I am not sure what started it, but Rowan has been a little more than obsessed with dinosaurs for the past few months. She has bedtime books on CD that involve dinosaurs, lots of play figure dinosaurs, dinosaur computer games, dinosaur shirts, books and games. Its all dino all the time around here lately. So when we heard that the new OMSI exhibit is the displayed fossil of "Samson", one of the most complete T-Rex skeletons in existence we knew we had to take her.
Rowan keeps saying how she wishes that dinosaurs were alive today, but standing below the skeleton of this colossal beast makes me glad that they aren't! Samson was HUGE. According to OMSI, Sampson probably weighed abut 6 tons, stood as tall as a two story building, and was about 40 feet long.
It was pretty amazing to see up close, and to think about what life must have been like when these creatures roamed the earth. It would have been amazing to observe...from a safe distance of course!
Sampson's skull was too heavy to be displayed on the skeleton, so they had a resin cast up there instead. The real skull was nearby in a large case, which was neat because you could better appreciate the size of it. I think Rowan could have comfortably fit inside its mouth!
There were a lot of puncture wounds on the skull, near the jaws and the left eye. The signs said that the wounds likely came from a fight with another Tyrannosaurus. Some of the teeth were in the case as well, and many of them were as big as my hand. It was really quite the site to see, Rowan and Killian were both in awe of just how big it really was.
OMSI had another new exhibit going on called "Space - A Journey To Our Future". There was a shuttle that the kids could get into and pretend they were blasting off to space:
And some crazy bike powered centrifuge ride that the kids went on. Its supposed to simulate the physiological challenges of space flight. The kids loved it, but I felt like throwing up just watching them spin around in a dizzying circle.
Rowan was actually too small to go on the ride, but they let her go anyways. Thanks nice OMSI ride operators! She couldn't touch the petals, but she didn't seem to care. She did look a little green when she got off though...must take after her mama! On our way out of the space exhibit, the kids posed as astronauts. Maybe some day in their lifetimes space travel will be common place for everyone!
Our last stop of the day was the ball pit area. We spent a lot of time here collecting blue bouncy balls and shooting them through various tubes all around the room. While about 30 other people did the same thing....it got pretty wild in there!
I am glad we were able to take Rowan to see a real live T-Rex-a-saurus. It totally made her day!
Rowan keeps saying how she wishes that dinosaurs were alive today, but standing below the skeleton of this colossal beast makes me glad that they aren't! Samson was HUGE. According to OMSI, Sampson probably weighed abut 6 tons, stood as tall as a two story building, and was about 40 feet long.
It was pretty amazing to see up close, and to think about what life must have been like when these creatures roamed the earth. It would have been amazing to observe...from a safe distance of course!
Sampson's skull was too heavy to be displayed on the skeleton, so they had a resin cast up there instead. The real skull was nearby in a large case, which was neat because you could better appreciate the size of it. I think Rowan could have comfortably fit inside its mouth!
There were a lot of puncture wounds on the skull, near the jaws and the left eye. The signs said that the wounds likely came from a fight with another Tyrannosaurus. Some of the teeth were in the case as well, and many of them were as big as my hand. It was really quite the site to see, Rowan and Killian were both in awe of just how big it really was.
OMSI had another new exhibit going on called "Space - A Journey To Our Future". There was a shuttle that the kids could get into and pretend they were blasting off to space:
And some crazy bike powered centrifuge ride that the kids went on. Its supposed to simulate the physiological challenges of space flight. The kids loved it, but I felt like throwing up just watching them spin around in a dizzying circle.
Rowan was actually too small to go on the ride, but they let her go anyways. Thanks nice OMSI ride operators! She couldn't touch the petals, but she didn't seem to care. She did look a little green when she got off though...must take after her mama! On our way out of the space exhibit, the kids posed as astronauts. Maybe some day in their lifetimes space travel will be common place for everyone!
Our last stop of the day was the ball pit area. We spent a lot of time here collecting blue bouncy balls and shooting them through various tubes all around the room. While about 30 other people did the same thing....it got pretty wild in there!
I am glad we were able to take Rowan to see a real live T-Rex-a-saurus. It totally made her day!