January 13, 2003
I was finally able to see The Two Towers over the weekend. Past attempts have been foiled by Kiara's wanting to watch Fellowship again first, then by Owen's cold. Bringing a sick baby to a three-hour movie didn't seem like such a hot idea. Ironically, we ended up leaving him with his grandma when we went to the movie.
I liked it. It's great. Not gonna say more.
Okay, here's a confession: I haven't read all the books. I haven't even made it through The Fellowship of the Ring. I just don't much care for Tolkien's prose. It's a fine world he created, I just have little patience for reading his books.
The next day, we went to the Vikings exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. I had very much been looking forward to it, and I must say that on the whole it was enjoyable. What ends up happening whenever I go to a museum is I start out all excited, then before long the crowds and the exhibit begin to feel tedious and oppressive, I lose all energy, start to feel sick, and hurry through the rest of the exhibit so I can sit down and catch a breather. That's exactly what happened on Sunday.
Too, I think there's a good reason that there are pre-learning activities before kids go on field trips. I don't feel that I walked out of the exhibit knowing a whole lot more about the Vikings than I did when I went in. I'm sure I would have got a lot more out of it had I prepared by studying a little first. As it is, about a third of the way through, I'd seen more than my fill of evidence for Vikings being fishermen, farmers, etc., so wasn't terribly much in the mood for what would normally have held my interest: Viking legends/sagas and history of their exploration and travel.
Still glad I went.
