Dragons, Corn Mazes, Sunken Ships and Festivals

We went earlier this week to check out the new Dragons:Between Science and Fiction exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum and it was well worth the trip. I plan on going to see it again before it leaves in September. Right when you walk in there is a huge globe with fascinating metal sculptures of dragon representations from different parts of the world. Other highlights for me were a dancing baby dragon skeleton (weird and slightly creepy, but cute too), some carved wooden furniture and just reading a lot about the history of dragons. The exhibit is very well done, lots to see and the gallery created a good atmosphere for the exhibit.

Upstairs in one of the smaller galleries they also have an exhibit about a ship that sunk a couple of years after the Titanic- the Empress of Ireland. It's story is far less well known, likely because it sunk right around the time WWI started so the story was overshadowed. There are photos of the ship, stories from survivors, items retreived from the sunken ship and videos of what the ship looks like now on the bottom of the ocean. I was pleased to see they had a little toy boat table in the display as well so Blackbird Jr played while I was able to read more about the exhibit.

There are a couple of cool things coming soon to the city as well- one is the green festival my friend K told me about. It'll be at the Devonian Gardens and I've been meaning to go there for a while.

And, in honour of the Indy, check out this year's corn maze design! We will definitely be trying to navigate our way through it sometime this summer.



We've also been to the Street Performer's Festival twice this week and both times my favourite performer was Captain Arr. He does a show in the children's area that is well worth seeing. The second time we saw him both Mr Blackbird and the son of a friend got a chance to participate in the show as well. They have another children's magic show called Blizzard the Wizard but Blackbird Jr was pretty freaked when he put a box on his clown's head and stuck knives in it.. maybe save that one for the older kids.