The Griffith Observatory

Next month, after a four and a half year closure, and a $93 million renovation and expansion, the The Griffith Observatory reopens to the public. For over 25 years, my mother-in-law has been a member of the Friends of the Griffith Observatory. Because of this special membership, she had the opportunity to preview the Observatory before it's open to the general public. That special preview day was today, however, my mother-in-law is in Oregon, visiting my sister-in-law and her family. But because the membership is under the name of 'The Fraser Family', Steven was able to book tickets for us to go. By the time we got the details as to how to get to go, most of the day time slots had already been taken. However, we were able to get a ticket for the 5:50pm shuttle up to the Observatory. After stopping for something to eat, we arrived at the shuttle departure area an hour early and they allowed us to go earlier than our scheduled time. Once on the shuttle bus and on our way, Hannah was informing us that should the bus tip over, we could exit through the safety hatch in the roof of the bus, which totally gave the little old lady sitting across from us something to think about. It's apparent Hannah was listening last year when they did school bus orientation! Hannah seemed pretty interested. And Steven was able to simply explain a lot of things about all the different exhibits and things we were seeing. She learned that despite weighing 50lbs on Earth, she would only weigh 10lbs on the moon. Today was just a preview. More or less a way for the kinks to be worked out in the shuttles and handling all the visitors, etc. The Planetarium wasn't up and running, nor were any of the other special programs. And alot of the exhibits still need a lot of work before it opens to the public in less than 3 weeks. We'll be able to see the shows when we go back on November 4th with my mother-in-law.