Every Friday night my husband and I have date night. Last night we went to a free movie in one of our city parks. Night At The Museum. We already saw this movie once before in the theatre on Christmas Eve 2006, but this event sounded like fun. Bring a chair or a blanket for the ground, bring a picnic, or a concession was available for snacks, and live entertainment before the movie gets underway at dusk.
Although we've been having a hot streak this past week Friday morning was a lot cooler and although sunny was not overbearingly hot like the past few days. So before I left I got into capris and brought a sweater. We filled our cooler with drinks, went to Subway for a couple of sandwiches, stopped at the drugstore for some munchies and headed out to the park to set up our picnic dinner around 7:30. About 100 people were already there many of them enjoying a picnic. A huge inflatable movie screen was set up and we began eating our dinner.
It brought me back to the days when drive in movies were still around. My parents would get us in the car and bring a picnic dinner. Beneath the drive in's screen was a playground and all the kids would play there waiting for it to get dark enough for the movie to start. Most of the kids were running around in their pajamas. The parents got them ready for bed before they left so when they got home it was straight to bed, or I suppose many kids fell asleep in the cars before the movie ended.
And last night there were a couple of kids running around who already had their pj's on. Some unprepared people headed over to a nearby Safeway for snacks, while others walked over to the Starbucks for a hot drink as the evening began to cool down.
As we waited for darkness to fall a park employee greeted the crowd and introduced the first entertainer, a young lady who did a few Indian dances, making her last dance interactive by inviting anyone to join her. About 20 young girls and 1 boy joined her with the final dance called a crow hop. After her a local martial arts studio put on a demonstration. Around that time it started getting colder and I was glad for my sweater, the first time in days I had to wear one. My husband in his shorts and T-shirt hadn't thought ahead. I suggested he go back to the car for a blanket. We have two blankets in the back of our Vibe because that's where the dogs ride. Sure they'd have dog hair on them but at least it would be warm. He returned to the car, hoping to find that he'd left a jacket behind in there, but no luck, and came back with a blanket and wrapped himself up.
Just after 9:00 it was deemed dark enough to start the movie and away it went. We once again enjoyed Ben Stiller's antics while he corralled a host of characters who came to life when the sun went down. I still find it hard to watch kindly Dick Van Dyke in a villain's role.
The movie ended and slowly everyone began gathering up their chairs and coolers. No one was in a big rush to leave. We loaded up the car and headed home. What an enjoyable evening and a low cost date night.
There are a few more night under the stars movies playing throughout August. I'm thinking of going to see Grease except its in a park that's not really in a good part of town and a longer drive from our house. I've seen that movie about a hundred times. I have the video and I still watch it every time it come on TV. And later this month American Graffiti will be playing nearby. Oddly enough not in a park but on a street corner where there are a couple of condominiums with store's on the street level. Mostly I want to go out of curiosity about where they're going to set up a big outdoor movie screen in that area.
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