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

A Balmy 9 Degrees

As it has been extremely cold here of late (-30°F without the windchill), and is now fabulously warm at 9°F this morning, I thought I'd post a funny all about Minnesota...

Minnesota Temperature Conversion Chart

60° F.: Southern Californians shiver uncontrollably.
Minnesotans sunbathe.

50° F.: New Yorkers try to turn on the heat.
Minnesotans plant gardens.

40° F.: Italian and English cars won’t start.
Minnesotans drive with the windows down.

32° F.: Distilled water freezes.
Crane Lake’s water gets thicker.

20° F.: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
Minnesotans throw on a flannel shirt.

15° F.: New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
Minnesotans have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0° F.: All the people in Miami die.
Minnesotans close the windows.

-10° F.: Californians fly away to Mexico
The Girl Scouts in Minnesota are selling cookies door-to-door.

-25° F.: Hollywood disintegrates.
Minnesotans get out their winter parkas.

-40° F.: Washington, D.C., runs out of hot air.
Minnesotans let the dogs sleep indoors.

-100° F.: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Minnesotans get frustrated because they can’t start their cars.

-460° F.: All atomic motion stops (absolute zero on the Kelvin scale).
Minnesotans start saying, “Cold ‘nuff for ya?”

-500° F.: Hell freezes over.
The Vikings win the Super Bowl.