Griffith Observatory

Our last day in LA, Sunday, was perfectly spent being reminded of the vastness of the universe at the Griffith Observatory.  We knew we wanted to get an early start on this day, so when we wound our way up the hill the observatory is perched on, the fog was still rolling in over the city.  This first picture show the infamous Hollywood sign and the wisps of fog covering up the city it names.

The observatory was another really cool building to admire.  We explored all around the outside first.  While our views of the city were obscured by the fog, we didn't care because we kinda felt like we were floating on the clouds.  The observatory has lots of neat interactive exhibits to explore.  We saw the huge tracks around the observatory displaying the orbits of each planet.  And we interacted with some different kinds of calendars and clocks that are powered by the sun.  While trying to figure out one sort of complicated sun calendar, Derek commented that we were searching for "The Well of Souls"! (Don't get that reference?  Think Ark of the Covenant and Indiana Jones.)

Inside the observatory, our learning about the sun, stars, planets and galaxies continued.  I was thrilled to show the girls some great models of the how everything rotates and orbits, causing day/night and seasons, a concept we've tried to explain, but is difficult to understand.  They posed by Einstein, saw real moon rocks and were flabbergasted over the small "You are Here" dot our entire solar system represented on the map of the known universe.

These two exhibits were some favorites.  Above, Delia measures what her weight would be on each planet.  Here's a tip for ya: Don't move to Jupiter.  We weigh about three times as much there!  Below shows the marks we actually made on the seismograph when all 6 of us jumped in front of it at the same time.

After a morning at the observatory, we had no choice but to recognize and praise God for the big creator he is.  Ella had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that she alone wasn't the red dot on the universe map, our entire solar system was!  How amazing that the God who created and controls the whole universe does love and care about us individually! We felt answers to prayer and God's blessings rain down on us all weekend-- safe travels, the chance to explore fun new places, family members who are truly best friends and laughter and joy in the midst of sorrow and mourning.