My son and I took off on a dinosaur adventure for a few days. I decided long ago that he and I would have special trips together in the fall. I think it’s important that he and I spend time alone together, to talk and sing and laugh and sometimes cry. He’s my only child. I want our relationship to be strong and meaningful. We’ve had an interesting summer full of chaos, so I thought it would be a good time to get away.
The thing is….I’ve never traveled alone a long distance with him before. So I was really nervous. Just about driving. About staying in motels by ourselves. About having flat tires. About crazy people abducting us. But away we went.
We stayed the first night in Rock Springs, not an awesome dino destination, but we have very good friends that lent us a bed for the night and let my son use their treadmill and it was only a couple hour drive for our destination the next day (I tried to only drive between 3 and 4 hours a day) So that morning we stopped at the college in Rock Springs because we had heard about all the dinosaurs there. They were awesome. And they even had a place to eat!
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Our first stop in Dinosaur Land (That’s what they really call that part of Utah) was Vernal, Utah. It was a magical place for my son. There were dinosaurs every where we looked. Our first stop was the Western Heritage Museum. I’m not sure why they call it that, but it’s full of dinosaurs. It’s where my son earned his peewee paleo badge. He was so proud. The building is all glass and the dinos in the garden outside look as if they are looking in… ready to pounce. It was awesome and an excellent learning experience.
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Our next stop was Dinosaur national monument. There is a dinosaur quarry there that is not quite open to the public (which I knew before we went) but you are able to go on a little guided tour to see fossils. The park ranger we were with was clearly intimidated by my child. He kept correcting her. (she was young and had her lines memorized and five year olds tend to get them out of their groove) It was kind of amusing. It was hot and hard to see anything, but I did learn what a trace fossil was.
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We ate at dinosaur cookeries. We slept in dinosaur motels. We jumped on all the beds. We bought all the toys and hats and t-shirts. And then we went to a small town drive in theatre in our dinosaur jammies. It was sooooo much better than a big city one. It was the kind I used to go to as a kid, only it was a newer movie being played (Smurfs, which if you are my age (29 :)) you would have some awesome flash backs to your childhood. It was a great day. Thanks Vernal Utah for being our first stop!!!
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What an awesome adventure!
I love this post Stacey!!! My fav so far. What a great mom you are, and what a great time parker must have had. I have tears in my eyes. I love it!