owen prefaced his comments at breakfast this morning with: "experts believe . . ." and enlightened us on the connections between birds and dinosaurs, the predatory habits of california condors and suggested a parksosaurus would make a fine pet (he's an herbivore so he wouldn't eat sierradog and not so big that he'd put a hole in the roof). this comes, of course, from careful study of dinosaur encylopedias but also from fantastic hands-on expeditions like elephant odyssey at the san diego zoo.
yesterday i joined the boys in what was originally an owen/dad trip but since i had sent off my three chapters on deadline (whoohoo!) it seemed a perfect time for a family expedition. i learned that the challenge of finding a giant trex at the natural history museum wasn't for lack of fossils-but that we see wooly mammoths and saber tooths because california has a rich abundance of fossils from the pleistocene era. when you enter the exhibit you go back - back- back in time 12 thousand years ago and stumble upon a tar pit as well as cavernous rock rich with everything from horse to flamingo fossils. i know along my twenty year educational journey this was all explained to me but there's nothing like following the lead of an inquisitive 4 year old to give life to these bits of rock and bone.
at the end of the trail is a great hands-on play area with extinct animal xrays, a fossil excavation site and the option to try on a zookeeper conservationist hat--this is probably my favorite picture:
but this crazy shot (look out for the archaeoraptor cousin!) makes me happy too:
and if spending a beautiful san diego morning over balboa park in elephant nirvana wasn't enough we met lily and jennifer at the flamingos and watched the monkeys before heading back home.
i posted my favorite pics up on FB but i also put the slideshow from our picassa off to the side, if like me, you can't possibly get enough pictures!
1 comment:
Love the pictures and video!!!
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