Cavalia

Mom and I outside the Cavalia tent in St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Bar in Cooper

Surprise for me!!!  So, my mom wouldn’t tell me what we were doing, but we got off of work at 4:30 p.m., and headed down to the Cities for a birthday present for me.  We ate at Cooper, an Irish Pub, which I found out as we were walking from the parking garage to the pub was in St. Louis Park, and it was awesome!  The outside of the building was new looking, and really interesting, architecturally, but once we got inside I was stunned!  The inside looked like a building from the 1800s, with a carved wood bar (created in Ireland and shipped over for the restaurant) and frescoes painted above the bar and merging into the trey ceiling, which had very unique chandeliers, surrounded by some awesome design work.  I had Two Gingers Chicken (grilled chicken sandwich with 2 Gingers Whiskey sauce, cheese, bacon, and a grilled pineapple ring) and fries, and it was great!   



Ceiling and chandelier at Cooper

We left Cooper about 7:20 p.m., and in the distance, there was a huge white tent.  I still had no clue what it was or what we were doing, but figured we were going there.  I was right.  As we got closer, I saw signs for Cavalia.  I had seen billboards for it all over I-94, but I didn’t know what it was, so mom had to explain it to me; however, once she had done that, I was totally excited!  We entered the tent just at sunset, and got a couple of bookmarks and the “program” booklet, before heading to our seats.

Me just inside the enterence of the first tent before going into the main tent

The first thing I would say about the show/performance is that it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  As my mom said, it was like a ballet for horses.  I would say it was an interwoven, intricate combination of Cirque du Soleil, a horse show, and a ballet.  As we sat in our seats, waiting for the performance to begin, the image on the center screen on stage rippled like water, while the side screens had the name of the show. 

View of the stage before the performance began with spotlights on the toys

On the stage itself were various toys that were in the form of horses:  stuffed horses, rocking horses, and even a wooden box with horses carved into it.  The lights went out, and two of the newest members of the Cavalia cast came on stage…two colts!  They were so adorable!  Soon, the performers all came onstage and the screens rose revealing an oval, dirt stage with a background full of cave paintings.  There seemed to me to be an unstated theme of time over the whole production.  There were pictures on the screens during the various acts that went from cave drawings, to the Roman Coliseum, to ancient arches and Asian stone statutes, and then a spring, summer, fall, and winter series. 

Carousel

My favorite portion of the program was called Carousel.  Carousel is pretty much just like it sounds; there were between four and eight white horses that “marched’ around the stage/ring and they were so beautiful!  They were perfectly straight, and then they would fan out from one end to the other at an angle in time with each other so it looked like they flowed back and forth.  When they rounded around corners they did it so that the horse closest to the inside corner pretty much stayed still and the others fanned out around him at an angle.  It is so hard to describe, but was so majestic. 

The whole performance was so beautiful and enjoyable, I’d encourage anyone who can go to do so.

Although we couldn’t take pictures during the performance, I found a few online that I’m including here because they were just so beautiful!

Bungee

Mirror

La Vida

Poste

Voltige en Rond

The Anvil of God's Word

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime:
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

"How many anvils have you had," said I,
"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he, and then, with twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."

And so, thought I, the anvil of God's word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed . . . the hammer's gone.

-- Author Unknown

King Tut Exhibit

Mom and I outside the line to get into the exhibit.

Mom and I went down to the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul to see the exhibit “Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs.” I had thought the exhibit went through October, but it was actually ending the next day, so Mom and I went down so we wouldn’t miss it. It was great! Mom and I left after church, and did a quick drive through at Mickie D’s for lunch. We got to the Science Museum about an hour before the Omni Theater movie time, so we hit the gift shop first. Mom got a necklace and earrings and we both got the exhibit book for the last exhibit at the Science Museum, The Dead Sea Scrolls, off the clearance shelves for only $2 each – great buy! Next, we headed out and looked around at some of the exhibits, which were neat.

Finally, our 3pm movie, Mummies, was about to start, so we headed to the Omni Theater. The movie was really cool, and I really enjoyed it. It was all about mummification, and why and how the Egyptians did it. The film went back and forth between “ancient” times and modern times. After the film, Mom and I had about 45 minutes before our entrance time into the King Tut exhibit. We wandered around the human body area and saw some icky and interesting things!



The entrance area to the King Tut exhibit

 Finally, at about 4:20pm, we headed over to the line for King Tut! After a few pictures, we headed in, got our audio tour, and went into the outer room for a short introductory video. The exhibit had about 15 separate rooms, and all were walled like stone, with pillars and frescoes around the room. There were a ton of pieces in the exhibit from various Pharaohs during the “golden age” of the New Kingdom.

I went to the "King Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit in Chicago in 2005, and this exhibit was very different, which I really enjoyed. The Chicago exhibit included more items from King Tut’s tomb, and had some items from the previous three Pharaohs, mainly jewelry and small statutes and items at that exhibit, and plenty of them. This exhibit had many more statues, most especially large ones, but less items from King Tut’s tomb. Also at this exhibit, there was information at the end about the DNA process done on King Tut (done in 2009/2010), which was very interesting.

Here are some of the major pieces I got to see: 

The exquisite gold death mask of Psusennes I

 

The largest image of King Tut ever unearthed at 10 feet tall, made of quartzite and found at the site of the funerary temple of Tut’s high officials



A dazzling and intricate gold canopic coffinette that held King Tut’s mummified stomach



Up close view of the coffinette

Not pictured:

-- Gold sandals and finger and toe coverings found on King Tut’s mummy

-- A bed that King Tut most likely used in life

-- An imposing colossal bust of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), King Tut’s father

-- A sarcophagus that held a “royal” cat

-- Statues of prominent pharaohs, including Khafre, builder of the Great Sphinx and one of the pyramids at Giza; Hatshepsut, the queen who became a pharaoh; and Ramesses the Great