It's a Harry Potter World

It's over. That's it. No more new Harry Potter.

If we could pause for a moment of silence and copious weeping.

Naomi and I realized that we would be in Toronto on the night of the midnight release. We had already planned on going a day early to do some sightseeing, as I talked about on Tuesday, but now we were really glad we had, because there's no way we could have gone to the midnight release at home, gotten to bed at 3 and then left in any kind of decent time on Friday to make it in time for Polaris.

So we ordered tickets online, finding a theatre only 5 minutes and a straight shot from our hotel. Yeah!

It was a huge fancy theatre. I have never been to one like this.

It looked much more impressive at night with a million neon lights
But I forgot to take a picture then

Trelawney has a prediction for you!

What is wrong with my face?

We got there early, not sure how the line would be, and it was pretty long already. We decided to dress up, because - come on! - it's the last Harry Potter for goodness sake! When we got there we didn't see anyone else in costume and I felt a little weird (Naomi would say I was a lot weird, but whatever) anyhoo.


Once we got inside it was better. Not because a lot of people were dressed up, because they weren't, but because of the whole atmosphere. The place was charged with anticipation, Potter love, and good natured Muggleness.

We got in line and after a while, they shifted us all forward. Our line snaked into this side entrance, which was basically a concrete floored, cinder block walled, hallway with no ventilation. Fortunately we discovered that the doors at the end of the hall led outside and were not alarmed. Naomi and I stood by the door and sang the Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog soundtrack to amuse ourselves.

Finally they let us into our theatre, but there was still at least half an hour before the movie started. Naomi and I had great fun listening to the conversations around us. Two girls to my right kept trying to one up each other with horror stories from their childhood. Everything from stove burns to wasp swarms. It was pretty hilarious.

Then. The movie.

I thought it was really well done. It was very satisfying and a solid ending to the movie series. I won't say anything more, because I avoid spoilers, so I'll just say I enjoyed it.

But the best part of the whole thing was the way the audience reacted. I've never experienced anything like it before. Not even when I went to the midnight release of Half Blood Prince. I don't know if it's Canada, if it's because it was the last movie, or if it was just the group of people in the room, but it was amazing. Everyone gasped, cheered, booed, clapped, awwwed, laughed, and just generally interacted with the happenings on the screen, but without being distracting or detracting from the movie. In my opinion it enhanced it and I will look back on that night with special fondness whenever I think about the final book or movie.

Have you seen it yet? Are you planning on seeing it? Did you like it? No spoilers please!
:D

Two for Tuesday: Toronto!

I'm Ba-ack!

It was such a fun weekend and Naomi and I had a blast. We drove up a day early so we could spend some time sightseeing. Being the nerdy sisters that we are, we did not do the "normal" spots most people visit in Toronto.

Here we are waiting for the bus

1. We went to the Toronto Reference Library.
Oh. My. Werd. This place is huge and gorgeous and I totally wish I lived close to it. There's even a waterfall inside, but it was under renovation, so we couldn't really get the full effect. :(
But the rest of it? So worth it.

Those are elevators in the center. They're glass, so you can see  everything as you ride

How cool is it having the plants growing over the edges?!

Are you drooling yet?

Plants! Everywhere!

The books. Oh the books! And the plants and the ... everything. Seriously. We just walked around kind of drooling.

2. We also went to the Lilliam H. Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library.

Guarding the library entrance

Guard, guard, guard

Yes, that's right. One library is not good enough for the Thompson sisters. No, we must go to two. :) But the real reason we went there is because it is the home of the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books. They have a whole room dedicated to displays of children's books of various kinds, shapes, and sizes. So. Cool.

The theme right now is reptile/amphibians. There were glass cases with books laid flat, and each one had a theme, like Frog, or Crocodile, or Tortoise. And then all the books inside were connected with that theme and there were little plastic frogs or crocodiles or turtles. For example, they might have a case with an early copy of Frog and Toad are Friends along with a copy of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass open to the page with the frog messenger and a copy of a children's natural history with a page about frogs and their habitats and habits and then a book of children's poetry with a poem about a frog. So much fun.

I love this t-shirt! 

There were also larger display cases where they had a series on the Franklin books. These had sketches and paintings from the artist and stuffed animals and books and other things connected with it. They had a whole shelf of things on Aesop's tale of the tortoise and the hare with books ranging in size and illustrations. We couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was well worth the trip since Naomi and I love children's books so much.

I don't think she's making out with the gryphon, but I'm not sure.

So that was pretty much all we did - we walked through downtown to get from one to the other and had a lot of fun doing that, but we didn't "go" anywhere else. Maybe next time we'll see some of the more "traditional" sights, but we had fun!

Do you like to visit out of the norm places when you go on vacation? Have you ever visited a super cool library?