8 Days Around L.A. (with kids): Day 5 - Sesame Street in Hollywood

Today's field trip took us to see the Sesame Street Presents: The Body exhibit at Hollywood and Highland.

It was cute. My kids are the perfect age for it. Sage likes learning about gross stuff and he was able to read all the descriptions and instructions and interact with the exhibit. McKenna just loves Muppets in general so it was great for her too. They learned about hands:

And digestion:

Guess what this is. . .


Here's a hint:

This was Sage's favorite. If you pulled the lever and it landed on a germ, snot rained down.

Here, you could pump the heart and lungs:

I thought this family was cute. They were racing each other.


It's Guy Smiley!

There was an obstacle course. The CRASH! wall was a hit.


Skeletons!
Innards!
I want a grocery store like this in my neighborhood:

I loved all the fake food.

Sesame Street has come a long way from when we were kids and they promoted eating cookies like a maniac. Ahh numm numm numm.

Here is Oscar outside the store. I told the kids to pretend it smelled bad.

It was right here that we got crowded by a mob of toddlers and their moms. I thought a celebrity had walked in. I was right. . .

it was Elmo! (I'm glad they didn't use the Elmo that hangs out with all the other costumed chracters in front of Grauman's Chinese theater next door. That Elmo is nasty.)

We went into his world and McKenna met Dorothy.

(She smiles, really she does, she was just a tad overwhelmed.) Next, we pretended to wash up:

and went outside.

Then we drove a few streets down and met Erik at his new job. I'd show you the building and tell you about the movie they're working on, but the film industry is all hush-hush about works in progress, so I can't. It's a nice place though. We walked down the block and ate here.

Sage worked on the kids menu which oddly enough, was all about how to keep your body healthy. Here's Mickey Rae and her dad with the Hollywood sign between them. I drew an arrow to help you find it:

Here, I'll zoom in for you. . .

On the way home I captured this gigantic Pepsi billboard (building board?):

and while it's obnoxiously commercial (it's huge!) and oddly Obamarific, it's a nice thing to see while you're sitting in traffic.

You can see more pictures in my Flickr album. Next up: Dinosaurs!

8 Days Around L.A. (with kids): Day 4 - The Americana and Pacific Park in Glendale

Are you tired of my family yet? I am. I mean, I'm exhausted. Anyone want to take over for me for the rest of the week? You can take my kids on all these wild excursions and I'll stay home and sew. I'll pay you in kokoleo.

Nahh, I wouldn't do that to you. They're kind of a handful. But they're my handful and I love them and we're having fun so I'll keep going. Tomorrow we're going to a Sesame Street body exhibit in Hollywood and we're all looking forward to it.

Today we went to Kids Club at the Americana in Glendale. When we lived in Glendale this area was a gaping hole with giant piles of dirt and a fence all around it. Now look at it:


That's the elevator.

There's a nice playground with a plush sitting area for the parents. Here's McKenna in the courtyard, flanked by Tiffany and Co. and Armani Exchange.

The Kids Club thing is a good deal actually. I signed up for it (it's free, they just want your info) and the kids each got a cute t-shirt. Every Tuesday they have live music for the kids.

Today's band was Jambo and they were pretty awesome.

Unfortunately this outing fell during McKenna's naptime, so she wasn't her usual happy dancy self. Sage took that picture of us.

Later, McKenna took this picture of me and Sage.

There were a few water shows that happened while we were there.

(Those guys would not get out of the way.)

We got crepes for lunch.

Yeah, they were starting to lose it at this point. Next we went for a walk.

Past the fancy stores. We went in a few. They were desolate. The salespeople looked bored. I saw some cute stuff though, but nothing I could afford. Hey, that rhymes!

Then we took a trolley (a 5 minute ride) around the courtyard.

Then we left. I took this picture from the elevator, which I showed you from the outside at the beginning.

As I was driving down Colorado Blvd. I turned down a side street to drive past our old house. Sage barely recognized it. He did recognize the park down the street though. I had to stop.

He showed McKenna where all the fun stuff was.




Right here he said,

"You know mom, this place gives me memories." and I thought. . .

me too.