Boulder to North Dakota

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Boulder to Ft Collins to Northwood, ND

We visited Mike in Boulder on Saturday and watched some football games with him and his friends. After that, we went to Fort Collins to stay with the Sagstad family - Heidi and Eivind and Bjorn - for two nights. We did some shopping, had an accordion show, played playdough, and hung out at their new house. Bjorn has some fun games and songs that he's made up, so we played those with him.

From Fort Collins we drove to North Dakota, stopping along the way at the World's only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Nothing other than hunting was going on in SD.

We arrived in ND on Tuesday and left on Wednesday for Duluth. In Duluth we visited Kenrea and Mike, classmates of mine from NDSU. We took my nephew Avery along to Duluth to see the ships on Lake Superior. We saw several ships and went to the aquarium. It was a fun little trip.

Now we are at my parents' house, which is the final destination of the tour. My dad's 60th birthday party is tonight, so we are having a 60's theme party. We will be leaving on Sunday to drive back to Vancouver/Portland.

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Photos

The ROOST!
This is the late night Roost bus. The Roost is Vail's most affordable lodging. At the Roost, you aren't paying for floorspace. The rooms are small but it's a great place to stay.

BBQ at Mike's in Boulder
Mike lived in Portland for about 6 years before he moved to Boulder.

Costumes at Mike's
Sarah, Tom, Mike, Mitsu, Matt, and me. My costume is "person who doesn't wear hair in ponytail."

Accordion Show
Eivind and me trying to play along with Bjorn while he sings his made up song "Bernius, Bernius." It doesn't have any other words and the tune repeats fairly often, so we picked it up pretty well.

Smorgasbord at Heidi's
Heidi set up this nice little lunch for us with meat, cheese, jam, coffee, bread and fruit. Just like in Norway!

Tea Factory
We toured the Celestial Seasons Tea Factory in Boulder, CO. The factory smelled really good and we got to keep the hats.

Mitchell, SD Corn Palace
Dana outside the corn palace. The facade of the building is redecorated every year with corn murals. The corn palace started in 1892 and has been decorated every year since.

Inside the Corn Palace
The inside of the corn palace is, strangely, a basketball court. The retired outside murals cover the walls inside the corn palace, which is also strange.

Same bull, new town!
We saw the same bull in Colorado and now in South Dakota.

Spiderman
Ander Thorsgard as Spiderman.

Kenrea's
Kenrea, Mike, Libby, Dana, Erin. Kenrea and Mike are NDSU classmates of mine. Picture taken by Avery.

William Irvin, Duluth
This is an old Great Lakes cargo ship that carried iron and coal from 1938 to 1978. It is open for tours.

Snake in Duluth
This is a snake that lives at the Duluth Aqaurium. They also have a bald eagle, so it's a pretty liberal aquarium.

Duluth
Dana, Kenrea, and Avery in Duluth

Duluth Aerial Bridge
Aerial bridge going up, Duluth Canal Park.

Avery in Duluth
The grain and coal terminals are in the background.