Latvia at the Landmark

The Sunday prior to Easter, my boys, mom and I went to the Landmark Center for one of their "trips" around the world. Sunday happened to be Latvia. We enjoyed learning about the culture, geography and government. There were Latvian dancers and singers. We learned that the oldest examples of mittens were found at an archaeological site in Latvia. My kids located the country on a map, viewed lots of pictures and really enjoyed the afternoon.


We also got to see traditionally dyed Easter eggs. It is inspiring us to attempt to do some like it. I think that would be incredible. We also toured the public exhibit owned by the Ramsey County Historical Society of the cyanotypes of the Mississippi River by Henry Bosse.


I was sad that my daughter didn't come with us, but she made the very grown up decision to stay and work on a paper she has been trying to finish. Standing outside the Landmark, we also got to see statues of Linus and Lucy from Schultz's cartoon Snoopy. Shultz was a Minnesota native and there are Linus, Lucy and Snoopy statues all over the city. Sadly, most of the Snoopy's were auctioned a while back and are no longer on public display.

Around the world at the Landmark Center

The Landmark Center in St. Paul--once the courthouse for Ramsey County, has since become the home to a number of smaller museums. Once housing the Traces Museum, it still holds events that can be quite fun to do while doing a lesson on world geography and customs. For several years, these events have included specific days to learn about the customs, traditions and culture of the world. They do about five countries a year and focus on different countries each year. We have only been able to attend a few times before.

The Scottish Bramble, though not formally a part of this, is another similar event that is held annually. We got to watch Scottish Country dancing that are modern recreations of traditional dances. There was also competitive dancing and we watched several girls do sword dancing--high stepping dancing over crossed swords. The boys had also been invited to help carry the "weaponry" upstairs into what
used to be a courtroom.

When we got upstairs, the boys participated in a demonstration. The discussion on young boys' training to become knights and the many violent ends they may have faced. Some of it may have been rather horrible, but the demonstration is definitely one they will remember. After, we went down and grabbed some food. There were several things available. Collin had onion and cheese pie. Kyle and I both had a pot-pie type dish made of onions and steak and was called a babies head. Alex has been talking about trying Haggis for some time. When the opportunity came to get some, she did so. She said it was really, really good. We would have liked to stay to listen to bag pipes, but we needed to head back home. We still had a great time.