Friday night, Mike and I went to the Verizon Center to see the show: Walking with Dinosaurs. I heard him mention this show before and had no idea what he was talking about until I was emailed discount tickets via Goldstar.com (it’s great!). After seeing a video on YouTube and watching kids and parents both ooh! and ahh!, we decided to go.

Did you know parking at Gallery Place is $25 now? The money we saved on discount tickets was about to get spent, fast! Anyway, on to the show…

When the show opened, a guy in a safari-type outfit entered the stage and introduced himself as a “paleontologist”– he was an actor that I SWEAR I’ve seen on TV somewhere, but where?

Anyway, the host–I mean, the paleontologist–described the different dinosaur ages and the different types of dinosaurs that existed during those times, while life-sized dinosaurs trotted out onto the stage, looking perplexed at the audience watching them, eating food (which consisted of other dinosaurs) and taking care of their young.

There were even a few jokes made about the size of the dinosaur’s poop!

The dinosaurs were incredibly lifelike! The kids were amazed…and so were we. I mean, what is their skin made of? How do they control their arms, tails and super long necks?

One of the coolest things about the show was learning that for millions and millions of years, there were no flowers. There were plants and there was vegetation, but no blooms. The show’s vegetation came in the form of lit air-pumped plastic around the edges of the platform.

First you don’t see it…

…then you do!

See how small the host is, in the lower right? And HOW is that neck controlled??

Of course, they saved Tyrannosaurus Rex for last, dramatically introducing him by silhouette first, behind the curtain, and the paleontologist announced his entrance like a WWF wrestler.

“TYYYYRANNOSAURUSSSSSSS REXXXXX!!”

He was frightening! He roared into the faces of children in the front row, so turns out, those were the best seats after all! They were terrified! Which means the show was a job well done!

Then, we meandered through the crowds of children begging their parents to buy souvenirs in the lobby, stuffed dinosaurs, tails, dinosaur hats, tote bags, toys, etc. Bah! Stopped at Old Siam for some Pineapple Fried Rice to enjoy 🙂