It's odd growing up in such a tourist Meccha as Los Angeles and not doing the little touristy things. As you all know, I celebrated my birthday on the 17th (as you might not know, I turned 29), and last weekend, I visited, for the first time, the Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum, the Guiness Book of World Records Museum and the Wax Museum, all for the low price of a $26 admission combined!

Each museum is but a stone's throw from one another in Hollywood. The Ripley museum is, in retrospect, a carnival freakshow that is fascinating but in poor taste (most of it). A lot of it is dedicated to freakish things that have happened to people, from the man who had a gland burst in his head when he was two, thus causing him to gain weight uncontrollably until he died at 1049 lbs at the age of 32 to the men who could withstand temperatures of 350 for half an hour at a time witout breaking a sweat to the tribe of native peoples who get their lips disked or their necks extended to fifteen inches long. There was a room of optical and audio illusions, and a real vampire hunting kit from the 1800s, too, so not everything was freakshow.

The Guiness museum was, all things considered, relatively uninteresting. It wasn't so much things to look at as tons of stuff to read. Very few of the facts actually interested me (though I liked the domino run of 100,000,000 dominoes. That was pretty cool).

The wax museum I appreciated as an artist. ~Emiko-Cothran and I marveled at the sculpter's skill. She more than I, I think. She compaired it to singing. She wishes she could sing like me while I wish I could sing like (pick a professional who sings better than me). I wish I could sculpt like her while she wishes she could sculpt like the people who make the figures in the museum. I think my favorite display was when we travelled down into the New York sewers and saw the Ninja Turtles. XD <--(is a geek)

All in all, if you ever get the chance, I'd recommend visiting these three museums. I think it took us about five to six hours combined, and that's with a lunch break inbetween. And even if you don't want to see all three and are only interested in two of them, it's cheaper to buy a ticket to all three and just skip one.