Tar Pit Museum

[Twinprincesses]

We are thinking of taking our kids here but wanted opinions on the museum itself. It is not expensive but wonder if it is even worth our time.

 

[perlster]

I like it, but that's a tough question. (It's the sort of thing that people like, if people like that sort of thing.)

Have you checked the web site?

 

[erocrobro]

My kids really want to see this as well. Is it close enough to the Natural History Museum that they could both be done in one day?

 

[perlster]

NHM site is here - the Dinosaur Hall is the must see (although I haven't seen it myself yet). You can do both in a day by driving - I'd take Wilshire Blvd rather than the freeway (I-10), especially on a weekday. I would plan to spend a couple of hours at the Tar Pits and the Page Museum, then go to the NHM, which closes at 5 PM . There's much more to see at the Natural History Museum. The Page Museum opens at 9:30 AM, but you can explore the Tar Pits before then. [Re: next post - Both Pit 91 and the fishbowl lab can be seen on this second page of photos]

 

[rowan1813]

I LOVE the Page Museum and the Tar Pits but then again, I am a graduate with an archaeology degree, so maybe I'm biased .

I think it is a fun place for any kid to visit though I would suppose that depends on your kids' ages and their interests. To me, one of the best parts of the Page Museum is the fish bowl lab where visitors can see the techs working on the fossils recovered from the excavation pits. The other great part of the Tar Pits is Pit 91; an excavation pit that has an on-going dig that you can watch. I'm not sure when you are going and what day so be sure to check their schedule to see if they will be working.

 

[mouselike-harrier]

We visited the Page Museum in July 2010, with our DS, 14 at the time, and DD 10. They both thought it was fascinating and loved it. We also stopped at the Petersen Auto Museum which was down the street. While 3 of us thought that was great too, DD wanted to go back to the tar pits!

 

[d00mbuggy]

La Brea Tar pits!

 

[CheshireGato]

I went to the Tar Pits when I was about 13 and thought it was okay. My family went to museums my whole childhood and even though I enjoyed going, I don't think I took as much away from them as my parents did.

Now that I'm an adult, I love pretty much any museum that will teach me something new.

I think it all depends on what your children are interested in and how well they do in a museum setting.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My kids enjoyed it. They were 11 and 15 at the time.
We could not do the Natural History Museum with it though because we didn't get to the tar pits and Page Museum until 11am (couldn't get the family out of bed!) and that took 3 hours for us to tour through it and the park area.

That meant we'd only have a couple of hours to do the History Museum so we decided to skip it and drive to Hollywood instead.
That was a bad decision because it was the day the new Cars Movie premiered and Hollywood was a big mess.
I sure wish we'd done the few hours at the Natural History Museum instead.

 

[Zbugz]

We did both the Tar Pits and the Natural History Museum in a few hours and thought they were worthwhile. The Tar Pits are a really neat oddity.

BTW, we were able to get into both of these free as part of the reciprocal agreement with our local science museum. You might check into this if you have a membership or are thinking of getting one to a science museum in your area that particpates in ASTC.