Dinosaurs in Burlington?! An Amazing Royal Botanical Gardens Adventure

So apparently there is no such thing as a Brontosaurus. I vaguely recall my 6yo informing me of this fact years ago, but it clearly got lost amongst all the other fascinating dinosaur ‘facts’ he chatters about daily. Needless to say, when a very nice woman at the Royal Botanical Gardens was explaining this fact to a group of dino-crazed kids over the weekend, my son had no problem shouting ‘I already know that!’ to the entire crowd. Although a surprise excursion for my kids, it was no surprise to me that Battle of the Titans – RBG’s current exhibit – would receive two (or shall I say four) very enthusiastic thumbs up from my two little T-Rex’s!

I had no idea what to expect when we arrived at RBG but the boys quickly figured out that the theme of the day was, of course, dinosaurs. The second our hands were stamped, the boys immediately spotted a ‘dino-keeper’ holding a real live baby T-Rex! The ‘baby’ was about three feet long, white and very fuzzy! Okay I’m going to fess up – this thing looked SO REAL, for a split second I was right there believing with the boys… And it was a bit funny listening to all the grownups whispering amongst themselves trying to figure out what exactly it was – a puppet? A robot? Who knows. Who cares. The kids LOVED this thing.

 Eventually I was able to drag the boys away with promises of more dinosaurs! The main exhibit was pretty darn cool. A gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex and a massive Triceratops took centre stage and they did not disappoint! Of course there were also numerous smaller displays that we checked out, but the kids were far too excited to let me read everything to them (saving that for our next visit) so we ended up running from one to another to another... Although they did let me read them the description of T-Rex poop!

Did I mention we arrived at 10am and didn’t leave until after 3pm? In usual RBG fashion, there are several daily programs and yes, we participated in all of them. Not true – my 6yo chickened out on ‘Geo-pardy’ (even though there was a good chance he may have won at that game). We listened to Storyosaurus – twice! We made Cretaceous Crafts! And finished our day with a very funny Prehistoric Puppet Show. My future paleontologist got very involved in the Paleo Program and had a very serious debate with the instructor over whether a certain photo was a Plesiosaur or an Elasmosaurus. My money was on the 6 year old!

So if I haven’t made myself clear, we LOVED the Battle of the Titans! We will definitely be returning before the exhibit ends – and we will be using the free family pass we received at the Garden Café (oh did I mention the dino menu at the café? Both kids ordered the dino nuggets – huge hit!). It’s not a huge exhibit – but that’s what makes it perfect for a 6yo and a 3yo who don’t exactly have long attention spans. The biggie declared the exhibit as ‘the bestest place on earth’. That’s very high praise!

-  LFG - mama to two dino-loving boys

Battle of the Titans is on now through April 7th at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, ON  Click here for the daily schedule and admission details.