Jurassic Park Exhibition

It's New Year's Day, and we sort of spiced things up with a visit to Jurassic World!  This was a Christmas present left at the fireplace, a promise of an adventure to come, just a little bit after our trip to Tennessee.  This was literally the last day of the exhibition, and we chose New Year's Day rather than yesterday, just to avoid all the chaos of New Year's Eve.  In fact, I suppose everyone was asleep or eating with family today, because the roads were really quiet.  Despite the fact that this was in Atlanta, there was really not much to talk about in regards to traffic.  So off we went - Maddie and I wore our green "Lost World" shirts that Daniel made for us with the KidPak series a few years ago.  

And soon we were there, arriving at the entrance, ready to go.  It was just a short wait... and we posed for a picture first, the one you see at the top.  We opted for the picture where we were all looking terrified, and it came out really super fun!

But then we were on the ferry, ready to ride across the water to Isla Nublar.  The windows were open and waves going by out there as an instructional video prepared us for what was to come, which was actually really fun.  I'll go ahead and say it's the most fun we've had all year!

Right at the entrance, there was a Jurassic Park jeep...

Another family took this photo of us (and we took a picture of them) with the jeep, which was pretty cool. But things were about to get even more photogenic.

Right away, we met a huge brachiosaurus, dipping his head down to greet us!  We had such a great time here, taking pictures learning a bit, and just marveling at some of the sights.  

Hey look, it's Stiggy!  The containment unit this dinosaur is in kept shaking and getting bumped about - surely everything will be okay, right?  I mean, he's not going to get out, right?

We've had trouble with a pachycephhlosaurus before, so we were glad this dinosaur stayed put inside the box.

Ah!  The research lab!  This is where scientists got so preoccupied with what they could do, they didn't stop to consider what they should do.  Which is a moral theme preached in the movie that quite a few scientists today completely ignore.

The pieces of amber where mosquitos that have the blood of dinosaurs inside, preserved and ready to use in creating new dinosaurs.  The lab was a fun little area that added to the atmosphere of the place.  We spent some time here looking, reading, learning a few things, and enjoying the walk around.

We were looking at the eggs, and inside the eggs too - seeing what dinosaurs were about to hatch.  This is where scientists got so preoccupied with what they could do, they didn't stop to consider what they should do.  Which is a moral theme preached in the movie that quite a few scientists today completely ignore.

Maddie does some hands-on research studying some dino ...droppings?  Droppings?

Uh-oh!  Delta, Echo and Charlie are here, nuzzled in and watching us carefully as we walk by.  The cages they're in actually shake as they shift and test their containment units for weaknesses!  

One is missing!  Who's that?  Oh, it's Blue.  Wonder where Blue is?  

Maddie tries her skills as a raptor handler.  Not bad, kid!  Let's take off those restrainers there and see how you do, okay?  Just let me back up about three miles here...

There's Blue!  Does this dinosaur look familiar?  They did a great job with this portion of the exhibition, as a handler came out to do a bit of a demonstration with Blue here.  It was dark and pretty thrilling for the younger ones in the audience, who were definitely a little intimidated!

So yes, we got to meet a baby dinosaur, this one named Bumpy.

When we were at KidPak with our "Lost World" series, we had a baby dinosaur too, so it was neat to see some of the same ideas here as what we tried out at Kidpak.

Mom and Maddie enjoyed saying hello to Bumpy!  Seriously, this entire exhibit was done so well.  

Maddie is seen here, using a brush to push away sand that's covering a possible dinosaur fossil or footprint.  She's getting pretty good at this, as she's done this a few times before!

Then we were led to the room that had an Indominus Rex in it.  And he was quite scary indeed!

Fortunately, we were able to scoot away from there in a gyrosphere!  This one made for a great photo op that we enjoyed sitting in.  

Maddie and I sat in one next, looking sharp in our "Lost World" t-shirts.  

Uh-oh!  What is it that we've spotted?  The alarms were going off, and there was one dinosaur that was able to escape from his containment!  I wonder which one it was?

This was honestly the most thrilling part of the entire exhibition.  A fully animatronic T-Rex, life-sized and just terrifying.  It was so awesome!  This thing stomped in and roared - it was amazing.

We escaped with our lives!  Fleeing in terror, everyone got out of there... and straight to the gift shop.

This amazing headwear is of a dinosaur taking a bite of someone's head.  Oh, and here's where we bought that picture of the three of us, the one at the top.  There were plenty of other things here, and some of them were pretty cool - including postcard lithographs, a pretty nice book, and a t-shirt that said:  "RUUUUUUUUUN!"  

We loved this.  It was so great that when we got home tonight, we popped in the movie "Jurassic World," and I think our course is set for the next week with dinosaur movies.  It's been a while since we've seen that one, so we were happy to sit and watch it together before bed.

But before getting home, we stopped at Texas Roadhouse and had an excellent dinner.  Our steaks were cooked just right, medium rare and so delicious.  Maddie usually gets the chicken dinner with lots of hot sauce.  It was a nice meal together, one of the last big meals before our fasting starts.

We got home and relaxed a good bit, and then there was that movie.  I was on the treadmill for day one of 2024, starting the latest challenges in Australia.  We read from Genesis 24, and fed the sea monkeys their weekly meal - there are four still in there, and they don't show signs of slowing down.  Mom saw a new bird outside, a starling, and the rest of the birds were out there, ravenous as always.  It's a big crowd!  It's bitter cold out there, so we weren't out in it much at all.  Not intentionally!

There was some laundry and cleaning up to do, but it was a quiet remainder to the day.  This year roared in though, just like a dinosaur!

Tonight before bed we read, and we prayed, giving thanks for another wonderful adventure of a day.