*once a week, every week, I embark on a new adventure to check off one of my many LA bucket list items. Follow along my journey being a tourist in my own town and get in on the action!*
When you live in a big city like Los Angeles the idea of going to a museum always seems a an activity that’s perhaps a little too readily available. So, as it usually goes with over attainability, we find that only if we have an excuse will we actually make the effort to go to said museum. It’s a bit of a sad thought when you think about it; you know that important, life-enriching, culturally critical place will always be there, but without having a reason like a paper or a field trip time always seems to slip away. All of the sudden you’ve lived in LA (or in relative close proximity) for 5+ years and you’ve still never made that dang museum trip. Case in point, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. I’ve lived about 15 minutes away from their doorsteps for over three years now and it wasn’t until friends from out of town wanted to go that I finally figured I’d make the trip.
Natural History Museums in particular have always remind me of my childhood when I regularly frequented the one in San Francisco for school or during a YMCA day camp trip. I was admittedly worried I wouldn’t find the LA Natural History Museum 1/2 as cool as I once did with its SF counterparts, but after having gone I believe I found a whole new appreciation for dinosaur bones and scenes of African mammals in their “natural habitats”. Maybe perhaps it’s because I’m at a much higher reading level now, maybe it’s because history seems so much cooler the older I get, but time seems less like a fictitious number and more like a truly impactful power these days – and that makes the NHM an even more incredible experience. They’re very good at making you feel a part of something magnificent within this big universe of ours.
To put it simply yet tactfully, the dinosaur exhibit is quite frankly f*ucking incredible. Maybe I’m just a huge dinosaur nerd but I could have stayed in there staring up at those once-upon-a-million-years-ago creatures for hours (please see above for accurate demonstration). The mammal dioramas are goofy yet necessary to the full NHM experience, but besides the mammals and dinos my other favorite part of the museum was actually the “Becoming L.A.” exhibit. It was there I learned all about how LA has come to be the metropolis it is today and what a truly fascinating experience it turned out to be – especially for a person who has dedicated her career to eating, living, and breathing everything that is “Los Angeles”.
If you haven’t been to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County yet, go get some culture and hang with some dinosaurs. Let your inner nerd embrace history.
What: The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Where: 900 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90007
When: open 7 days a week, from 9:30 am to 5 pm daily (except on Holidays)
Tip: The Natural History Museum offers plenty of free days to visit, usually on the first Friday of every month with the exception of July and August (womp womp) BUT, they make up for it in September by offering FREE admission every Friday that month.
Bonus Tip: Only have an hour? This is what they suggest you see.
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