So have you been to the L.A. County Natural History Museum in Exposition Park? I had not been there for years, maybe even 30 years. When the kids and I went there today, I was reminded of what a great place it is for kids and adults.
First of all, it’s everything you imagine a great urban museum should be--a cool old building, grand rotundas with marble walls, huge exhibit halls, floors polished to a high shine. The first things we saw when we walked in were giant replicas of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops fossils. The kids were won over, right there. Then there were the standard, but still cool, exhibit halls of all natural history museums filled with gems, Native American artifacts, stuffed animals in their “natural” habitats. On the bottom floor there’s a Discovery Center for kids filled with hands-on exhibits, along with an insect zoo that has every creepy crawly you never wanted to see.
The best thing about our day was talk given by a docent at the museum about a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Thomas. During this talk, a life-size, very realistic puppet of a Thomas came out to be part of the demonstration. Thomas grunted, snarled, and stared at all of us like we were prey. I noticed Ryan at one point curled up on the floor hiding his eyes, while Lauren scrambled near me and clutched my arm. The whole presentation was fascinating and scary, and the docent did a fabulous job acting and pretending to be nervous while teaching us about T-Rexes. Kudos to the museum staff for this show!
It was a great way to spend a dreary day in L.A!
First of all, it’s everything you imagine a great urban museum should be--a cool old building, grand rotundas with marble walls, huge exhibit halls, floors polished to a high shine. The first things we saw when we walked in were giant replicas of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops fossils. The kids were won over, right there. Then there were the standard, but still cool, exhibit halls of all natural history museums filled with gems, Native American artifacts, stuffed animals in their “natural” habitats. On the bottom floor there’s a Discovery Center for kids filled with hands-on exhibits, along with an insect zoo that has every creepy crawly you never wanted to see.
The best thing about our day was talk given by a docent at the museum about a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Thomas. During this talk, a life-size, very realistic puppet of a Thomas came out to be part of the demonstration. Thomas grunted, snarled, and stared at all of us like we were prey. I noticed Ryan at one point curled up on the floor hiding his eyes, while Lauren scrambled near me and clutched my arm. The whole presentation was fascinating and scary, and the docent did a fabulous job acting and pretending to be nervous while teaching us about T-Rexes. Kudos to the museum staff for this show!
It was a great way to spend a dreary day in L.A!
2 comments:
Sounds & looks like a wonderful place. I really like how it has hands on stuff for the kids to touch.
Lauren looks so tall!! what fun!
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