A Visit To The Red River Valley Fair – Fargo, North Dakota

Science fiction fans can get into their Halloween spirit on air when L.A. Theatre Works begins broadcasting two radio plays adapted from the work of H.G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle beginning Saturday, October 29, 2011.

Criminal Minds (CBS, 9pm) – NEW! The team travels to Detroit to catch a killer who, for the past three years, strikes on “Devil’s Night,” the city’s pre-Halloween ritual.

The oldest (and one of the largest) toy retailer in North America, this is definitely an attraction you want to visit, even if you don’t have children. The scope of this toy store is so massive that it will take your breath away. Even if you are a hardened adult, you will feel like a child again. If you have ever seen the movie Big, you will recognize the giant floor piano. If you jump on the various keys, the corresponding noise will come out. All in all this is a animatronic dinosaur manufacturers magical experience.

The dinosaurs were created between the years of 1934 and 1967 by Paul Domke, a devout Lutheran who created them out of a mixture of concrete, deer hair, and gravel, built over a steel and metal foundation. The largest is about 80 feet long. He based his work on the skeletons he’d seen in the Chicago Field Museum and the Smithsonian. The creatures are spread out over a 40 acre area, which includes some 25 varieties of Michigan trees. (The trees are real.) There are even a few cave men on the premises (I said this wasn’t scientific), engaged in activities like killing mastodons, and fighting off a giant snake.

But that unfortunate experience at the Planetarium has not spoiled me from enjoying all that the Science Center has to offer. And there’s so much to choose from. There’s the Omnimax Theater, complete with a wraparound screen and something like 50 loudspeakers, it really puts you right in the middle of the action. So much so that some people get dizzy and have to put their heads down between their legs.

The Zoo’s traditional “Zoo-Plex” will become the “Dino-Plex” with full size and half size dinosaur models, some animatronics models for lifelike action, and exhibits detailing the diet and habits of particular dinosaurs.

So come on down to the Science Center and check out these displays and all of the other neat stuff that they have to offer. You’ll feel all the enthusiasm of when you were in science class in school.