Our trip through the snow

Early last week, I decided to schedule a long trip for Kathryn and I this weekend. I decided to drive us out to Davenport, Iowa on Friday afternoon, spend the night in a hotel, go see The Polar Express in IMAX 3D on Saturday, and drive home. Of course, I wasn't counting on having the biggest snow storm in decades on Friday morning!

I went out to shovel the driveway at 5:45 on Friday morning. An hour-and-a-half later I came back in, soaking from the very wet snow. 45 minutes after that, I couldn't tell that I'd already shoveled once -- it was snowing that much. It was about this time that I discovered (much to my relief) that FSC had closed for the day. Hurray!

But I still had to deal with the rest of the snow. So I went out at 9:00 to clear the driveway again. This time, the snow and I maintained a delicate truce until it started to taper off at 10:00. Kathryn came out to play for a while, and she managed to get herself stuck in a couple of snow drifts before retreating to safety indoors.

I knew the storm was supposed to end by noon, and the plows had already cleared most of the roads in our subdivision. So we decided to give the snowplows a few more hours, and then try to get as far as Rockford. I cancelled our reservation in Davenport and made a new one at the Comfort Inn in Rockford.

We left around 3:00 and arrived safely a few hours later. To entertain us on our drive, I packed my iPod with a few of Kathryn's favorite CDs. We sang along with her God of Wonders: Praise and Worship CD for most of the trip. Then she surprised me by asking to listen to one of my "mix" CDs. I'd played it once while Kathryn was in the car, and she really enjoyed the music from the different movies (especially Superman and Pirates of the Caribbean). She also loves Charlie Peacock's In the Light and Message Boy (which should make Bill and Paul very happy).

That night we went swimming in the hotel pool, and spent some time in the hot tub (all that shoveling was murder on my back and shoulders). Kathryn was a very good girl the whole time. (Of course, she's normally happy when she has our undivided attention).

The next morning we rose early to grab some breakfast in the hotel lobby (for some reason, the hotel breakfast is one of Kathryn's favorite things to do when at a hotel on vacation). Then we started down to Davenport. The roads were much clearer today, with just the occasional patch of packed snow. Unfortunately (as normally happens in cold weather), the wiper fluid froze up, and the trucks on the highway were kicking up great quantities of salt. I pulled over several times to pour extra fluid on the windshield. Once, while trying to thaw the wiper fluid, I couldn't get the hood to latch for a few minutes -- the spring on the catch had frozen. I spent a few minutes in fervent prayer until it finally caught again.

But finally, after many trials, we made it to the Putnam Museum and IMAX Theater in Davenport. For some unknown reason, Kathryn absolutely loves The Polar Express. We went to see it in the theater with my mom and sister when it first came out. And that was probably Kathryn's earliest memory of a theater-experience. And after that, my Mom used The Polar Express soundtrack to put Kathryn to sleep whenever Kathryn stayed overnight at Mom's house. So maybe that explains why she loves that movie so much.

As for me, I remembered it as a cute movie, but nothing spectacular. But this IMAX 3D version completely blew me away! I have never enjoyed a movie experience as much as I enjoyed this one (not even when compared with the first time I saw Fellowship)! The 3D process was absolutely perfect for this movie, with its long shots and picturesque camera moves. Most movies have too much action to work in 3D, because when the picture moves too quickly the 3D just becomes a blur. But this was absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful! If you ever have a chance to see The Polar Express in the IMAX 3D format, do it! It's amazing!

Then we just drove home, singing nursery rhymes, worship songs, or Christmas songs most of the way. It was a very tiring trip, but all-in-all I'm glad we went.