LA Native: Touring my Hometown: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is one of the museums within Exposition Park, a stones throw from The University of Southern California. They are open seven days a week from 9:30am to 5pm except for New Years Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Ticket prices for adults are $12, but there are cheaper prices for students, seniors, and kids. Museum members, California Teachers, active military, and USC students (except on a game day) can get in for free. There is also free admission on "Free Tuesdays," which is what I took advantage of. While admission is free, if you are driving you need to pay $10 to park. If you would like to use mass transit, a really good idea, take the Expo Line to the Expo Park/USC stop.

I arrived around 10am on the Free Tuesday day for February. Early on, it was very quiet. Around 11am, it got very busy, and the school groups arrived, and there were kids everywhere. If you would prefer to be there when its a little more empty, the museum recommends arriving after 2pm.

The Diorama rooms I remember as a child are still there, including the African Mammal room, North American Mammal room and the Bird room.

New, at least for me, is the Dinosaur Hall and the Dino Lab. The Dinosaur halls were filled with excited children. The Dino Lab was on the ground floor, away from most everything else. The Dino Lab is "a fully functional preparation lab staffed by paleontologists from the Dinosaur Institute." Basically, you can watch paleontologists prepare fossils for display or research.