Night at the Drive-In

Those of us who live in the Tulsa area are lucky to be able to visit one of the few remaining operational drive-in movies. The Admiral Twin opened in the 1950's and was later used to shoot scenes for the movie The Outsiders. On Friday night, the Tiki family saw Night at the Museum 2 at the Admiral Twin.

I remember going to the drive-in as a kid and the experience is quite a bit different as an adult. The obvious change is the technology. When I was a kid, you pulled a tinny sounding speaker into your car and cranked the volume up as loud as possible so that you could hopefully hear at least the loud parts of the movie. Now, you tune your radio to an FM station to pick up the sound in full stereo. It isn't as impressive as the Dolby surround sound in theaters, but it beats the stuffing out of the old tinny speakers. The other major change is the way people watch the movies. In the old days, mostly due to the little speaker, most people sat in their cars or in the backs of pickup trucks to watch the movie. Now, being able to bring a portable stereo or crank up the car audio allows people to migrate out of their cars onto lawn chairs and blankets on the ground. The drive-in was really packed on Friday night and it looked like a big camping trip minus the tents. People had lawn chairs, folding chairs, blankets, air mattresses and bags of groceries surrounding them. After buying some popcorn at the concession stand, I can only wish that we had also taken bags of groceries instead.

While I can't recommend Night at the Museum, I can recommend the experience of the Admiral Twin. I enjoy it because it reminds me of a simpler, carefree time in my life and my kids enjoy it because it is a novelty. Just remember to avoid the popcorn.

On Saturday night, Dale and Carol came to the Tiki Hut for drinks by the pool. They had just returned from a family vacation to Disney World so we discussed their trip and the changes to the Disney complex since the Tiki Family last visited. The Tiki Gal and Carol had the Curious George and Dale and I had beer.

Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel

Color: Caramel

Skunkiness: 0 skunks but it smelled a little nutty.

Taste: A malty and non-descript dark beer. There was no taste of nuttiness.

Comments: This was one of the beers we picked up on Carol's first beer run. We wouldn't run far to have this one again.

Carol Rating: 1 on a scale of 1 or 5.

Rating: 3 pints out of 5.

Grinbergen Double Ale

Color: Dark amber.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks but it did smell very sweet.

Taste: Malty and sweet with a bite at the end. We couldn't determine what caused the bite.

Comments: We bought this beer in Frisco, Texas on our trip to see the Jimmy Buffett concert. We rated it previously and didn't taste anything different this time.

Carol Rating: 1.

Rating: 3.5 pints.

Sol

Color: Golden

Taste: Hoppy and yeasty. A complex, lighter beer perfect for summer.

Comments: We discovered Sol in New Braunfels, Texas on one of our joint vacations with Dale and Carol to Schlitterbahn. We played cards at a picnic table outside our cabins until the wee hours of the morning drinking Sol (while the girls drank wine.) The cabins at Schlitterbahn are right inside the water park and at one point in the evening, a security apparatus may have been compromised on a dare. I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out.

Carol Rating: Abstained from rating Sol because she didn't try it.

Rating: 4 pints.