Your prayers have been answered! LAUSD is one week closer to having the school year start after Labor Day. Which means there is an extra week of summer vacation this year. Which is awesome…and a little scary. You used up all your good stuff (beach, pool, beach again) in the first few weeks. Well, we’ve got 15 ideas that will make the last week of summer vacation the best.

photo credit: Nicole Castanada

Leave your ipad, iphone and any other screens at home and hit a new park. There’s one in Highland Park, Griffith Park, Beverly Hills or downtown.

It’s time to rock at the Skirball with the exhibit Bill Graham and the Rock n Roll Revolution. Kids can stop at the music stations, put on the headphones and soak in some great music. Or the whole family can step in  a mini theater complete with classics songs and a light show that is like stepping directly into a lava lamp.

Sure you hit the beach and the pools and even a splash pad or 4. But have you been swimming in a natural water hole?

photo credit: Churro Burough’s facebook page

Try a new ice cream. New to LA this warm season are ice cream tacos, ice cream churros, ice cream donuts, honey milk ice cream… and new August flavors at the enchantingly creative Salt & Straw.

See the biggest movie of summer. Nope, it’s not starring minions or dinosaurs or the talking voices in your head.

Get a jump on learning at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Science Center (so when they write their “what I did this summer vacation” essay in school you sound all cultured and stuff).

photo credit: Judy Park

“Shake It Off” with Taylor Swift. Even if you didn’t score tickets for her concerts at Staples at the end of the month, the whole family will enjoy the exhibit that’s been extended since everyone from toddlers to tweens (and parents) love the light-up dance floor at the Grammy Museum’s ode to Swifty.

Go camping. Or glamping. Or for a staycation in a hotel. Basically, we’re saying sleep somewhere other than your bed. Heck, a sleeping bag in your back yard works!

Go to the Bowl for a rehearsal—it’s the best free show in town.

photo credit: LeTania Kirkland

Check out a hip hood, one that just happens to have fantastic food. Choose from Chinatown or Japantown

The last Little Rancher’s Roundup takes place on Tuesday at the Leonis Adobe. This week’s theme is Fiesta on the Ranch. Giddy-up on over.

Get ready for the Emmy’s with the kids (we know you’re binge watching after they go to bed, to get ready!). Check out the FIDM exhibition of costumes from TV shows, which have a healthy dose of costumes kids will recognize and enjoy, including those from Marvel’s Agent Carter, Once Upon a Time, Peter Pan Live! and Gotham.

photo credit: LeTania Kirkland

Baseball! Majors or Minors. Or Sparks, if basketball is more your thing. Maybe soccer? Catch a pro ball game before summer disappears.

If you’ve exhausted the summer’s movie budget with multiple screenings of the Minions and Inside Out, the $1 movie mornings sound extra appealing. Or how about $5 for a day of unlimited Disney big screen screenings?

See a comet formed before your very eyes at the Griffith Observatory.

What’s on your bucket list for these last golden days of summer vacation? Let us know in the comment section.

—Meghan Rose

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