La Brea Tar Pits

When I first moved to Los Angeles, oh... back in 1996?... one of the first places my parents took me was to the La Brea Tar Pits. It was so fascinating I haven't been back since. I just didn't have a reason to go. Now I have kids and I get to drag them where ever I want to in the name of education. So today we drove the twenty minutes out there and saw the largest excavation site with a metropolitan area. We had a blast. The weather was perfect! We toured the outdoor park first. The kids, as usual, were more fascinated with the vegetation and bug life around us than what they were really supposed to be interested in. Once, while looking at a big pool of "mud", I explained what was neat about the tar (this was before we went in the museum). Kaeley said, "Wow! Cool! Look, Mom, a spider's web!" She was thrilled beyond words that she got to see a torn up spider's web with a trapped fruit fly.

She did, however, get more interested in the large pool of tar and the statues of the stone mammoths. She began asking if fish lived in it and what the bubbles were from. I told her to remember her questions and we would find someone inside the museum to ask.

Once inside Kaeley spotted a tour guide with a small group of college-aged adults. She graciously found her way to the front of the group, stood there waiting a time to ask her question, and actually followed them around for a little while. She was quite a sight standing next to these large people. However, she gave up and didn't ask her question.

Later we found a super kid-friendly tour guide who was "lecturing" whoever wanted to listen about sabertooth tigers. It was a very interesting talk and the kids were riveted. After the talk Kaeley was able to ask him and learn that it was gas.

Her favorite part was learning about how people worked in all that black sticky goo to carefully bring out bones and how they cleaned them and cataloged them. Nathan liked the animatronics and the outdoor aviary which housed coy fish and turtles.

After the museum we had a lovely picnic lunch outside in which we dined on Cheerios Chex Mix and Chef Boyardee from a thermos.

Of course, we had to bring something home with us, right? Leave it to Nathan to come home with tar on his shoes, overalls, and hand.