Have you ever wondered what to do in Los Angeles when you like art and your baby likes trains? (I know, I know, this is truly a universal question.) Well never fear, my faithful readers: I have you covered, from the train-filled Travel Town Museum to Yoko Ono’s interactive exhibition at the Broad.

My husband is from the Bay Area, and we’ve taken many trips back to California in the 18 years we’ve been together. It’s been a little harder since we had our son Zachary at the end of 2023, but we finally braved the cross-country journey when he was 13 months old, and returned two more times that year.

None of those trips, however, made it down to Southern California, to see Zachary’s Aunt Raisa, my sister-in-law, in Los Angeles. So, we were very excited to finally visit her in July, when we were out there for my cousin’s wedding—and she helped us come up with a list of fun things Zachary would love. (We are saving Disneyland for when he’s a bit older, although there are actually great trains there. I also am dying to take him on the Angels Flight Railway.) As a bonus, these outings were all honestly totally enjoyable for us parents too, so I figured I would share them, whether or not your travel plans are made with a toddler’s taste in mind.

Travel Town Museum

I was shocked when we rolled up here and saw all the historic trains at this largely open-air museum. Travel Town opened in 1952 to house the Southern Pacific 3025, a 1904 steam engine that served as a high-speed passenger up and down the California coast. Admission is free, parking is free, and there is so much to see, including a miniature live train that circles the grounds and costs $4 for adults and $3 for children. The oldest train is from 1864 and is called the Mariposa. She came to California by boat, sailing around Cape Horn, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet, and helped complete the Transcontinental Railroad.

If you go, don’t forget to go inside the small station house, where a small exhibition, “The Trains Must Be Fed! Fred Harvey: Civilizer of the West,” is on view. I hadn’t heard of Harvey, but his Harvey House restaurants helped transform rail travel and inspired a movie starring Judy Garland. But what really caught my eye was the architect and designer Mary E.J. Colter. An 1891 graduate of the California School of Design, she worked for the Fred Harvey Company from 1902 until 1948, designing 21 railroad hotels, restaurants, rest areas, and shops. Her best-known building, Hopi House (1905) in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park, was inspired by Native American architecture, and she employed Indigenous builders in its construction.

The Travel Town Museum is located in Griffith Park, 5200 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, California. 

Griffith Park & Southern Railroad

Travel Town is on the north edge of Griffith Park. If you head to the southeast corner of the park, you can also ride trains at the Griffith Park & Southern Railroad. There are no historic trains here, but the route is twice as long and definitely more interesting than the one at Travel Town, which simply circles the train yard twice. Here, for the same price ($4 for adults and $3 for children), you ride for over a mile, including through a tunnel, a forest, and even a very cute recreation of an Old Western town. It’s been in operation for 73 years!

This is not a must-do, but it’s cute, and parking was free. If you have a young train lover in your life, I am sure it will be a hit, especially combined with Travel Town. (Believe it or not, Griffith Park is also home to a third miniature live train attraction, the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum, which we had to miss as it is only open on Sundays, weather permitting.)

The Griffith Park & Southern Railroad is located in Griffith Park, 4400 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California.

Choo Choo Revue! at Bob Baker Marionette Theater

I already wrote at length in my last newsletter about this incredible new production at the longest continuously running puppet theater in the United States. The marionettes are all hand-crafted sculptures, meticulously engineered to dance across the stage to classic songs and show tunes. Zachary loved this train-themed show so much, he started to cry when it ended. Part of that was because he thought he was actually going to get to ride a train, but this was absolutely a great time, for kids and adults alike!

Descanso Railroad and “Botanical Dinosaurs” at Descanso Gardens

We came to Descanso Gardens because we heard it was a beautiful botanical garden with miniature live trains. Unfortunately, the electric train was on the fritz while we were there, and we only got to ride partway down the line before it broke down. But we loved the beautiful grounds, which are full of gorgeous flowers and even a few turtles. The highlight, however, was unexpectedly encountering the incredible botanical sculptures of Applied Imagination of Alexandria, Kentucky, throughout the model railroad.

The company has been building New York City miniatures out of plant parts for the “Holiday Train Show” at the New York Botanical Garden since 1991. After years as an admirer, I finally profiled their incredible work for Artnet News last year. At Descanso Gardens, I loved seeing their larger scale dinosaurs, crafted from driftwood, fungus, pine cones, coffee beans, and various kinds of bark, among other materials collected from shrubs, trees, and flowers.

“Botanical Dinosaurs” is on view at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Dr, La Cañada Flintridge, California, May 28–December 31, 2026. 

“Yoko Ono Music of the Mind” at the Broad Museum

I was a little worried when we walked into this show and were met by a selection of Yoko Ono’s “Instructions for Paintings,” which are short, poetic descriptions of commonplace actions she invites you to reconsider as artworks. (Example: “Lighting Piece: light a match and watch till it goes out.”) Nathan and Zachary started jetting ahead into the next gallery, and I knew I was at risk of losing my audience.

But then there was a large sheet of paper tacked on the wall that you could draw on with graphite, and a room covered with notes written by visitors about their mothers, titled My Mommy Is Beautiful (2004). Another piece, Painting to Hammer a Nail (1961/1966), involved nailing something you had with you to the painting. (We used an old Charlie Card from the Boston subway.) And outside, the peaceful grove of olives designed by landscape architect Walter Hood of Oakland’s Hood Design Studio has become Wish Trees for Los Angeles (1996), the branches rustling with paper scraps proclaiming the hopes and dreams of visitors.

The best part, however, was Ono’s piece Add Color (Refugee Boat), from 1960/2016. Zachary spent the better part of an hour roaming around the room, drawing on the floors and walls with blue and white markers. He especially liked climbing into the small rowboat in the center of the formerly white room, which had been transformed by layer upon layer of visitors’ drawings. (Nathan added his own touch in the form of a tribute to the Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme.) This was such a fun, engaging exhibition, and an incredibly fitting celebration of a great artist’s groundbreaking career.

I should also note that my kid loved Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, which is on permanent view at the museum! And we also couldn’t miss Robert Therrien‘s Under the Table.

“Yoko Ono Music of the Mind” is on view at the Broad, 221 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California, May 23–October 11, 2026.

Chris Burden at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

There was no way I was going to be in Los Angeles without checking out the long-awaited expansion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, regardless of how much toddler appeal it had. (My one sentence review: incredible works of art, but the open floor plan made for lots of backtracking to see everything, and there was tons of glare from all the windows.) It was only when I arrived that I remembered that Chris Burden had not one but two works of art there on long-term view that I am pretty sure any two-year-old would love.

Outside on Wilshire Boulevard sits Burden’s Urban Light (2008), one of the world’s most famous and beloved works of public art. The piece is a forest of 202 vintage cast iron lamps the artist collected, restored, and painted gray. I am happy to report that Zachary loved running through it (and photobombing people).

But the real hit was definitely Burden’s Metropolis II (2010), a 30-foot-wide kinetic sculpture featuring some 11,000 toy cars racing along an 18-lane road surrounded by 25 towering model skyscrapers. Building this masterpiece took a nine-person team working full time for five and a half years! Sadly, the piece remains dormant on Mondays and Tuesdays for conservation work, so we didn’t get to see this marvel in action, the cars speeding through the crowded streets at the scale equivalent of 240 miles per hour. But Zachary could still tell that it was amazing. It was really, really hard to drag him away—which means it will be at the top of our list for our next visit.

LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. 

Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier

Our first stop after landing was to get a burrito. Our second stop was the Santa Monica Pier for the Pacific Park Ferris wheel. I am realizing now that ride tickets are significantly discounted if you buy them online, so that is definitely the way to go—but Zachary was small enough to ride the Ferris wheel with us for free! He was too small, on the other hand, for the West Coaster roller coaster, but he loved watching the classic car-style ride zip by, roaring overhead and weaving through the other attractions.

Zachary was also excited to kick his shoes off and visit the “sandbox”—aka sit on the beach next to the boardwalk and play. (This made me wonder where they are taking him during daycare, and if there is a sandbox in the neighborhood, as we’ve never taken him to one?) If we hadn’t been straight off the plane, it would have been awesome to change into our swimsuits and take a dip—or even stop into the Heal the Bay Aquarium—but it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon regardless.

The Santa Monica Pier is located at 200 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California. 

Museum of Neon Art

Neon signs are an art medium I normally don’t give much thought to, but this museum has a truly impressive collection of historic signs, many from long-gone Los Angeles businesses, as well as neon sculptures by contemporary neon artists. Highlights include Larry Albright’s Sand’s Hotel Model, which has the smallest neon tubing in the world at just two millimeters in diameter, as well as large, billboard-sized examples.

The staff was super friendly and eager to try and explain the science behind these glowing artworks, which feature glass tubes filled with rarefied gases. Different ones, such as helium, argon, and yes, neon, will create different colors. As an added bonus for Zachary, there was one elaborate neon sign of a steam engine, created by neon artist Peter Whiteley as his swan song in the medium and meant to feature the full spectrum of colors possible in neon signage. We spent the visit only vaguely terrified that Zachary would smash the fragile glass signs.

The Museum of Neon Art is located at 216 South Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California.

The Ballerina Clown

We also visited one of the most quirky sights in the Los Angeles area: Jonathan Borofsky‘s 1989 public sculpture Ballerina Clown, also known as Clownerina. It’s mounted on the façade of an apartment building in Venice, and is utterly bizarre. He has a giant head with clown makeup and a red nose, and wears a gray tutu, a blue bustier, white gloves, and a red hat and toe shoes. Originally, the artwork was kinetic, periodically kicking its bent knee.

There was some concern earlier this year when the CVS below the clown announced that it would shut down in July. I am happy to be able to allay any fears about the statue’s future. My upstairs neighbor here in New York also happens to own the penthouse unit next to the clown, and is on the board of the housing association, which owns the sculpture. She assured me that the clown is here to stay, even with the CVS shuttering. Zachary and I were able to inspect the clown from her roof, where I saw that birds have made their nest behind his torso. I also asked her if the clown will ever turn back on: “Never. It’s too noisy.”

Clownerina is on view at 255 Rose Avenue, Venice, California. 

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