San Diego has an area downtown called Balboa Park. It's kind of like the museum row in Washington, DC, but a with a more relaxed feeling. There are about 28 museums in Balboa Park and some really awesome architecture houses some of the museums. It's my goal to visit them all at least once, but since I'm here for the long haul, I'm not in any hurry. If you come visit, we will definitely hit up Balboa Park!
So the Air and Space Museum. When I was staying at the hotel for the first week here, one of the guys that workd at the front desk was giving me some great recommendations of things to see and places to visit. He first recommended the Museum of Making Music in North County. I visited that within the first few days here and thought it was awesome. It has all these different rooms each representing a decade in American jazz. Well, he also recommended the Aliens exhibit at the Air and Space Museum. I immediately thought about mom and how much she loves X Files and Taken and Fringe and how she would love to come along. But, the exhibit was ending in January, so I went in December. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't very impressed. I felt like they showed alot of how aliens are portrayed in the movies and other pop culture. There was a little bit relating to UFOs in the papers and Roswell, but little more than that. They did show animals underwater and above water that had interesting characteristics and then speculated what types of characteristics aliens would need to possess in order to live on another planet. It also pointed out the communication barrier that exists between us and the aliens. Ha, I was hoping for a little more umph, I suppose. Oh well. I walked through the rest of the museum which housed a lot of airplanes all over the place (on the walls, on the floor, suspended from the ceiling and life-sized too) especially from WWI and WWII. Mike, if you're still in to that, I think you might like the museum. I also went to a 4D little movie while at the museum. The seats move, you watch it in 3D, and you get spit on (water) and blown on (fans) when blasting into outer space. The movie is a digital/cartoon version of landing on the moon. It was cute. But the pictures below....they insist on taking your picture on a green screen before you enter the exhibit. You view the pictures on the way out and then of course you can pay for them if you'd like. Well, I got suckered in so I DID pay for mine. But I thought it was the perfect souvenir.
So the Air and Space Museum. When I was staying at the hotel for the first week here, one of the guys that workd at the front desk was giving me some great recommendations of things to see and places to visit. He first recommended the Museum of Making Music in North County. I visited that within the first few days here and thought it was awesome. It has all these different rooms each representing a decade in American jazz. Well, he also recommended the Aliens exhibit at the Air and Space Museum. I immediately thought about mom and how much she loves X Files and Taken and Fringe and how she would love to come along. But, the exhibit was ending in January, so I went in December. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't very impressed. I felt like they showed alot of how aliens are portrayed in the movies and other pop culture. There was a little bit relating to UFOs in the papers and Roswell, but little more than that. They did show animals underwater and above water that had interesting characteristics and then speculated what types of characteristics aliens would need to possess in order to live on another planet. It also pointed out the communication barrier that exists between us and the aliens. Ha, I was hoping for a little more umph, I suppose. Oh well. I walked through the rest of the museum which housed a lot of airplanes all over the place (on the walls, on the floor, suspended from the ceiling and life-sized too) especially from WWI and WWII. Mike, if you're still in to that, I think you might like the museum. I also went to a 4D little movie while at the museum. The seats move, you watch it in 3D, and you get spit on (water) and blown on (fans) when blasting into outer space. The movie is a digital/cartoon version of landing on the moon. It was cute. But the pictures below....they insist on taking your picture on a green screen before you enter the exhibit. You view the pictures on the way out and then of course you can pay for them if you'd like. Well, I got suckered in so I DID pay for mine. But I thought it was the perfect souvenir.
