We spent the Fourth of July holiday deep in the heart of North Dakota. The five days we spent there as guests of the Baumann's reminded me why North Dakota was recently crowned the beer drinking capital of the United States.
Too much of a good thing is never a bad thing, however.
Even though the start of the vacation was met with a bit of bad news - the Independence Day parade was cancelled in Mandan due to lightening - we rallied and had a great time anyway.
Good food, cold beer and great company. Can't beat it.
Here are a few pictures of our adventure west. I know not many will be interested in these, but just to mark time, I am posting them.
I think the highlight for the kids (other than taking the pontoon on the Missouri river and swimming on a sandbar for the day... and getting a bit too much sun along the way) was a visit to the North Dakota State Heritage Center at the state capitol.
The Center had a very impressive display of Native American and prehistoric artifacts relating to all things North Dakota. It was interactive and great for all ages. It was a fun day!
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| The kids in front of a tipi (as it was spelled at the museum). A part of the Native American gallery. |
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| The Girl and a T. Rex. She was very impressed! |
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| The Boy kept staring at the triceratops. He didn't like turning his back on it. I don't blame him, actually. It was pretty creepy. |
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| She couldn't help herself from hamming it up with that T. Rex |
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| The Boy and his cousin Jacob doing their best dinosaur impressions... with Uncle Jon photobombing. |
We then went to the capitol and straight to the top of the tallest building in North Dakota...
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| The Boy checks out the top floor view, high in the North Dakota sky. |
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| The Girl (above) and cousin Nora chilling at the top floor of the capitol building in Bismarck. |
Before we left for home, we paid Great Grandma Dau a visit. She can't see well, but at 92, she's still pretty darn sharp!
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| I thought this was a sweet picture... hugging Great Grandma. |
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| Perhaps the shot of a lifetime... EVERYONE was smiling and looking at the camera at the SAME TIME! |
We are now back in the Land of 10,000 Lakes finishing up our vacation/staycation.
...and we're 48 hours away from heading to North Dakota again to see this guy... Woo-Hoo!!!
