continued… We noticed it was nearly time for the IMAX movie about the northern lights to begin, so we headed back down to the first floor and lined up outside the IMAX theater. At the time the movie was supposed to start, we were still lined up. We’d expected them to open the doors to let us in, but instead they turned on a video that gave us some basic information that would help us to understand the main feature better. After that short video ended, they opened the door to the theater, and we quickly got seated. They told us no photography was allowed after Christi took this shot of the images that were being shown during seating.

It was a story told from the perspective of one of the deities from their traditional Norse mythology. She explained a little bit about astronomy and that other planets, as well as our moon, also had special activity at their north poles. She explained what the magnetosphere was and how it reacted to electromagnetic field (EMF) bursts that came from the sun, why the EMF bursts created auroral lights, etc. The video did an excellent job of explaining complicated science in an easy to understand manner, while also blending the science with some local folklore. Visually speaking, the film was stunning. The images of the auroral lights and the celestial bodies were gorgeous. There were also some folklore images weaved in there that were also beautiful.

When movie let out, we took the elevator up to the cafe on the 5th floor for a latte (Christi) and lemonade (Keith). It was the top floor of the building, and it was a dome with a 360-degree view of the city. The latte was just as good as the one she’d gotten yesterday. She was pretty sure they used the same magical milk.

Continued… We were promptly escorted into a small amphitheater with uncomfortable bench seating. They showed a film of a recent volcano eruption with footage taken from drones above the crater. It was shown on a big screen and was very impressive footage – there were even shots looking into the crater. There were lots of images of lava exploding out of the crater. There was an image of people standing at the edge of the crater where they could easily be killed by particles from exploding lava. There was footage of a crowd standing at the edge of a flow, congregated right where the lava stopped.

From there, we were escorted into another room. It looked like a small theater with a movie screen, a flat floor, and individual seats. We were directed to sit down. These seats were much more comfortable. At first we thought it was going to be another lava movie, but it turned out to be a 3-D simulator ride. The floor was glass and the movie was projected on three of the walls, the ceiling, and under the floor. The story was that we were inside a drone. It drove down under the water very deep into a volcanic crater. The crater was somehow protected from the water and was dry inside, which felt like a plot hole in the story. The drone landed on the dirt floor, then zoomed forward to where the lava was pushing up through a fissure. We flew over the fissure, then had to escape up quickly to outrun the lava. Then we were flying over the crater and the ride ended. Keith said the ride was creepy and he didn’t like it. Christi liked it better than Keith did, but she didn’t love it. She probably would have liked it more if it were a mellow experience than a death defying thrill ride.

When the ride ended, the group was escorted into the ice tunnel. It was the only indoor ice tunnel in the world, and it was a recreation of the tunnel that Eric had gone to yesterday. It was real ice and they kept the temperature at 32-degrees Fahrenheit. There was a main tunnel that was tall enough to stand in and a few off shoot tunnels that were lower — we needed stoop over to get through those. There was the volcanic ash lines that Eric had told us about.

There was simulation of the crevasse that Eric had told us about.