I never thought that I would love living in Los Angeles.  Home as a kid for me, was the beautiful and rustic Napa Valley.  While I permanently relocated to Southern California in 2007, I have lived in Los Angeles County since the summer of 2014.

As a person who spent her twenties in the San Francisco area, I quickly learned that there is this sentiment among many that if you  live somewhere like LA or a big city that happens to be frequented by tourists, you don’t do “touristy” things like go to the local museums.

You leave stuff like that to the tourists, because we already know what we were supposed to know, right?  I mean, surely the field trip I had in 4^thgrade should have sufficed for whatever I needed to know about Alcatraz.

But, what if in reality that mentality will often keep you from having some of the coolest experiences and actually knowing what makes your city so cool?

Ironically, LA happens to hold a lot of family history for myself.  My great-grandfather was an LAPD officer in the 1930’s.  So, when I was asked to be part of the “Robert Kirkman & Jason Howard’s Super Dinosaur Takes Over Natural History Museum in LA”, I was absolutely on board for my husband and I to take the youngest of my four kids, Safiyah, who turns three in January.

The event had coloring activities for the kids, who all received free Super Dinosaur lunchbox (Safiyah won’t part ways with it now) and a Super Dinosaur Coloring Book. Super Dinosaurwas shown in their theater every 30 minutes.  Unbeknownst to NHMLA, I found this to be a great opportunity to test my toddler’s ability to sit still through any type of movie, which she did, and I thank the animators for their part.

My favorite part was watching her eyes open wide looking at the lifelike exhibits and I think it’s cute that she still talks about dinosaurs days later with an occasional “roar”.

It has become one of my favorite things to do in Los Angeles-just be a tourist and visit the places that make living in this city such an educational and unique experience.  We do have representations of so many backgrounds here and true history.  As citizens of the city, we should be advocating for more in-house enjoyment of what the city has to offer.

Last school year, I homeschooled my two middle schoolers, and I felt so fortunate to have a list of options in museums and exhibits that tour here.  It was a different experience for them because I had removed the distraction of kids and goofing off and replaced with it with active conversations about what we were observing and how it impacted us.  Now this may sound slightly “soft”, but knowledge is power and these experiences and opportunities to gain perspectives will contribute to their understanding of the world and our history.  Now admittedly, they might not always cherish or appreciate it now, but don’t count yourself out on being inspired yourself.  I personally have had multiple moments of true epiphany as a result of my love of museums, and it is something that I highly suggest with or without kids.

I never thought I would love living in LA, but holy cow, do I not only love it, it’s home and I was honored to have been invited and have the opportunity to show support for Super Dinosaur and NHMLA.

Opinion piece Contributed by Unsugarcoated Media:  Aalia Lanius