The Only Cool Thing In La La Land

At the start of our California trip (or rather 6 hours into it which felt like 3 days), we landed in Los Angeles. Mike and I immediately were reminded of something....we really hate L.A. I mean absolutely no offense to the people that have fond feelings for the place (resident or visitors) but we honestly just don't get it. There's not 1 single solitary thing about the city of angels that appeals to us. The culture, the lifestyle, the traffic, the architecture...I suppose the scenery\views could be nice but you wouldn't know it with all the smog. Yep, not really place high up there on our liking it list. But saying there's absolutely nothing we like about it is not really the truth. There is one cool thing there and that's the La Brea Tar Pits. After 2 tiring days of Disney and a long day of wedding celebrations, we took a lower key pace to the day and set our sights on going to the Page Museum.

I really thought Dylan would love it. He has a thing for skeletons and, well, that's pretty much all there is at the museum. It's a collection of all the skeletal animal remains they've found when exhuming some of the tar pits. I remember going there with my family when I was 5 years old. It left an impression. On my last trip to L.A. about 13 years ago, I went there again. This time I wanted to take my boys....all of them. Mike hadn't been there either!

In the spirit of non happy kids on the trip, it continued here. It was pulling teeth to try and help Dylan be happy about anything. Cade was happy as long as you let him wander freely which we couldn't always let him do.  Joy, it was going to be yet another one of those days!

Cade was instantly fascinated by the bubbling tar.

Dylan was content to hang in the stroller.

I think Cade was only still for about 3 seconds for this photo.

Once in the museum, I got Dylan interested in this saber tooth tiger display. It showed the bones then would change to show a holographic image of the animal in tact. We'd recently been watching the Ice Age movies a lot so Dylan was fairly fascinated with the "scary Diego" (Diego being the saber in that movie). Unfortunately, he was so fascinated he wouldn't leave it. Only after lots of coaxing and promising we would come back before we left was I able to pry him away from it without him being too upset.

The Promised Picture

Once we picked up a few souvenirs, we went back outside and attempted to get a family picture in front of the museum. You won't see one here because no one was happy and we were tired of trying. Thankfully, the boys found some pigeons to chase. And they finally seemed to be having a bit of fun.

Still couldn't get them to cooperate for a family picture.
This was the best we could get.

After running in the grass and chasing birds for a while, we said good bye to the elephants and explored more of the grounds.

I don't even know what this animal is, but climbing on top of it made the boys happy.
We're no dummies...we take our shots when we can and this ended up being one of
my favorite family pictures from the trip. 

We timed the trip home perfectly....right in L.A. afternoon traffic. Ugh. It was a long, long trek home. Luckily the boys napped a bit and stayed happy watching a movie when they were awake. As for Mike and I, we didn't fare so well. We were worn out from the day and ready to get home. The highlight of the trip was seeing the Hollywood sign very, very far away. Exciting, I know.

Though Dylan didn't seem really into the museum, it did leave an impression. He asks about and talks about the elephants in the pit quite often and about the "scary Diego." So hopefully down the line, it will be remembered positively by him. I also hope, down the line, I'll look at the smiling pictures and only remember the happy moments too. Sigh.