Two Must-See Exhibits at Scranton's Everhart Museum (live, price)

[SteelCityRising]

Yesterday my partner and I decided to hit up Scranton for a wonderful date. He enjoys Nay Aug Park, so I figured we'd head on up to check out the Everhart Museum, as I have never been there before. I must say that I was very impressed by how inexpensive it was to gain entry---it was just $5 for him and $3 for me with my student ID. For just $8 he and I both left the museum a couple of hours later much changed people.

On the museum's second-floor are two different exhibits that I'd highly-recommend you all check out (without your children though). The one wing of the second-floor highlights the genocide in Rwanda of the early-1990s. There are many images of sad looking women and their children, some with tears in their eyes. The most moving part of the exhibit though is to take the time to actually read all of the plaques adorning the walls next to the images. I felt my eyes tearing up to read about all of the suffering and strife these women endured. One woman said that rebels stormed into her church and attacked the community with machetes. She had three children, so insinctually she grabbed her first-born and darted for the exit. She and her child were pushed to the ground in all of the chaos, and they played dead while their friends and neighbors were sliced and diced to death around them. She and her child were the only survivors. I also read with much grief about numerous mothers who had no love for their children because they had been victims of rape by these savages as young teenagers, and looking into the eyes of their young just vividly reminded them of enduring those attacks. One woman even said that whenever she had some extra money or came across something nice she would give them to her niece instead of her daughter because she felt nothing for a child born from rape. A number of these women had contracted HIV from their assaults, and it pained me to read that the average life expectancy in Rwanda is just to your early-40s as a result of the high presence of AIDS. Another woman who contracted HIV from the attacks said she was unable to love again. She'd try to have committed relationships with men, but when the time came for them to become intimate she'd call things off to protect them from her disease. You truly need to read these plaques to understand the struggles these poor women went through. It's times like these I'm glad I'm a male---I'd just be instantly murdered as opposed to being held captive for months and raped multiple times by dozens of men as these poor women were.

The other exhibit is also very moving and graphic. Over 100 photographers from around the world were either killed or are still unaccounted for as a result of the Vietnam War, but many of their cameras and other works have since shown up. There is a pictorial book called Requiem that is the basis for this exhibit, which honors those who gave their lives to spread the horrors of Vietnam to the rest of the world. I read about one particular photographer from Time Magazine who was killed doing the work he loved. He was with a small crew and told them he was heading out for a few minutes to get a few shots of a conflict that had just arisen. Just five minutes later the crew heard a loud boom; the poor photographer had stepped on a land mine. The last image he took just moments before his death was on display in the exhibit. Most of the pictures aren't very gory or offensive, but they'll certainly make you appreciate the enormous sacrifices our brave men and women of a generation ago made for our nation.

Cody and I enjoyed our visit to the Everhart, and we were very moved by it. We then headed to Faccia Luna for an early dinner at about 4:30 PM. We both enjoyed our salads (my salad dressing was to die for), and we ordered an appetizer of breadsticks with cheese. To our surprise the breadsticks were actually more like a flat-bread pizza, and we enjoyed every bite! We both wanted ravioli, but we were told they couldn't make them on Saturdays for some odd reason, so we settled for the fettucine alfredo. What a mistake! Neither one of us enjoyed our entree. We both thought the sauce was rather bland---it didn't have the "cheesy" flavor one would expect from an alfredo sauce. My pasta had some pieces that weren't thoroughly-cooked and were kind of chewy. The meal was saved though with some great desserts---Cody inhaled his tira misu, and even though I've had better NY-style cheesecake, their offering wasn't bad for the price.

I highly recommend that everyone go experience these two wonderful exhibits at the Everhart followed by lunch or dinner somewhere in the city. I'd recommend the Faccia Luna in West Side; I just would never order the fettucine alfredo ever again.