Botanical Garden "Dinoquest"

We've visited the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) before - but Saturday was our first visit this year.

As we walked to the entrance of the MBG we saw a large sign advertising "DINOQUEST A Tropical Trek Through Time". The MBG Climatron "becomes a time machine transporting visitors back to the age of the dinosaurs as dozens of these realistic prehistoric creatures take up residence in this lush, tropical environment."

Sounded cool - ended up being tacky!

The Missouri Botanical Garden - "Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is the nation's oldest botanical garden in continuous operation and a National Historic Landmark.

The Garden is a center for botanical research and science education, as well as an oasis in the city of St. Louis. The Garden offers 79 acres of beautiful horticultural display, including a 14-acre Japanese strolling garden, Henry Shaw's original 1850 estate home, and one of the world's largest collections of rare and endangered orchids."

The MBG is such a beautiful, wonderful, interesting place to visit - adding the dinosaurs throughout the Climatron and outside of the Climatron, looked tacky - something you'd expect to see at a theme park...adding the dino "roaring" sounds occasionally did not help matters at all.

It's as if the marketing folks thought how can we get parents to take their kids to the Botanical Garden? Why don't we add dinosaurs!!

The Climatron itself is worth visiting but I sure wouldn't pay extra to see the dinos lurking about.

I have nothing against dinosaurs and I actually enjoy seeing the large, moving, dinosaurs at the Science Center :)

The kids loved seeing and feeding the koi fish - they are super cool to see up close...though their mouths wide open look kind of creepy :)