit. Even if you’re not an art lover, I guarantee you will recognize much of the art featured. My kids always have fun at art museums so don’t rule them out on your vacations!
LACMA also has a children’s art area that my kids really enjoyed.
We had planned on going to the Natural History Museum and the California Science Center on the same day since they are right next to each other, but my kids were having too much fun at the Natural History Museum to squeeze in both. There are tons of special exhibits that were worth paying the extra fee for (butterfly garden, 3D movie, Antarctic exhibit), and we particularly enjoyed the gems/rocks/minerals exhibit. The California Science Center has the real life Endeavor spaceship on display, and admission is free! I would definitely get an early start on the day if you want to try to do both in one day.
We went to the Discovery Cube Orange County science museum (they also have a location in LA), and my kids thoroughly enjoyed that; they also had the best gift shop!
Charlie has read lots of Ripley’s and Guinness books, and when I mentioned that there were museums in LA, he wanted to go. We got a three-in-one ticket to see both museums plus the wax museum (always search for online coupons). You can see them in less than an hour each, and my kids enjoyed Guinness the best because it had the most interactive elements. They are definitely not must-see attractions, but you’ll be on Hollywood Boulevard if you want to see the stars on the walk of fame, and have lunch across the street at Hollywood and Highland. Though honestly all of these are can miss attractions from a native Angeleno!
Marilyn Monroe’s star in front of the Guinness Museum.
the wax museum was pretty awful to be honest! We spent less than 30 minutes in it.
Charlie and Olive have been fishing a number of times, but have only caught the tiniest fish in local ponds and rivers. I found a place called Huckleberry Pond in Orange County that stocks a children’s pond with catfish and trout. We went the day after they had stocked the pond, and both Charlie and Olive caught 2 big catfish each within 30 minutes! We had to pay per pound for each fish we caught so it was pricey, but it was still worth it. Fishing is one of those childhood memories you never forget! There was also a bird sanctuary there so it was like visiting a zoo, but you could get up close and personal to the birds, both domesticated and wild; they’re fed fish skins all day by the staff that clean fish, hence why they are so friendly.
The same location also offered panning for fossils and gemstones. You buy a bag of your choice, then pan the sand in screens with water flowing from an old fashioned water mill. The kids loved this just as much as fishing.
We decided not to go to Disneyland since Star Wars Land was opening the day after we left, so we’ll save Disney for our next trip (the kids have been twice before). There was a local strawberry festival with a carnival, so we went to that and the kids had a blast. Searching on Facebook is a great way to find local events going on. Olive was just at the 48 inch height requirement to ride everything but the scariest of rides. They had a blast riding rides, playing games, and eating tons of junk food. And I was much less tired at the end of the day than if I’d gone to an amusement park. I had to carry Olive a mile to the parking lot the last time we went to Disneyland because she passed out so hard after 12 hours there!
And here is a small fraction of the Los Angeles food we ate!
Mexican hot dogs. Hot dogs wrapped in bacon topped with salsa, mayo, and jalapenos. So freaking yum. The number #1 food American expats miss is always Mexican.
mango with chili powder and lime. Another Mexican classic.
the best pho!
the biggest Koreatown outside of Korea. Go for the bulgogi and galbi barbecue.
delicious dungeness crab. Best to go to Redondo Beach, but we are crab aficionados and ate it at home.
These are some of my previous posts on Los Angeles:
- A Tour of Downtown Los Angeles (from this trip!)
- Strawberry Picking at Tanaka Farms (from this trip!)
- Visiting Los Angeles with Kids
- Visiting Los Angeles with Kids (from a local’s perspective)
I grew up there, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
pear / 1565 posts
Ohh I am hunnnngry when I got to the last part of the post
I def did not realize how much kids stuff there is to do in LA! I’d love to take my kids to LA and San Diego at some point!
grape / 78 posts
Looks awesome. Also surprised at how much stuff there is to do for kids. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos.