Dinosaur State Park

As we found ourselves this morning in central Connecticut, I realized that we were near one of the most exciting places in the country: Dinosaur State Park.  Of course we had to visit.

On the drive there, Madeline napped; we waited in the parking lot for her to wake up.

The park's museum is a geodesic dome.

We were excited to be there!

The dome was built over a bunch of fossilized early-Jurassic footprints discovered in 1966.  Madeline was impressed.

I tried to explain the footprint to her -- it has toes just like she does.

Madeline was most excited by the 1980s-era model dinosaurs (here, coelophysis).

But she kept going back to the tracks themselves.

The tracks are attributed to an unknown species labelled grallator, thought most likely to be dilophosaurs like the one modeled here.  Madeline is making tracks of her own.

Madeline is saying, "Even though this model is more true-to-life than the movie-version dilophosaurus from Jurassic Park, it still has bunny hands!  Overall, though, it appears to be quite accurate for the 1980s."

After that, again, she went back to the tracks.

At the end of the exhibits came an activity room, where Madeline got to feel real fossils -- fish, plants, and shells.  Her favorites seemed to be shark teeth embedded in rock.

The park also includes some hiking trails.  Most were closed due to damage, but the red trail was open.  (Note that Madeline somehow found a new friend in the meantime!)

Madeline enjoyed the golden-brown leaves, a significant change from yesterday's rainforest.

The trail ended with a chart depicting the evolution of life over hundreds of millions of years.

About an hour and a half later, we were back in Providence.  We've been busy trying to get ourselves back into the mindset of home.  For her part, Madeline seems to have decided that home means she'd rather not sleep.  She just went back down, though, and I think I'll follow...