North Dakota

Going to go with my usual format of picture dump and explain, so get cozy.


In case you missed the last riveting entry, we joined Luke's sister Kristy and her fiance Joe on a wild west adventure with Luke's Grandma to the wayyy other side of North Dakota.

Our first stop was in Jamestown, where there's a little old western town remake with all the usual touristy goodness. Oh, and this doll museum.

 It was not creepy at all.

There was also a giant buffalo.

 

Which was "not anatomically accurate" per Dr. Lucas.  At least there was a breeze. 

We stayed in Bismarck the first night and enjoyed the fireworks from under the glow of the hotel sign while drinking beer and moscato out of the plastic hotel room cups.  Classiest 4th by far.

Our next stop was Watford City, and it was weird. Real weird.  Like a whole bunch of identical mini-trailer parks smashed together in perfect rows.  I tried to get a good shot of the little box-towns, but this one doesn't really do it justice:

Oil was definitely the buzz word around there. It's hard to imagine that this was just a sleepy little farming town not too long ago.


But anyways, the main attraction was in Arnegard, where Gma spent her childhood.  The town was celebrating its 100th anniversary.  The crowds were unbearable.

 You there, by the speakers. Settle down sir.

But we pushed through with our dignities intact. 

The centennial parade was definitely the highlight - mostly because the fire department handed out hot dogs instead of throwing candy, so Luke was feeling mighty fine. 

 And with that, we were off to see the sights. Here's where Grandma's cousin was born.

Don't worry, there was a house. 

And here's the church and cemetery where some of the family is buried. As far as places to go when you're dead goes, I'd say this is pretty dang peaceful. 

 Grandma Alice and cousin Betty Kay. So ridiculously adorable.

 Little Cheese on the Prairie.

Here's le centennial banquet celebration.   

 Which was perfect and warm and the old Norwegian jokes were as corny as ever.  It was like we never left home.

 Grandma took us on a little tour of town and pointed out where everything used to be.  She was born in this post office building, and her family lived in the rooms behind the mail areas. She also schooled us on how to not get kidnapped by gypsies, which is a lesson I plan to remember.

 We stayed at the Roosevelt Inn while we were in Watford, which was appropriately guarded by this majestic bust.  I'm fairly certain some people confuse Roosevelt with Jesus out there. 

 What up Teddy!!  Also, this hotel had fresh chocolate cookies stocked up riiight in the hallway.  I had one or twelve.

 We zipped through Roosevelt National Park to check out the badlands. It was a nice change of pace to crawl around some rocks for a while instead of drriiiiving.

 Badlands photo bomb. Nailed it.

 (Mr. Artsy Pants took over the picturing, clearly.)

 

 "It's a desert taco!"

 Alright, so. The above pictures are scenes that I actually witnessed, but shortly after the desert taco, some bug thing bit/stung me under my eye and it half swelled shut so....old puffy face chilled out at the hotel room in Medora while the rest of the gang headed to the south end of the park.

Feeling sorry for myself for missing these wild scenes, Luke offered some comfort with "Hey, see, these horses pretty much looked exactly like normal ones."

 Right.

 And in regards to his flower shots, he said "Look! I'm like Kirsten!" (Hope you read this Kirst! ;)  )

 Annnnnd I missed seeing this crusty buffalo. Dammit.

We cruised all the way back to Wisconsin from Medora in one day, so we're pretty ok with sticking around town for a while here.  The trip really was great, and even though this might not be where my family is from, I did get a little mushy feeling when I realized this is where my children's ancestors were. It was like future nostalgia, if that makes sense.

On that note, I think I'll typetypetype up our "How We Met" story (if it really is a story, I don't know. You be the judge.) tomorrow. Maybe.