Blogs from Fargo, North Dakota, United States, North America

Geo: 46.8759, -96.7823Today we had an interesting day, crossing Wisconsin and Minnesota, and landing in Fargo, ND. The day began at 7:55 and 70 degrees with overcast skies. And it wasn't long before the rains came. The skies were threatening and it was clear we had a front passing through. At one point, in addition to the rain, we had a heavy black header with a white stripe below it, a patch of blue peeking through and crooked fingers of gray rising from below like many smoke stacks spewing black smoke into the sky. It was a bit unnerving, But eventually we worked our way through it and made it out the other side to fair skies and smooth sailing.Wisconsin provided us with miles of fertile farmland…family farms growing corn and soy beans and wheat and ... read more

This summer I'll be participating in the Snorri Program, an opportunity for young people of Icelandic origin in the US and Canada to discover the country of our ancestors including language, culture, nature, and history. It is a 6-week program and starts June 14. I will be living in Reykjavik the first 2-weeks of my adventure, taking cultural/language courses through the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. In addition to classroom work, this portion of the trip will also include museum visits, genealogy, and other touristy-type things around the Reykjavik area. The following 3-weeks will be spent living with Icelandic relatives and working. I will be staying in a suburb of Reykjavik (Birkiás, Garðabær) with my frænka (the Icelandic word for aunt) and her family. Apparently in Icelandic, this is the term for any female relative ... read more

Part two of our third day had us driving across beautiful Minnesota to Fargo, North Dakota. We were back on MN 39 absolutely loving the drive. It’s amazing how quickly the time goes on a beautiful open road. We arrived into town and found the hotel relatively easily. This is not a big place. The Hotel Donaldson was fun and quirky, adorned with local artists’ work and complete with a rooftop “prairie” which you could enjoy with either a cocktail or a soak in the hot tub or both. Interesting. One of our wedding gifts was a list of odd local state laws. This was the first law on the list we were able to break. We really felt like bandits. This is pretty wild stuff - especially since we documented it and created incriminating photographic ... read more

Whenever I think of Fargo, I think of the movie (which has, coincidentally, been on TV all week) - I’m not recommending it. And, I haven’t seen it this time around and I don’t remember if it was a good (“good”) movie or not – I only remember two things: the accents of the people and the wood chipper. I saw it on TV (so, edited) but IMDb says it’s rated R, and from what I can remember of the wood chipper scene, that’s a good rating...and apparently, (again, according to my memory) they weren’t strict with their editing... Blecht. The Wood Chipper is on display at the Fargo-Moorhead Visitors Center. Roadsideamerica.com says, "While the wood chipper's time on-screen was brief, its use as a body-disposal device made for a disturbingly memorable scene." True. I couldn't ... read more

Here are some pics from Wisconsin until Canada. More silliness from our Northern neighbors soon!... read more