Other than the release of my new novel, I caught a few movies this past week. After it set an opening weekend box-office record, I almost felt obligated to check out Jurassic World. Overall, I thought it was a fun, if somewhat underwhelming, experience. It was funny and the action scenes delivered, but I didn't feel like it did anything new. A decent work of nostalgia, but I'm ready for this franchise to move on. I go into a little more depth on my other blog, if you'd like more details.
I was far more impressed with Pixar's new movie, Inside Out. This is easily the best movie we've seen from the studio since at least Toy Story 3, and it can hold its own alongside anything in their catalog. My full review is here.
In order to offset all that time spent in a dark theater, Lindsay and I drove down to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday. It's a good place for bird watching: we saw herons, bald eagles, and a number of other avians. The eagles were too far away for me to get a good picture, but here's a shot of a whole flock of herons.
Okay, okay: it doesn't quite do the experience justice. Take it from me - it was pretty incredible to watch.
Speaking of pictures not doing things justice, the Wildlife Refuge offers a great perspective on Mount Rainier. Staring at it across the marshes had a real Mount Doom effect. I took dozens of photos trying to capture the sense of scale, but my phone wasn't really up to the task. Here's about as close as I came:
If you squint, you should be able to tell there's a mountain there.
