Let's celebrate work, by taking a day off, and seeing an Imax movie

Our labor day weekend has come to an end, Nicole and I finally got out of the house. We went to an Imax movie and poked around the Natural History Museum of L.A. County. It's really been too damn hot to do much of anything (110 degrees again today at our house). Now granted, we did go to the Fernanikers house for a barbecue yesterday, but that was planned.

No, the movie and museum were more or less spur of the moment. I saw the trailer for the movie somewhere, and seeing as I like cycling, thought 7 stories of movie screen about it wouldn't be a bad thing. So when the A/C in the house was finally starting to loose the battle of keeping it cool, we hopped in Big Bluey and jaunted down to Exposition park.

And now for the reviews...

The Imax movie, Wired to Win, made me cry, like a little baby. Geez, I've been crying and screaming a lot lately. At least at the beginning of the movie, I was crying. 7 stories of screen, showing the toughest men, climbing the toughest mountains, is pretty breath taking, if not down right tear jerking.
Okay, a still picture doesn't do it justice. But I do think, that it was almost as good as standing on the Col (that's French for mountain pass), if not better, fewer crazy fans to deal with whilst seated in a movie theater.

This movie started out impressive, then, something went wrong. Not a bad wrong, but it took a bit of adjustment in thinking to really get into the movie. This movie was about the brain, and nervous system and how it interacts with the body, set to the background of the Tour de France.

There was some neat shots of the tour, and some pretty creative CGI of the brain and what not. But for my cycling friends, watch the first couple of minutes, take in the magic of the Tour de France, and then get ready to be educated about the brain.

I guess our first hint should have been the fact that it was playing at the Imax theater at the Science Center.

The real review will have to be about the food. Like any other theater, the Imax theater has a concession stand. We felt obligated to get some snacky snacks. Nicole, always has a pang for a pretzel with a movie, so we got her one of those and a cherry coke. I went out on a limb and thought with this heat, a frozen lemonade would do the trick. All that, for only $8.50? Nicole and I thought we were getting a bargain! Last time we went to the movie and got snacky snacks it was $12.50! And that was just water and popcorn!

Thumbs down, is what Ebert and Roper give the snacky snacks, and so did we. The pretzel was either stale or not warmed up properly. I give them 2 stars because it's possible, seeing as the movie was the second showing of the day at 11:30 AM, that they hadn't had time to heat up the pretzel machine. And the cherry coke was more like cherry nope.

As for my frozen lemonade... Bad choice for a 40 minute movie. It was still to solid to use the plastic spoon when the movie started, pretty hard to see what you were eating while the theater is dark, not to mention a noisy. And when the movie finished, I had a cup of cool lemonade foam. Not the lemonades fault, I was the idiot who ordered it.

After the movie, Nicole and I thought as long as we were in the area, we may as well have a look at the Natural History Museum of L.A. County. It's in the same complex and a short 100 yard walk to the entrance from the Science Center. We'd never been, Dan likes museums, Nicole needs coffee, they have a cafe. We're there.

After paying our entry fee and feeding my wife caffeine, we started poking around this three level museum. And now for the review...

I think this museum is right on par for anything of culture I've seen (so far) in L.A.. It's not bad, but it's also not the best. The Field Museum in Chicago is great, so is the Natural History Museum in New York. And there isn't enough positive things one can say about the Smithsonian. The L.A. Zoo, another good example, good, but not San Diego Zoo good.

The exhibits and halls are nice. The minerals hall is really cool. And I final saw an example of the "famed arts and crafts movement" they talk about on the tram to Disneyland.

If I had one complaint, it would be this, certain sections of the place (namely the 2nd floor) needs to be better designed. Like most museums now days, they kind of direct traffic through the halls. You have a clearly marked entrance and a clearly marked exit, and you walk in a big circle to see all the exhibits. I went to the aquarium while I was in Singapore, and the entire tunnel that ran through the exhibit was a moving walkway, it moved really slow, but it kept everyone moving. There was a "sidewalk" of sorts where you could step off to stand in a section of the tank, but for the most part you just moved through.

All in all, a nice day. Nicole and I will go back to the museum, with kids of a learning age. Maybe our own.

It's 10PM and 88 degrees in Altadena. Sucks.