Ah, the Drive-In

When was the last time you've been to a drive-in movie? Have you ever been? Until a couple weeks ago I had only been to a drive-in movie one time, and that was way back in high school. Some friends dragged me along and I barely remember the experience.

Recently I've been intrigued with drive-in movie theaters as they are a dying breed and it may not be long that they will still be around for us to enjoy. I've had "go to a drive-in movie" on my 43Things goal list for quite some time. Finally on August 19th we went to the Valley Drive-In in Auburn and I have to say it was a lot of fun. We saw a first-run movie, Bourne Ultimatum. I loved it!

It was a bit sad to see that there were just a few people there. True it was a Sunday night and I would imagine they get a bit more business on Friday and Saturday nights. Still, when you enter the snack bar building which is quite large it's easy to see that in its glory day it would have been filled with people ordering food and playing the video games. Instead there was just me ordering food and a couple workers manning the register and food service. It looked kinda lonely.

One nice thing about a drive-in movie is that you usually get to see two movies for the price of one. That is if you can stay up that late! Back on August 19th the drive-in's weekly email indicated the movie would start at 8:30 or so. Well it didn't start until 9:00, and then they showed trailers for 25 minutes! Yikes. By the time the movie was over it was after 11:00 and I knew I couldn't stay awake for the second one and still make it to my obligations the next day. So we left after Bourne Ultimatum. Of course as it gets later in the season movies can start earlier because it gets dark earlier.

Still, it was a fun experience and I really want to do it again. If life doesn't get too crazy we might try to go a couple more times before the season ends sometime in October. Valley Drive-In has six screens of movies to choose from. If you prefer less choices (1 screen) but a more quality viewing experience (FM instead of AM radio sound and one giant screen) there is also Puget Park in south Everett.

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