I Am a Grandmother - A Trip to the Observatory

Today is Veteran's Day...flags flying, feelings of gratitude for those who serve, no mail delivery and NO SCHOOL.  That means we were able to spend the day with our grandson, Gabriel.  We like to turn our time together into memories if we can, so today we decided to take Gabe to the Griffith Park Observatory.  He is studying the planets in his third grade class and had never been to a planetarium and we had not been there since it has re-opened.

Gabriel and Mima at the Observatory

We certainly picked the perfect day.  The heavy winds had cleaned the air and we could see all the way from the Observatory to the Pacific Ocean.  Gabe was excited to see "for the first time" the HOLLYWOOD sign.

Gabriel with the Hollywood Sign

It is never too late to have a happy childhood and the three of us wandered from exhibit to exhibit, calling to each other..."Look at this!"...seeing how much we would weigh on each of the planets, learning how the eclipses occur and what makes the tides rise and fall.  The highlight of the day was the program in the Samuel Oshen Planetarium, "Centered in the Universe."  Relaxing into our lounge type seats with eyes on the overhead ceiling to watch the fantastic full-domed video screen, we were transported through time and space to the Big Bang through a universe of galaxies to try to find our place in the cosmos.

The human mind is truly unable to hold the reality of the size of our ever-expanding universe.  We move from our little place in Los Angeles, to the earth, to the solar system, to the Milky Way, to our place on the edge of our galaxy, to the billions of other galaxies discovered by the Hubble Telescope and we find new meaning in the phrase... "It blows my mind!"  And in the midst of it all, I am this little human being so absorbed in my life, walking my neighborhood, cooking my dinner, caring about my loved ones, making plans, caught up in my issues,..it is all about ME!  How grand and how insignificant is our life.  The universe humbles us...and it should.  Somehow seeing myself so small is not a downer but rather invigorating...to seem so irrelevant yet at the same time, feel I am special and that my life has meaning.  What a miracle to be apart of all of this!

I had a friend who no longer graces this earth who was fascinated by the cosmos.  Everyday he would send out the Astronomy Picture of the Day from the NASA website to his friends.  I thought of Myron today and how he would have loved this.

On the way out we stopped at the Gift shop and Gabe chose a pair of binoculars, like his Grandpa Jay's, for his souvenir so he can check out the stars at night.  "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight..." Hopefully he will remember that the star he is wishing on is just one in a gazillion and that he is part of this wonder of our universe.

Checking out his new binoculars.