Days 9 to 12 – Family Ties

My grandparents immigrated from Norway around 1912. Well, actually my grandfather, Kristian, was supposed to sail to America in 1912. He had a ticket on the maiden voyage of the Titanic… luckily for my branch of the family tree he, and a friend he was traveling with, were bumped from that sailing! However, when they eventually did get to America they first settled in Erskine, Minnesota. Minnesota, "the Land of 10,000 lakes" had, and still has, a large Scandinavian population. Since Grandpa Kristian was a carpenter, it makes sense that he migrated to an area which was well known for it’s timber harvesting in the early 1900’s.

We still have quite a bit of family living in that part of the country, so we ventured east for a visit. Currently, the family live in, or around, Bemidji which is known for it’s lake. Lake Bemidji (not pictured) is the first lake that feeds the Mississippi River. Bemidji is also alleged to have been the birth place of Paul Bunyan, and his pal, Babe, the blue ox. More modern attractions for this area are fishing, watersports, and Bemidji State University.


I always marvel at the hardiness of the people who live in this area. While summer temperatures typically range between the 70’s to 90’s (which is typically when we visit), in the winter, sub-zero temperatures are commonplace. My sister chuckles and says she would tell the kids that when the temperature went below -30 degrees Fahrenheit, they didn’t have to go to school… minus 30 ?!?  When visiting, we enjoying hearing the tales of winter activities, like ice fishing, and watching the northern lights. 

The last time we traveled to Minnesota, I asked my elderly aunt why grandpa Kristian moved out west to Cedro Wooley (just north of Seattle). She chuckled and in her sweet Minnesotan accent replied, “Oh, Kristian,” more chuckling, “yah, he didn’t like the cold.”


Laughter and fun are a wonderful part of family visits. Card games, like "Pounce", get intertwined with reminiscing about past events and relative’s antics. Sharing recent adventures, future plans, and additions to the family keep those family ties strong.

However, the leaves began to fall, so it was our time to head for home. Even though we live in the day of cell phones and email, it was bittersweet to wave our good byes... until we gather together again. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 – Searching for Some Sunshine

Image
We headed south from Olympia, driving through gloomy rain showers until we were well east of Portland, Oregon. Our destination? The Total Eclipse of the sun in Texas, which will occur on April 8th. That will give us about 9 days to travel the 3,000+ miles. I always forget the interesting geology that is exposed in the Columbia River gorge. The varying shapes of the basalt columns kept my interest for miles on end. Especially this time of year, spring, there were many waterfalls spraying the cliffs, and Multnomah Falls was roaring! Our first night was spent at a Harvest Host location in Echo, Oregon. The host was Echo Ridge Cellars. They have a nice flat gravel lot for Harvest Host guests.   The wines sold are pressed from their vineyard which is about 3 miles away. The building itself is my favorite part. They have restored and updated an old grain elevator. The inside of the elevator was left exposed so visitors can see the construction. It is very solid 2x6 boards stacked flat, rat
Read more

Day 9 – Side Trip to the Border

Image
With an extra day before our reservation at Lake Brownwood State Park for the eclipse, we debated where to go. Pat suggested a side trip down to Del Rio and/or Eagle Pass at the US-Mexican border which had been in the news of late. After looking over our maps, we decided to just go take a look at it. (Our apologies, this blog is longer than our normal ones, but it was a very interesting excursion) We drove down Hwy 277 through relatively flat terrain. There was scrub brush and cactus for miles and miles. When news reporters talk about illegal immigrants disappearing into the brush, we could easily see how that could be. Someone could be just feet away from the edge of the road and not be seen. The two-lane road was a good road with regular passing lanes. The further south we went the sparser the traffic became. It was kind of eerie and we wondered at times if we should be heading down there.   “Was this really a good idea?” However, curiosity kept us going. About thirty miles fro
Read more

Day 7 – A Window, the Wind, and Warriors

Image
The sun was out all day today as we traversed Arizona. There were so many choices of roadways, where would the wind blow us? We headed out from Page onto the scenic Hwy 98 with Navajo Sandstone cliffs to the north and periodically solitary sculpted rocks towered above the sagebrush flatlands on either side of the highway. Our next choice was to cross the Navajo and Hopi Reservations on Hwy 264. This road travelled up over around and down several mesas with only scattered villages. As we drove, we noted the highway was designated the Code Talker Highway for the Navajo Marines who helped the Allied forces during WWII.  Camp was in the town of Window Rock, which was designated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the center of the Navajo Nation. We made camp for the night at the Navajo Museum. Later in the evening, a short drive from camp brought us to the park at the base of Window Rock which is a huge wind eroded sandstone sculpture that allows you to glimpse the sky beyond.  What we
Read more