Dinosaurs in Orlando

On Presidents' Day (Feb. 20), a school holiday, Susie, the grandgirls, and I went to Leu Gardens in Orlando, a place we've always enjoyed, but from now through April 30, the gardens have become home to a wide variety of dinosaurs. In addition to a map showing the location of the thirteen types of dinosaurs rearing up out of the jungle (one group actually clinging to a tree trunk), the back page of the map shows photos of all the dinosaurs with their proper names. Therefore, there's no excuse if I mess up the identifications!

Seriously, if you live anywhere near the Orlando area, this is an exhibit not to be missed. In addition to the dinosaurs, the camellias are all in bloom, the rose garden always has some plants in blooms (though how they manage it, I don't know), and the pavilion along the lake has just been rebuilt, offering a lovely view, plus turtles, fish, and a bubbling stream flowing out of the jungle. And then there's the floral clock, the vegetable and butterfly gardens, and an endless jungle of exotic plants, including bamboo and leaves the size of a flatscreen TV. I cannot recommend this exhibit too highly.

For a link to Leu Gardens website, click here. 

The photos below were taken by Susie and Riley (to whom I entrusted my Smartphone).

The garden explorers, minus Mommy (the photographer)

Daspletosaurus - "Frightful Lizard" - the first "meet & greet" peering out of the jungle

Cassidy with the bamboo she learned to identify at Leu Gardens at age four - plus a camellia (picked off the ground!)

 

Don't eat us, Parasaurolophus!

I definitely wouldn't want to meet a Dimetrodon on a dark night! Or by daylight.

I think that's a Hypsibema about to devour Hailey for lunch.

Sordes (Demon). No doubt here about why scientists say birds are descendants of dinosaurs

This one too. A Quetzalocoatlus (Feathered Serpent) - named for the Aztec god. (Ancestor of the turkey?)

Uh - I can't seem to find this one on the map - maybe he's free-roaming. Yikes! Or is that a close-up of Dinosaur #1, taken with Susie's brand new phone??

Bambiraptors lurking in the ferns. Do you recall their large cousins, the velociraptors in Jurassic Park?

P. S. The bambiraptors had a mind of their own. They were supposed to be near the beginning, but they insisted on staying at the end, every new photo loaded below them miraculously jumping above. They also refused to have the same type font as the other photos. So . . . I admit it, raptors are scary beasts, even if these three were only about a foot high.

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Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

   

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.

For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.