Conservatory or greenhouse?

We went to the conservatory at Como Zoo a few days ago, and it was exactly as I had remembered. I've been there dozens of times over the years, and this time was no different than the last few.

For those of you that haven't been there, let me tell you a little about what it actually is. It's a giant greenhouse. Full of plants from all over the world, even in the winter it has a tropical feel to it. There ponds with coi fish in them, an entire room dedicated to the wide variety of ferns that grow all over the planet, and more flowers than I care to count. It really is a magical oasis in the frozen tundra of the Minnesota winter. Today at least, the magic was manifested in the flesh before our very eyes, in the form of what appeared to be a wizard overlooking one of the ponds as seen here. He's the bearded man on the right, holding a staff topped with a crystal ball.

All kidding aside, the place is pretty cool. Many of the plants have little fact plates by them, they tell you little insights about the plants, and if they were, or are, believed to have some sort of medicinal value.

There's not really much else to say about the place. It's not very often we have an opportunity for a tropical getaway here in Minnesota in March, and all for the price of free, if you choose not to donate.

Artefacts, Asian food and State Authorities

King Tut is on tour, and he's in St.Paul right now. Well, he's not exactly here, but some of his furniture is. We traveled to the Science Museum to see the Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs exhibit. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photographs of the exhibit. But, I can tell you what you missed if you haven't seen it and more importantly, what you didn't miss.

The exhibit is full of amazing statues from all over ancient Egypt, covering thousands of years of the countries historical leaders. You'll see granite statues that are expertly carved, even down to the fine little engravings they used to represent necklaces and other jewelry. It's truly amazing what they were able to accomplish given the tools we attribute to them. Sure, everybody knows what the great pyramids look like. They're amazing sights to behold, and the fact that they were even able to be constructed is amazing, let alone the precision of their craftsmanship. But at the exhibit, we were looking at the micro, instead of the macro. The craftsmanship of some of the necklaces (called pectorals) was unbelievable! Gold was fashioned into tiny little loops, hundreds of them on one necklace, and within the loops sat perfectly cut semi-precious stones. The best way to describe it is amazing.

You would've also seen some of the furniture used during that time. They had a bed, a chair, and a toilet seat on display. Looking at these things one can't help but notice two things; the craftsmanship is excellent, and these people were tiny in comparison to modern people.

What you wouldn't have seen is King Tut's remains. You wouldn't have seen his sarcophagus, death mask, or any other part of what he was actually buried in. They had a representation of his mummy, but not the real thing. They had some of the amulets that adorned his body, but none of the many coffins he was actually buried in. When we think of Howard Carter and his discovery of Tut's tomb, the first thing that comes to many of our minds is that golden faced coffin with it's blue painted headdress.

I can understand not having the actual mummy. It's probably extremely fragile and moving it across the world would be too risky. But to not have the coffins, or anything else we would normally associate with Tut, that was disappointing. Overall the exhibit was good. Not great, and a little disappointing, but I did see some very impressive things that I'll never have an opportunity to see again.

After we left the museum, we needed to eat. Since our group project is on Frogtown, we decided that would be a great place to find some food. We went down University Ave, in the heart of Frogtown, and saw Mai Village, a Vietnamese restaurant.

The food was good, and it was pretty cheap. I ordered the pork and fries rice lunch special for $9, and it covered the entire plate. Sure, I was hungry again about two hours later, but the food was great the the atmosphere was traditional.

After we ate, we headed to our state capitol building. From the outside, the building is impressive. But when you get inside, it becomes even more impressive.

We took a tour of the building and visited the state supreme court room, the legislature room and the governors office. The building itself is full of marble and granite, with carved wooden embellishments adorning almost every niche. Like the Landmark Center, it has some staircases that make my stomach turn.

After our tour, we visited the Vietnam memorial. The black stone monument has the names of all the Minnesotans that lost their lives in the war, and it's dedicated to their memory as well as the memories of those that are still missing. It's impressive to see, as most monuments are, but it's also somewhat depressing seeing all of the names of those we've lost.

On that note, we left our state capitol. We saw things that some will never have the chance to see, and learned a little about our state government along the way.

Landmark center and St.Paul

We made the trek to St.Paul Sunday to visit the Landmark center. It's a pretty easy drive. We took highway 65 to 694 to 35E, then took the wabasha exit, right on 7th, left on 5th and we were there. We parked in the Macy's ram, which is free on Sundays and disembarked.

After walking about two blocks, we saw the building.

The building itself is huge, and quite impressive to look at. There are little alcoves when you are in some of the rooms that you can see here, on the exterior they look like the turrets of a castle.

When we got inside, the place was awash in color. There was an event going on today called: Urban Expedition; Chile!, and there were many people dressed in the traditional garb of a Chilean celebration. The floor was covered in chairs and tables, as well as a stage, where performers were dancing in well choreographed routines that are traditional in Chile.

Since the floor was mostly covered, it was impossible to see very much of the tile work on it. But I could see enough of it to recognize the patterns reflected the massive skylight overhead.

We browsed around at the offerings of the vendors, all of which were reflective of Chile or Chilean culture, some of which were very nice and quite interesting.

Our attention then turned to the building itself. On the walls were pictures from the long history of the building which at one time was a courthouse, a government building, a post office and an office building. Heading to the second floor, we passed all kinds of different doors like this one.

John Dillinger was here, along with many other famous, or infamous, mobsters from just after the turn on the century and into the 1940's. Was he held in his room? I don't know, but just the fact that he, and others, called St.Paul home for some time is fascinating to me. There were old political cartoons on the wall depicting images of prohibition, as well as many other interesting moments in time. These walls have seen more history than any of us could imagine.

On the second floor, we entered The Schubert Club museum. The first thing we saw upon entering was this...

The statue is composed of hundreds of instruments that are no longer usable. All of the instruments were donated by Bill Kugler upon his death. He was a collector of instruments and a music teacher, and donated several thousand instruments in his will. These were some of the ones that were no longer playable, so instead of throwing them away they were incorporated into this monument to music. Continuing through the gallery we saw pianos, harpsichords and hundreds of hand written letters from some of the most influential composers the world has ever seen. We saw instruments from across the globe, and the museum itself seemed to travel forward through time and track the history of music.

We even saw an Edison phonograph, just like the one we have at home and both are pictured here.

Continuing on, we went to the upper levels of the building. We explored the courtrooms, admired the craftsmanship involved in making the various fixtures, and the views from the turrets. I always get a little weak kneed when looking down from great heights, so the view from the balcony and the top of the staircases was a little unsettling.

Overall, the building and exhibits were pretty cool. Many of the upper level spaces have been turned into offices for various people or companies, but the history of the place itself is still there.

Now, it was time to eat. I was starving, so we walked a block north to a place called The Great Waters Brewing Company to get some food. The food was awesome! I had something called The London Broil, and Cori had a hamburger with mushrooms on it. I was also thirsty, so I ordered the beer sampler. It came with ten different beers, all of them four ounces, and all of them brewed right there.

Overall, it was a good trip. I like small, out of the way places like The Great Water Brewing Company because the food is usually very good, the service is awesome, and it's not too expensive. It was well worth the $50 bill for what we got.

That's all for now, I'm looking forward to our next outing!