The first day of 2010 was the kind of day I really like. It involved 3 things I really enjoy: time with my family, seeing a movie, and going out to eat. With the Christmas gift we received from our family in Pennsylvania ( a generous check) thel 7 members of my family who live in Kentucky (Paula, my sister in law, my sons, their wives, and me) decided to go to Nashville for the day. We went to the Imax theater in the Opry Mills Mall to see the movie "Avitar" then went to a restaurant for an early afternoon dinner.
We left home at 10:30 in the morning for a 12:20PM show. It only takes an hour to get there but we knew it would be crowded. Turns out we were right. The show was sold out. It was a good thing I ordered the ticket online and printed them out at home. Five of us went to the Imax movie. My 2 daughters in law went to see the new Meril Streep movie.
It was another "non-scale victory" for me as I sat in the Imax theater seat. The last time I was there I couldn't fit. I was extremely uncomfortatble. This time I had no problems getting comfortable even with the movable arms down at my side.
All my family members liked the 2 1/2 hour movie. I thought the story and the digital film making were unique but I didn't like the fact that it ended with a big battle scene. Why do all adventure/ fantasy movies have to end up being about war? The concept of the world of "Avitar" was new and interesting. It was like watching a computer game but once again the war aspect of the ending I didn't like.
After the movie we all went to the Rain Forest Cafe at the opposite end of the mall for dinner. It to was crowded so we had to wait an hour for a table. We all did some browsing in the nearby stores while we waited. I took the opportunity to do something I've been wanting to do for a while.
In the mall,near the food court, there is a Karaoke recording booth. For about $20 you can go into a recording studio and sing as on to musical accompaniment and have it recorded on CD. Knowing that we were going to the mall I took with me a copy of the lyrics to the "Roux En Y" song. It's a parody I wrote about my weight loss surgery written to the tune of the Beatles song "Yesterday".
I walked from the Rain Forrest Cafe to the Karaoke booth, paid my $20, sang my song, and walked away with the CD. I now have the Roux En Y Song recorded.
After an hour of waiting we were seated in the Rain Forrest Cafe dining room area. I had never been there before. It's decorated and themed to resemble an actual rain forest. There's a canopy of "trees" above you, a waterfall, and animatronic animals all around you. These include gorillas and monkeys. There's also fake animals who don't move. There was a zebra from the neck up mounted above the table where we were seated. Next to our table was a set of 3 animatronic gorillas and there was a baby gorilla swinging from a tree above our heads about 5 feet from where we sat.
Every 10 minutes the anamatronic animals would move and make noise as though they were alive and you are actually in a rain forest. It's a nice effect but it actually scared a lot of the little kids who were in the restaurant. Every 30 minutes there's thunder and lightening accompanied by the sound of a rainstorm.
This is the most entertaining aspect of the experience but it's also a built in timing device for patrons to gauge how long they've been waiting for their food. For instance the rainstorm happened as the waitress was taking our order. The animals came to "life" a couple of times while we were waiting. They didn't bring our meals until the next rainstorm came up. That tells me it took 30 minutes to get our food. The effects are essential to the restaurant's atmosphere and theme but I'll bet the wait staff has to deal with the time awareness a lot. It probably effects their tips too.
When the food was finally served everyone seemed to enjoy it. Theresa got a steak. Michael and James got burgers with some kind of fancy toppings. I got roasted chicken. Paula got half a turkey wrap and some tomato soup. Brandi got chicken fingers and fries, as usual. I don't remember exactly what Heather got but she had some awesome onion rings with it. By the time we finished eating we were so full no one even considered getting dessert.
After dinner we said our "good bye"s and headed for Kentucky. It was a very nice day and a good start to 2010.
On the way home I called my sister's in Pennsylvania and thanked them for allowing us to have such a good family day together.
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