Indiana Jones Movie At The Drive In

Well, we made our first trip to the Cottage View Drive-In theater in Cottage Grove off of Highway 61. We saw the new 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skulls' movie as the feature movie. This was followed up by 'Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian'. Having seen the previous three Indiana Jones movies when I was much younger, I was looking forward to the latest release. Well, while it did keep up with the action from the previous movies, I was a bit taken back by the story line. I won't give the plot away, but it was easy to figure out where the story was going. Some of the other Indiana Jones movies, sure, there is a lot to believe for the viewer. This was a bit over the top for me. My kids enjoyed the movie and want to see the first three movies now. I can easily sit through them. As for the second Chronicles Of Narnia movie....having not seen the previous movie, I was unsure of any of the characters or what had taken place previously. I was able to follow the story line and if you have not seen the first movie, this one is has a decent enough story line for the viewer.

Cottage View Drive In - Opening Soon

I reported in the fall of 2007 that the Cottage View Drive-In, one of two drive-in theaters in the Twin Cities area, would be closing and selling it's land to the highest bidder. Due to overwhelming support, much praise, and a bit of a backlash by the community on the sale of the land, I'm happy to report the Cottage View Drive-In will be open in 2008 for business. My circle of friends in the Cottage Grove area have been talking quite a bit about the drive in being open once again. We brought six or seven car loads of families several times last year and have plans already in the works for this summer.

See what's playing at Cottage View Drive-In

The first showing is this Friday, April 18th. The theater will only be open on weekends until school is just about done for the year.

It's Up In The Air For Next Season

One of two remaining drive in theaters is soon to close. For the past several years, there has been talk of the land owner of the Cottage Grove Drive-In was going to sell his land to a business. Last I've read in the local newspaper was he's having second thoughts. There has been a lot of positive talk about the drive in and he may keep it open an additional year. He said in the newspaper article that he was surprised by the good natured talk about the drive in. I know it's inevitable that it will close, I've brought my kids to the drive in as many times as I've could this summer. I hope they cherish the experience. Perhaps there will be yet another year for Cottage View. I can only hope.

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Revisiting Cottage View

I made a return visit to the Cottage Grove Drive In theater on Friday. My original photo at this location I really liked, but I wished I had a bit more sun light in the photo. Besides, this is the final season the theater will be open and a photo like this will be gone forever unfortunately. I am happy with the amount of daylight left in this shot.

There is talk of putting a walmart store in this location. Yet there is another one of these stores in the neighboring city to the north, south and west, all within a 15 minute drive of this location. Their thinking is it will bring in shoppers from the other communities. Why on earth would someone drive to Cottage Grove to shop at walmart when there is already one in their city? Wouldn't it make more sense to build something original that the other communities don't offer? I've talked to my wife about running for city council in the past, this may be the last straw that gets me to be serious about it.

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Just A Bit Of Fog

An opposite view of my September 10 subject, Cottage View Drive In, during the morning fog.

Friday Night At Cottage View Drive-In

Summer is winding down, Cottage View Drive-In will soon be closed. With the kids back in school, the drive-in is only open on Friday and Saturdays. I heard from the staff that this will be the last year of the drive in, the land will be sold. He did say, the own has said this very thing for the last six years. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this is not the final year of one of the two outdoor theaters in the Twin Cities.

I took this photo just before it was completely dark out, standing in the brush with my tripod. I was not alone, there was me and several dozen mosquitoes swarming around me. I walked away with a couple of outstanding shots and 19 bug bites from my friends. I actually left much sooner than I wanted to because the bugs were so bad that night.

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The Big Screen

Made a visit to Cottage View Drive-In located off of Highway 61 in Cottage Grove. We made it there a few weeks ago on their second open weekend of the season. The sun was setting and turned the white screen a shade of orange. I completely missed the sunset, which has quite a vantage point from where the drive-in is located. I guess I was too busy people watching at the time and talking with my wife and family to notice. Currently they are playing Spiderman 3, with Shrek the Third coming out on Friday, we are hoping they will be changing to it Shrek so we can bring the family to another show. One of my first couple daily photos featured the Cottage View drive in from outside the gate back in April 25, 2006.

See what's playing at Cottage View Drive In

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Performing Arts

This is the Ordway Theater in downtown St Paul, adjacent to the River Center exit in yesterday's photo. If you look close enough, you can see the red squares on the entrance to the River Center.

I went to the Ordway website to get additional information about the center as I've never been inside to see any performances. Or at least not yet in my life. But I had to stop when I saw the link on the Ordway website that says: Were On MySpace! Come visit Ordway Center on MySpace!

Are you freakin' kidding me!?!? The Ordway, Performing Center For the Arts has it's own MySpace page. Does anyone else, besides me, find your top performing arts center in town boasting that they have a MySpace page a bid puzzling? A cry for help perhaps?