For five days my second cousin and his wife, Heine and Kari, from Norway, came to Northfield. We had a nice visit, and we were able to, once again, show off our town and southern Minnesota.
First we took them to a small town 4th of July celebration – the oldest ongoing celebration in Minnesota. North Morristown has put on a 4th of July celebration for 131 years, serving homemade pie, food offerings at concessions stands and live music. We enjoyed listening to the blue grass band Monroe Crossing, and traipsing over muddy paths for food, in-between rain storms.
Fireworks in Northfield were delayed until the next evening due to the rain. We walked down the street from our house to watch them on Friday, July 5th .
We visited other relatives in the area…our grandfathers are the link. They were brothers…one went to America, the other stayed in Norway.
Scheel’s, in the Eden Prairie Center, was a fun place to look around, especially for a hunter, which Heine is. But the home décor portion of the store is lovely to peruse too.
Eating outside, when possible, either on our deck or at a restaurant is always nice in the summertime and it was possible much of the time Heine and Kari were with us.
We went on a day trip to Winona. We stopped at Lark Toys in Kellogg for fun, and had a picnic lunch on the banks of the flooded Mississippi River.
We enjoyed the gardens around the Minnesota Marine Art Museum and went inside for a look around.
We stopped at Lock & Dam #5 north of Winona, and meandered around Lake City’s marina on our way back to Northfield.
We showed off the Norwegian immigrants historic Valley Grove churches and cemetery.
We hiked to Hidden Falls in Big Woods Nerstrand State Park.
We shopped downtown Northfield and celebrated Heine and Kari’s 45th wedding anniversary at the Reunion in downtown Northfield.
The last stop was at Lakewood Cemetery to visit the graves of my grandmother and grandfather and beloved Auntie Ag.
We were able to get in to view the beautiful Lakewood Chapel, with 10 million 3/8 inch tile mosaics throughout.
Time flew, conversation and laugher abounded, family ties entwined.