One thing we did that was a little closer to Palm Springs was visit the famous Cabazon Dinosaurs. This was the first year they have done a Christmas lights event, so we felt like we definitely needed to check out the entire dino park. Mr. Rex looked amazing in his brand new Santa suit. (I have since noticed they now paint Dinny and Mr. Rex for every holiday! They looked especially cute for Valentines and Easter)
The creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs began in the 1960s by Knott's Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (1897–1988) to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Restaurant, which opened in 1958 and closed in 2013. Dinny, the first of the Cabazon dinosaurs (pictured below), was started in 1964 and took 11 years to complete. He is hallow and has a souvenir shop in his belly.
Even the shop was all dressed up for Christmas, it was so festive and fun!
One of the things that made these dinos so well known, was their appearance in the 1985 classic Pee-wee's Big Adventure. This badge is a reference to that film.
After exploring the souvenirs and getting our tickets, it was time to enter the park!
The mixing of so much holiday cheer with dinosaurs was so silly, we had so much fun and shared a lot of giggles.
This was a photo op you could pay a little extra for, we didn't do the full photo experience. But we thought this was all pretty amazing.
This was a nice, COVID safe activity as it was outdoors, masks were required and we went at a time where there wasn't a lot of other people so social distancing was really easy to do.
They really did an amazing job with the light display. Since this was the first year they had ever done this event, we didn't know if we should expect a couple of strings of lights here and there or a full light show. We were thoroughly impressed when we saw all their amazing displays.
Just like Dinny, Mr. Rex is also hallow and guests can go up into this mouth. V thought this was so cool.
The whole time we were there, kids were roaring as loud as they could out of Mr. Rex's mouth, and V could not wait for her turn to roar. As soon as it was our turn in his mouth, it's only big enough for a couple people at a time, V ran right to the front and roared as loud as she could, it was so cute and I was so impressed by how loud she could roar!
We had the best time wandering up and down the walkways and giggling at the juxtaposition of songs like Silent Night and Mary Did you Know that were playing over the speakers with the realistic dinosaur displays. It was a really fun night.
We had so much fun at this holiday event, I wish I lived closer so I could visit the dinosaurs every holiday!
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