The Griffith Observatory and a Hollywood Meltdown

The next day we drove into LA to the Griffith Observatory. It was super busy. Parallel parked cars lined both sides of the road, a steep drop off one side. We finally found a spot a bit more than half a mile away. We hiked up to the observatory.

The Hollywood sign in the distance. It's a bit blurry in the photos.

The first floor holds lots of informative exhibits like this one for learning the phases of the moon.

Looking at the sun thru a series of special viewing lenses. 

Outside stairs take you up to the roof where interesting views await.

Downtown Los Angeles barely visible amidst the smog.

A beautiful view of the trails at Griffith Park.

When we had finished seeing everything, we went to relax on the grass lawn for a bit. That's when it happened. Asher had an epic meltdown. Bigger than you can even imagine. He stood on the sidewalk 15 feet in front of us and screamed and cried because "his legs hurt" and he wanted to be carried. He's 5. I had been carrying him and set him down about 10 seconds before said meltdown. He cried for FIFTEEN minutes! People stared at him. At us. It was embarrassing, but we don't respond to tantrums, never have. We told him we were right here for him when he was ready.

Finally he rolled to Daddy and eventually the flailing arms and legs stopped. Upon arrival to the museum, we had told the kids they could have a popsicle on our way out. We still did and both kids walked the entire way back to the truck without even asking to be held.

Obviously his legs didn't hurt that bad. We were able to talk about it with him later and he admitted that his legs were fine and he understood that the meltdown was a mistake. Whew, parenting, it's no joke! Fortunately he's never had a meltdown like this before and hasn't since.