Labrea Tar Pits

Xander has always really been into dinosaurs, he says he is going to be a Paleontologist (I really have no idea how to spell that) when he grows up.  We thought it would be fun to go to the Labrea tar pits while we were in California. "Thought" is the operative word in that last sentence, I was actually pretty disappointed with it.  First off I didn't know that the animals that were caught in the tar were from the ice age, not the dinosaur age.  The museum was pretty much woolly mammoths and about a kajillion wolves.  It was still interesting but Xander was not feeling it, he was bored about thirty seconds in.  Second it cost us $9 to park and $34 for the four of us to get into the museum.  I think that is major overkill because most of the interesting things were outside and you didn't have to pay to walk around the grounds.  Overall I would say it was a bust, save your money and skip the tar pits is my official review.

We have a tradition that anywhere we go that there are animal statues Steven pretends to feed the kids to them.  Xander is almost getting too big for Steven to lift up like that.

Paizley isn't scared

How Xander measures up to a bear

This is what I was talking about with the grounds, you can walk up next to the big lakes of tar.  You can see in the left part of the picture that a big bubble had popped on the surface.  The tar almost looks like it's boiling, but it's just methane gas escaping.

There is a woolly mammoth statue caught in the tar

This was the coolest part I thought.  As we were walking around there were several spots where the tar was coming up in the middle of the grass.  Of course Grandpa Ross had to touch it.

This is an open excavation dig

We thought these trees were crazy

Steven, Paizley and a bear