The museum is pretty cool. It starts with life-size dioramas of archeologists or paleontologists (whichever one does the digging part) uncovering fossils.
There are quite a few dinosaurs of all varieties from trilobites to T-rexes.
Some things you can just look at, and other stuff is designed to play with. The museum really has activities and information for kids of all ages, from about three years old through about secondary school, I'd guess.
This diorama has a lot of hidden things to find, like dinosaur nests, and it shows what's happening where you can't see, like a big crocodile just below the water surface with its jaws almost clamping down on an apatosaurus's tail.
At a big water-and-sand trough with plastic dinosaurs the kids can build dams and then watch them get washed away to teach how quickly a dinosaur could be covered with sand and silt when it died, an important step in fossilization. In reality the kids just enjoy playing in the sand and water.
On the way out kids can sweep sand from dinosaur bones as a paleontologist might. (A couple of parents couldn't resist and climbed in the sandbox with the kids.)
Jackson chose a hot dog over a chicken or turkey sandwich for lunch. On the way home he said, "Now we can go to a restaurant." I said, "We already ate a hotdog." He said, "No, good food."
After the hotdog, we bought some popcorn and watched a 3D Imax dolphins-and-whales movie. Jackson said he was ready to go after about five minutes, and I fell asleep several times. The movie was a nice up-close, 3D look at different types of whales and dolphins, with a plea to save them. But there weren't even any shark attacks.
We had a good time together. Jackson is a nice guy to hang out with.
When we got back, Tanner said, "Grandpa, I want to go." I said, "Go where?" He said, "To the monster museum."
2 comments:
That museum is actually quite impressive. That used to be Caleb's favorite place. He could spend hours just digging in the sand/mud.
The sand and mud thing is awesome. You can build dams, let the water build up and put little animals down stream, and then break the dam and watch the animals get washed away . . . what fun!
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