Dinosaur State Park, CT

 This was actually the back-up plan in case of bad weather or if the kids didn't want to drive any further. We went here because of situation #2.
It was still a really fun place, and since we arrived later in the day we had the school/activity room to ourselves.

 It's not like I shoved him into the dinosaur.

 Lots of trails to run around. They planted some plants around that look like plants from dinosaur time.

 Still whining

 Follow the tracks into the exhibit- no tracks leading back out.

 Seperate display of the type of animal that most likely made the tracks.

 So, these are actual tracks that were found in 1966. The interesting thing is that wherever tracks are found you won't find fossils and vice versa. The conditions needed to preserve tracks will cause skeletons to decompose.

The museum and arboretum was built over the top of the tracks.

I was thrilled to find a whole section about rock layers and classification to go along with this year's Earth Science studies. Yay learning.

 This room was for school groups or whatever. There was something for each of the kids and we spent a long time here.
You could make fossil book marks, color tons of dinosaur pictures, play with dinosaurs, dress like a dinosaur, examine real fossils and see what they really were and check out some real reptiles in cages.

 The room had tons of fossils laying in these trays- which surprised me- some looked kind of valuable. So, the kids would handle them and try to guess what each one was. Then they'd flip through the book and see what it really was. My favorite was the petrified dinosaur poop. They were so grossed out.