LA Museums - Exposition Park

The California Science Center at Exposition park is one of the most popular hands-on LA museums. Specializing in interactive exhibits that are aimed at families and kids, the Science Center focuses on biology, aviation, energy, space exploration and ecology. There's even a kids' TV studio with costumes, puppets and cameras. The history of space exploration is represented with actual Apollo, Gemini and Mercury capsules. Some of the exhibits are starting to show their age, but in late 2012, the Science Center became the permanent home of the space shuttle Endeavour.

www.californiasciencecenter.org

Spacious and well thought out, this is one of our favorite LA museums, a welcome alternative to those overstuffed museums that end up tiring rather than inspiring. The galleries are inviting and easy to navigate, colorful and airy. A fascinating recent exhibit displayed paintings and sculpture from the collection of Golden State Mutual Life Insurance, the first African American owned insurance company in Los Angeles. (Who knew insurance agents had such great taste in art?) Other exhibits focus not just on African American artists, but on prominent African American collectors such as Arthur Primas, who amassed over 600 works spanning 150 years. The permanent exhibit on slavery and the Middle Passage manages the delicate feat of educating and illuminating while still working as provocative art.

www.caamuseum.org

If you hired a Hollywood set designer to create the classic museum of your imagination, you'd end up with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. A blend of Beaux-Arts and Romanesque styles dominated by a marbled rotunda, the Natural History museum houses 35 million specimens and artifacts - some of them 4.5 Billion year old -- in its three stories. Highlights include 3-D animal habitats, an insect zoo crawling with specimens from around the world and the Hall of Gems. The ultra-popular dinosaur exhibit, featuring three T-Rexes in various stages of growth make this one of the most visited of all LA museums. www.nhm.org

A welcome sanctuary that sits in the middle of the many LA museums of Exposition Park. Twenty-thousand plants and 200 varieties of roses are arranged by species and color around a central fountain, making it paradise for photographers, meditators and anyone who's looking for a patch of contemplative peace in the heart of Los Angeles. Operated by the Department of Recreation and Parks since 1928, the Rose Garden is free.