Vacation -- day ...uh...whatever, I'm on vacation!

So, it all started off all fun and exciting.  We woke up early and planned on spending the day out at Fort Edmonton, which is just an area in the city that's been trapped in a time warp -- different eras of my fine city.  They have pony rides, an old time carnival and all sorts of other thins.  BUT...(there's always a but, isn't there?) -- hubby got called into work (yes, on his vacation) for a meeting with the big wigs and was gone "for an hour or so" (read, 3 hours) -- by the time he came back, there was no point in going...so we changed plans and went to this funky place called Jurassic Forest.

First of all, it's outside of Edmonton...we used GPS to find it -- but the GPS was wrong.  What should have taken us maybe 20 minutes to find took us nearly 1 1/2 hours.  (if hubby had listened to me, it would have taken us 25 minutes, but nooooo....)  Anyhow we eventually found it - and it is absolutely amazing.

It's 100% outdoors.  There is this fabulous pathway all through the forest that can easily accommodate strollers, wheel chairs or walkers (and we saw all three on our trip).  Along the path way there are little sign posts, much like in a museum talking about each dinosaur, but there are also ones that talk about the local flora/fauna and information on animals (like bees, squirrels, birds, etc) as well as on forest life (decomposition and so forth) -- not only is it very interesting to read all of these things, it's very neat to see them right there in the park.  The pathway is set up so that it's not disturbing the forest, it's a kind of "floating" pathway and it allows the plants and animals to grow/move all around it.

As if the signs and stuff weren't enough -- they have these guides who are walking randomly along the paths.  I think that they ensure that you don't go out into the forest, but they are also major sources of information - "did you know that this dinosaur is actually the earliest mammal on record?  It still laid eggs, but it's skeletal composition resembles mammals more than reptiles"  or  "When we studied this dinosaur's intestinal tract, we actually discovered that it ate only (insert type of plant) while we thought that it ate (insert name of different plant)."  They were really cool.  I was expecting these people to not know much about dinosaurs -- but they are actual paleontologists who are here...very cool!

Finally, these dinosaurs move people.  They blink, their eyes roll in their sockets, they lay eggs, their tails swing, they scream and roar....it's astounding!!

They also have a concession stand (that I didn't bother looking at), a picnic area (nicely shaded among the trees) a park for the children to play in (that's still not quite set up yet, but none the less, is very cool) and little areas all along the walking path to sit and take a little break.  They have a north and south loop right now (takes about 1.5 hours to walk them both) and they are apparently planning on adding a third loop as well.  There are spaces where you can tell there will be new dinos added and quite a few (as of yet) empty signposts -- but all in all, this place was very cool!  I will definitely be going again, and think that I will be making more than a few field trips with the dayhome kids out there, too!  If you're in my area, check it out!