Overnight train+Coach class seats=no sleep. Then add in 8 hours of driving after getting off the train, and you have 20 straight hours of travel on about 20 minutes worth of sleep, resulting in two deliriously tired travelers. The end result of this long equation: Thursday was Not a Fun Day.
But! On Friday we awoke from the sleep of the dead in Decorah, Iowa, to find that they were beginning their Norway Fest. I saw a man with a grossly large belly on the street corner wearing a t-shirt that read "Lefse Fed." I will tell you right now that there is no way his gut was the result of a surplus of Norwegian flat bread. A more truthful t-shirt would have read "Twinkie and Budweiser Fed." BUT ANYWAY . . . There is a really good Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah. I thought it would be lame and podunk, but it turned out to be four floors plus outdoor exhibits. Two thumbs up.
And then, because I am a huge geek, we drove to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. One of the great trips of my life was visiting the "Farmer Boy" museum in upstate New York, so of course we had to go to this one. I make no apologies for my excitement about this museum. I was on the banks of Plum Creek, y'all. It was a highlight.
After that, it was time to stop indulging ourselves and meet up with my family for the actual reason for this trip. Speaking completely objectively, I can say with authority that my niece is definitely more intelligent, adorable, and advanced than most 2-month-olds. Nope, no bias here.
The Catholic church the baptism was in was incredibly beautiful. It's in the middle of a tiny town in Nowhere, Minnesota (not its actual name), but those German immigrants that built the church threw all their Germanic love of wood carving and ornamentation into this thing. It looked like a cathedral. Very cool.
Saturday was our fifth wedding anniversary. We celebrated by totally forgetting about it. I remembered about 8 p.m., went outside to wish A. a happy anniversary, he replied in kind, and then we went back to drinking beer with my family.
Sunday we went to Minneapolis to meet with my friend Sarah. I hadn't seen her in a few years, and she looks all sophisticated with pretty highlights in her hair and nice nails. I wish I could pull that off. I could try, but I don't think it would impress the sheep much.
Monday we were in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. Have you ever seen the Mustard Museum on the Travel Channel or the Food Network? That's in Mt. Horeb. We went there, it was kind of interesting, I bought some mustard and felt cool for actually going to a place that was featured on the Travel Channel. Then we went to Little Norway, which has not been featured on the Travel Channel but should be because it was a lot better than the Mustard Museum.
Little Norway is the largest privately owned museum in the U.S. It's an old farm settled by Norwegian immigrants (duh) with all the original buildings and tons of Norwegian antiques. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the Mt. Horeb area. But what are the chances of that, right?
We stayed in three different hotels/motels on this trip. The motels were all classic A. picks, meaning built in the 1960s with ugly architecture, real keys instead of cards, room doors opening to the parking lot, and costing less than $60 a night. The hotel was a Holiday Inn that we stayed in with my family. It cost twice as much as the motels and was twice as unpleasant. There was a Little League tournament in town, so my conservative estimate is that there were five million children screaming and racing around the pool area to the background music of bass-thumping tween bands. The pool was open until 11 p.m., and all the rooms, ALL OF THEM, overlooked the pool. Little punks kept me awake. Am I a grumpy old lady? Yes. NOW GO TO BED, YOU ROTTEN KIDS!
However, is there anything better than lying in bed in an air conditioned hotel/motel room watching "I Love the 70's" on the VH1 Classics channel? Not if you don't have air conditioning or cable at home, there isn't.
Our rental car was a Kia Reo. It didn't have cruise control and seemed a little reluctant to start. But it did have air conditioning, which gives it an immediate advantage over both of our P.O.S. vehicles, AND it got 40 miles to the gallon. Let me repeat that: 40, four zero, miles to the gallon. Sweet.
So there you have it: A brief recap of the travels of A. and Kristin. Now I must wrestle with the Grasshole for an intensive lawn-mowing session. It's good to be home.
12 comments:
It's good to have you back, Half Pint! And a belated happy anniversary to you. Sounds like you had a good trip, lack of sleep aside.
Welcome back. Glad to hear you didn't fall asleep at the wheel and die. Although I'd love to see what you posted to tell us all about that: "Of course I fell asleep. It was 9:15 p.m., which is clearly past my bedtime. Did you know dieing doesn't suck any less in a ruffly white skirt?"
By the way, how long had you been with A. before you started saying "y'all" without irony?
happy anniversary to you too. ours was about as mellow as yours. glad you are back.
yay! you're home.
that pool you speak of sounds like the one Clark and family visited in Vacation.
Welcome home.
You don't seem quite as excited about trains in this post ;)
Sara found a typo in this post. Oh, the shame. But I fixed it before anyone else could mock me, and that right there is the beauty of writing online. I highly recommend all you other bloggers get a proofreader to check your blog for you. I'll even do it for my standard rate of $15 per hour.
And Sara--I tried to respond to your e-mail, but Yahoo was being a bastard and wouldn't send the message. So thanks, man. I feel better knowing you got my back.
Oh, we ALL saw it... we just thought you were tired. Yeah. That's the story. :)
Why should I pay you? I got the impression the schadenfreude alone was your reward.
I was worried you were mad about the correction, Kristin. As you know, some people don't take kindly to being corrected. And I think when I finished reading your post earlier, I found another one (gasp!). But I don't remember now where it was, because I should be in bed, not writing responses on blogs. And we should totally start a blog proofreading business!
Yeah! You are back!!!
Happy belated anniversary.
I have to ask - did you have any cheese curds? It is my understanding that one cannot linger in Minnesota or Wisconsin for more than 5 minutes without having the opportunity to eat cheese curds. As I've heard wildly different opinions on whether cheese curds are good or horrific, I am curious.
Kristin -
I recently re-read all of my Laura I.W. books (my mom saved them for me). I devoured them when I was young - and I am happy to say that I was just as impressed/affected by them as an adult. Even more so - Ma making cheese and putting up all of the food... omg. So cool!
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