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Aug. 24th, 2003 02:30 pmSo to Houston we went. I invited several people, but Brenda was the only one who was free so off we three went. We left around 9, and got to the museum around noon, even with a bit of a detour while we figured out (read: argued about) directions. I've discovered that I read maps in a very different way from the hub, though I couldn't say how. It's obviously at least one right way, though, because we arrived without getting lost. Fear my leet cartography skillz, or something.
We had some lunch. Brenda was a good sport about the fact that the only eatery in the place was a McDonald's... she had worked at a McD's for several years. Then, we decided which stuff we wanted to see, and bought appropriate tickets.
The IMAX was not showing anything I was especially keen on. I'm not terribly keen on IMAXes in general, because I have a fragile inner ear and they make me want to hurl more often than not. But hub thought the Lewis and Clark show would be less hurl-a-riffic, but more importantly would be populated by the least amount of shrieklings. He was right on both counts, thank the gods- the main area of the museum is a long, marble-lined corridor that echoes in a most awful way. Anyway, it was educational and very pretty- if you get a chance, check it out. The Simpsons quote that went with this was "I saw the IMAX show on holes! Did you know the hole's biggest natural enemy is the pile?"
Next was the planetarium. I really wanted to see the 'what's in the sky tonight' show, but the timing was not right, so we went to see what I refer to as the 'space is really big' show. It was actually titled 'Infinity Express' and narrated by Laurence Fishburne, who seems to have taken James Earl Jones' place as 'cool-sounding black guy who narrates stuff.' It was as cool as any planetarium show, though not especially informative unless you did not know that space, in fact, is big. It was also sort of a 'hooray for humans for discovering stuff!' show that didn't get especially specific.
At this point Brenda wanted a smoke break and we went outside to look at the big globe. It's about 4-5 feet across and carved of black something (maybe granite). The continents are etched with no countries or cities marked except for (of course) HOUSTON. It's sitting in a basin that has a very small pump that floats this huge globe on water, which makes it easy to grab onto and spin around. We had some fun with that; and speaking of cool stuff outside of the museum, there's also a large sundial made of the same black rock, a fountain with it's edge carved to resemble the Texas coastline (again featuring HOUSTON prominently) and a diagram of the solar system inlaid into the ground with the planets more or less to scale in size and distance from the Sun, which is marked on the entrance steps to the museum.
Next we went to the butterfly zoo-thing. This is a great big greenhouse with a whole fuckload of butterflies living within. You watch a little movie that explains how they get the butterflies and how to interact with them (short version- don't touch them, dammit). Then you get a laminated menu so you can tell which butterflies are which and are set loose. The place is beautiful and in addition to the butterflies, many of the tropical plants were labeled (I saw a coffee plant!) and there was also an iguana that licked a small child and freaked her out. We looked at butterflies for awhile and saw other insects in the insect-ology attachment, in addition to the hatching butterflies. Simpsons quote: "No one suspects the butterfly!"
Finally, we went to wander around the exhibits of the museum itself. We were taking our time, and it closed under us- I didn't realize they were going to close at 5, which sucked. We barely got out of the energy exhibit, which was a great big paean to the wonderfulness of oil (Houston, remember?). We were amused by the 'see how much energy you can generate by turning this crank!' and imagining that Houston was using the energy of the gullible to give power to HUD homes or something, and then showing you how pathetic your attempts are compared to how much energy you can get out of gasoline. We didn't even get to see the pretty rocks or anything else, so we took off.
Next stop, the Ikea store.
We had some lunch. Brenda was a good sport about the fact that the only eatery in the place was a McDonald's... she had worked at a McD's for several years. Then, we decided which stuff we wanted to see, and bought appropriate tickets.
The IMAX was not showing anything I was especially keen on. I'm not terribly keen on IMAXes in general, because I have a fragile inner ear and they make me want to hurl more often than not. But hub thought the Lewis and Clark show would be less hurl-a-riffic, but more importantly would be populated by the least amount of shrieklings. He was right on both counts, thank the gods- the main area of the museum is a long, marble-lined corridor that echoes in a most awful way. Anyway, it was educational and very pretty- if you get a chance, check it out. The Simpsons quote that went with this was "I saw the IMAX show on holes! Did you know the hole's biggest natural enemy is the pile?"
Next was the planetarium. I really wanted to see the 'what's in the sky tonight' show, but the timing was not right, so we went to see what I refer to as the 'space is really big' show. It was actually titled 'Infinity Express' and narrated by Laurence Fishburne, who seems to have taken James Earl Jones' place as 'cool-sounding black guy who narrates stuff.' It was as cool as any planetarium show, though not especially informative unless you did not know that space, in fact, is big. It was also sort of a 'hooray for humans for discovering stuff!' show that didn't get especially specific.
At this point Brenda wanted a smoke break and we went outside to look at the big globe. It's about 4-5 feet across and carved of black something (maybe granite). The continents are etched with no countries or cities marked except for (of course) HOUSTON. It's sitting in a basin that has a very small pump that floats this huge globe on water, which makes it easy to grab onto and spin around. We had some fun with that; and speaking of cool stuff outside of the museum, there's also a large sundial made of the same black rock, a fountain with it's edge carved to resemble the Texas coastline (again featuring HOUSTON prominently) and a diagram of the solar system inlaid into the ground with the planets more or less to scale in size and distance from the Sun, which is marked on the entrance steps to the museum.
Next we went to the butterfly zoo-thing. This is a great big greenhouse with a whole fuckload of butterflies living within. You watch a little movie that explains how they get the butterflies and how to interact with them (short version- don't touch them, dammit). Then you get a laminated menu so you can tell which butterflies are which and are set loose. The place is beautiful and in addition to the butterflies, many of the tropical plants were labeled (I saw a coffee plant!) and there was also an iguana that licked a small child and freaked her out. We looked at butterflies for awhile and saw other insects in the insect-ology attachment, in addition to the hatching butterflies. Simpsons quote: "No one suspects the butterfly!"
Finally, we went to wander around the exhibits of the museum itself. We were taking our time, and it closed under us- I didn't realize they were going to close at 5, which sucked. We barely got out of the energy exhibit, which was a great big paean to the wonderfulness of oil (Houston, remember?). We were amused by the 'see how much energy you can generate by turning this crank!' and imagining that Houston was using the energy of the gullible to give power to HUD homes or something, and then showing you how pathetic your attempts are compared to how much energy you can get out of gasoline. We didn't even get to see the pretty rocks or anything else, so we took off.
Next stop, the Ikea store.
