A trip to Griffith Park

Last week, while our son Jamie was attending an inservice in our area, we decided to do something that we had talked about doing earlier this year--to visit the Griffith Observatory in LA! The past few years, the Observatory has been under renovation and just recently re-opened. On Tuesday evening, after Jamie was finished with his classes, he came by our house and drove us to Griffith Park.
After winding our way up the mountainside (by shuttle bus), we arrived at the Observatory, just as the sun was setting. On the way up the hill, we drove by some of the area where wildfires devastated the park earlier this summer. What a blessing that many of the old, towering trees in the center of the park were spared from the fires!
As we walked toward the Observatory, we looked across the valley to our right. The last rays of the sunset provided a beautiful backdrop for this famous "Hollywood" mountain.

Immediately after arriving in the building, we purchased tickets for the evening planetarium show. Then we had a few moments to look at our surroundings. This mural on the entrance ceiling reminded us of some of the cathedrals that we'd visited in Europe.

Suspended from the center of that beautifully painted dome, hung this huge Foucault pendulum, aptly showing once again that our planet tilts on its axis as it moves around our sun. It was almost hypnotic to watch it slowly swinging back and forth...

The highlight of the evening, of course, was the Samuel Oschin Planetarium show (sorry, no photography allowed). It was awesome, and highly recommended to all! Once again, the words of the psalmist came to my mind,

"O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens! When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers--the moon and the stars You set in place--what are mere mortals that You should care for them? Yet You made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor!" (Psalm 8)

Because we arrived later in the evening, we didn't have lots of time to spend looking around at all the exhibits. We'll just have to go back another time and spend the better part of a day there so we can see it all! In the next post, I'll share one of the most interesting displays that we saw.

After the planetarium show, we walked out onto the balcony overlooking the city. As far as the eye could see, there were lights. So many people in one place on earth! The view was spectacular!