Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits

Baby M is going through a dinosaur phase. He has dinosaurs on his pajamas, reads dinosaur books and has become obsessed with the show Dinosaur Train on PBS (combining the two universal toddler passions, trains and dinosaurs. Genius!) So, this week I decided to take him to the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits to see some real dinosaurs, or more accurately Ice Age mammals. This was a miscalculation on my part because Woolly Mammoths and Saber Tooth Tigers really don't have much in common with Brontosauruses, but Baby M was happy to be going to the "Dinosaur Museum" all the same.

We've visited Hancock Park and run around the tar pits plenty of times, but had never ventured into the Page Museum. I paid the $7 entrance fee (Baby M, being under 5 was free) and we wandered around looking at the giant skeletons, the animatronic mammoth and the wall of wolf skulls. Most of the exhibits were too complicated for Baby M, but he liked running around shouting "Mommy, look at that!" He also enjoyed walking through the atrium and watching the turtles.

Then we decided to check out the 10 minute movie "Treasures of the La Brea Tar Pits." This was another miscalculation on my part. Most of the film is animated, but it shows, in detail, exactly how all those animals got stuck in the tar pits. A panicked horse, stuck in the tar pit, is pounced upon by a snarling Saber Tooth Tiger. The tiger is soon joined by a pack of wolves, all feasting on the struggling horse. There may have been squirting blood. I can't remember, but it was definitely more violent than I was comfortable with. A few of the predators fall in the pit and the scene ends with their carcasses being picked over by vultures. Baby M seemed more confused than disturbed. "What happened to the horse, Mommy?" he kept asking through the remainder of the movie. Even once we were outside strolling past the tar pits he kept looking for that horse. After repeated explanations from me he finally concluded "the horse got stuck in the water pit," which he reported somberly to his father later that evening. Hopefully he is not scarred for life.