A dinosaur extravaganza!

After I took Spencer to see The Fresh Beat Band at the beginning of the year I started getting emails about upcoming concerts and events all over the Phoenix area.  Back in August I got an email about Walking With Dinosaurs- The Arena Spectacular.  Even though the tickets were incredibly expensive it sounded too good to miss.  We did decide, though, that the experience would be lost on Elliott so we did not buy a ticket for him.  Instead we drove him to Mesa and left him with Dorothy for the morning.  I'm 100% certain he had a better time at her house than he would have had with us.

 

After we dropped Elliott off we drank coffee and ate breakfast burritos in the car and then drove to Phoenix so we could park the car at a park n ride lot so we could take the light rail to downtown. If you have tickets at US Airways Arena you can ride the light rail for free for 4 hours before and 4 hours after the event.  It's pretty convenient.

 

On the light rail.  We rode it for 10 minutes each way.

 

We were on the corner in the very first row available.  They were fantastic seats.

Before I go any further, let me give you the description of what the show is, from their facebook page.

 

After 65 million years they’re back!

After years of planning, the award-winning BBC TV series, Walking with Dinosaurs comes to life in a stunning theatrical event WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – The Arena Spectacular.

Internationally renowned designers have worked with scientists to create 20 life-size dinosaurs, including the terror of the ancient terrain, Tyrannosaurus-rex! Be amazed and thrilled as the greatest creatures ever to walk the earth return before your eyes.

It’s a dazzling £10,000,000 arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality set to captivate young and old alike. Marvel at the story of their 200 million year domination of life on earth. Watch them walk. Hear them roar. Be there as they fight for survival and supremacy. From the ripple of their skin to the glint in their eye, you will know the dinosaurs really have returned!

The show really was spectacular.  The dinosaurs were incredibly realistic and with just a tiny bit of imagination you could almost believe that you were watching real, live dinosaurs walk around.  Through beautiful music, scenery, lights, narration and the dinosaurs themselves the show took you through the 3 periods of the dinosaurs.  It was really neat to learn not just about the dinosaurs, but also the make-up of the earth and the plant life that was found during each period.  For example, there were no flowers during the Triassic and Jurassic Periods and grass didn't appear until after the Cretaceous Period.  That's amazing to me.  No dinosaur ever, in millions and millions of years, saw grass!

 

I took close to one picture for each dinosaur that ever lived on the planet, but scaled it down for purposes of not having everybody hate me.  Plus it's just not the same in the pictures.  Without the music and the lighting and the sound you just don't get the same feel. 

 

So, here we go!

 

We sprung for a light up dinosaur for Spencer.

 

The narrator.

 

The Triassic Period.  That dinosaur is eating a baby dinosaur.

 Like I said, there are a lot of pictures but I'm not going to provide very much narration because I recognize that people need to start making Thanksgiving dinner soon.

 

Moving into the Jurassic Period.  New plant life appears.

 

Stegosaurus

This guy is sneaking up on stegosaurus.  He is not a T-Rex, but I can't remember what kind of dinosaur he is.  Something that is related to a T-Rex, but T-Rex didn't come around until the Cretaceous Period.

They showed a lot of battle scenes to give an idea of how dinosaurs fought and defended themselves.

 

Juvenile  brachiosaurus

 

Full size, adult brachiosaurus

 

He made eye contact with us.  It was slightly creepy.

 

They were hugging

The flying pterosaur (don't remember exactly what kind he was) was awesome.  It gave me chills.

 

Raptors

 

Moving into the Cretaceous Period.  Flowers appear on earth for the first time.

 

Triceratops

 

A young triceratops challenging an elder.  The young one won.

 

Ankylosaurus

 

Here comes T-Rex!

 

T-Rex, ankylosaurus, a raptor and triceratops all battling for their lives.

 

He was roaring at the audience!

 

And then, a meteor hit the earth and everybody died.

Ha ha!  The show didn't have quiet as abrupt of an ending as my post.  One of the raptors did take a bow with the narrator.  It was funny.

 

So now that you've seen all of the pictures, leave a comment and tell me if you figured out how the big dinosaurs were moving.