This Is Not A Blog Post

I visited four museums within the last week of my recent vacation. I hadn't been to one in awhile, so I guess I was making up for lost time.

Before leaving Park City, we stopped in the Park City Historical Society Museum, which includes remnants of The Territorial Jail. It's a small museum, but gives an interesting history with lots of photographs and a replica of a mine. Also on display is an old mine car that was later used as the first (and possibly only?) underground transport for skiiers.

On the way back to L.A. from Utah, we stopped for the night in Las Vegas. We had heard about the Atomic Testing Museum there and had thought about visiting it during our brief trip in Decemeber. After seeing two films at Sundance dealing with atomic bombs, we were even more interested in checking it out. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, but automatically think "cheesy" when I hear 'museum' and 'Las Vegas' together. I know there are posh ones at such places as the Bellagio, but remember, I did go to the Elvis-A-Rama Museum before it closed. Well, the Atomic Testing Museum is wonderful. It is affiliated with the Smithsonian and gives a pretty comprehensive history of nuclear testing. Due to the proximity, it focuses a lot on the Nevada Test Site, which was fascinating to learn more about. I highly recommend a visit if you are into this sort of thing at all. It's not far from The Strip and is a nice alternative, educational, and admittedly a bit nerdy, activity to do in Sin City.

Typically, Super Bowl Sunday means heading out to see a movie. We're not interested in the game at all and the theatres are pretty empty. I don't know if we were movied-out from recently returning from a film festival, but we decided to check out a couple of museums instead. The first one was The Museum of Jurassic Technology, a place we've heard about and have meant to go to for years. We got there later than we'd hoped and had to rush a bit, but it was fun nonetheless. I'm not really sure how to describe the place. I was interested, confused, amused, and amazed all in the span of an hour. There were some very cool stereoscopic displays and I imagine we'll return another time and go through at a slower pace.

We wrapped up the evening at the Magritte Exhibit at LACMA. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot, not being very familiar with the artist. Well, I should say, not knowing that I had seen lots of his images that I couldn't put a name to. I'm uneducated when it comes to art and often feel stupid at shows like this. I do like to look and decide if something moves me or not, but I've never really studied art and I don't understand it like one is supposed to. I think I "get" a piece and then read the accompanying description to find I was completely wrong. Somehow, I still enjoyed it and recommend going before it leaves next month.