He Made It!

After driving nearly non-stop since Saturday afternoon, and stopping for a good 18 hours in Chicago to attend his uncle's funeral (may he rest in peace), Gus finally made it to the new house. He's tired, the house is dirty, and he will basically be camping for a few days... but he made it, and that's one thing I can stop worrying about. That is quite a drive... over 3,000 miles in four days. I am guessing he probably won't be wanting to do that again anytime soon!
(side note: I put in San Diego as the starting point, and it looks like he started in Tijuana. haha!)

Meanwhile, we spent the morning at a dinosaur museum that's not too far away, in the town where my grandparents used to live. I can remember that this huge reservoir was in the process of being excavated years ago when I visited them there. Well, it turned out that they uncovered all sorts of ice age-era fossils when they were digging! Lots of mastodons, mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and giant sloths. So this museum was built next to the reservoir to house all the cool artifacts. They have actual dinosaur stuff, too, even though this whole area was underwater during the cretaceous period.

At any rate, the kids really enjoyed it! There was a fun simulation game where you were randomly assigned a dinosaur, and then you had to keep it alive by avoiding predators, finding appropriate food, etc. I kept our triceratops alive, thankfully, though my dad reported that the t-rex was more challenging. :)

Both kids also enjoyed the replica t-rex skull, which they were allowed to touch. Maya got really close and touched its teeth, but Nikos was actually a little scared. And the t-rex is his all-time favorite dinosaur! Still, it was pretty big, so I can see why it might be frightening for him.

After that, we went into a room with all the skeletons. Maya was having a blast, but Nikos got pretty quiet. They both, however, loved this one station where they could "dig for artifacts" like an archaeologist. They also made their own clay "fossils" using the molds provided, and did some crayon rubbings. Really, it was pretty neat and totally kid-friendly. Nikos cried when we left, though I think it might have been mostly because he wanted toy dinos from the gift shop. Crazy kid!

Anyway, it was a good day, and I am tired... not as tired as Gus, though! Here's hoping he gets a good night's sleep and has a productive day tomorrow!