A Pocket Full of Posey's: T-Rex Museum err..store, Tucson, Az

Last weekend we went to the T-Rex Museum in Tucson. I found it a few months ago while searching for fun things to do. I got really excited when I found it since the kids, especially Hayden has been really into dinosaurs lately. The website told us of all the great fun we would have digging up fossils in the sand pit, playing in the water sluice, digging for real gems and even breaking open a real Geode. There was even a movie and popcorn and we got to keep everything we found. Sounds great and like a lot of fun, right? The whole experience is supposed to last about 2 hours.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and we get there to find not really a museum but rather a store operating under "museum". Everything in there was for sale and when I say everything I mean everything. It was a tiny little place in a strip mall. Anyway, we go in and they give us a little bag of popcorn and set us down to watch a 30 minute movie. It was about some guy and his search for dinosaurs. I don't know the name of the movie as they never told us that but, if I did know the name I wouldn't recommend it. After the movie the kids when to this raised sand box rectangle that was sectioned into 8 different sections. This is where they got to "dig" for fossils. They were given a little plastic cup and there was a little screen attached to the middle of the rectangle to "sift" out the little fossils.

While they were sifting Hayden asked our guide if these were real or if they came from the store. The lady at first said they were real and when Hayden continued to press her she told them that they bought them. So he concluded that they were not real fossils. They both came away with 5 claws? I guess that is what they were. After that we turned around and took about 2 steps over to play in the water sluice. This is "like panning for gold" Its a wooded square with a net on the bottom, it is then filled with sand and they can shake it back and forth in the water to find the treasures. They both found a dinosaur and a few little polished rocks. After that we took a tour of the store section, basically. She was telling the kids about the different dinosaurs but we were in the store area as everything she talked about was surrounded by for sale signs.

After that they went and dusted a big rock looking for another polished rock. Then they both tried to bread a Geode with a hammer. Neither one of them was strong enough though so daddy ended up doing them both. They shattered into piece and anything that we may have found in there was destroyed.

That was the end of our trip to the T-Rex museum. It was not 2 hours like they claimed it to be. We spent all of an hour there. Including the 30 minute movie. The kids had a good time but it was definitely not worth the money they were charging. Here are a few pics from while we were there.