With a few couple of days left in California, we headed to a wildlife refuge near Bakersfield, the California Area Living Museum (acronym, of course, is CALM), and once we were back in Los Angeles, we enjoyed an afternoon at the California Science Center whose star is the space shuttle Endeavour.

Barn owl

Desert fox

A viper, like one we had seen in Costa Rica, with “eyelashes”

A restaurant/brewery that had board games. We had a dinner-long Scrabble game which mom won

Testing out physics

Mesmerizing jellyfish

Space Shuttle Endeavour – it was commissioned in 1987 (the year I was born), took its first flight on May 7, (my birthday) 1992, and enjoyed the adoring eyes of Julien for minutes on end. We had an innate connection.

As part of the tidal exhibit, we were able to go in an underwater tunnel and watch plant life, sleepy fish, and active schools rock back and forth with the current.

Science Center entrance

My cousin’s French bulldog Blue was our four-legged friend for our California lag of the trip. Next stop, Wisconsin!