Your Daily Dose of Viking News!

Just a quick update to make sure everyone saw this article on the discovery of a Viking knarr outside Memphis! I thought it was very exciting and wanted to share it :)

It's a rather poorly written article, but the information presented will be important to keep an eye on!

You can find the article right here. Enjoy!

Slekta Mi Again - Day 3

The last day of the reunion started with breakfast in the hotel again. The hotel staff set aside a cluster of tables for us all to use, which meant we could chat during breakfast and even go table to table at times! 

After breakfast, we carpooled over to Mindekirken with the Luhmans. We attended the weekly Norwegian service (which, thankfully, had English translations available in the bulletin for those of us not lucky enough to speak Norwegian) and all of us Thorsheim relatives were one of three special groups visiting the church today! 

After singing the table blessing, we headed downstairs for kirkekaffe and a light lunch provided by the church. How pleasant! We Heglands got to talk with Pastor Kristin for a few minutes before it was time to start saying goodbyes. A number of people left early Sunday morning before church (flights to catch and all that), but most left directly after church. 

Tusen Takk to Mary Jo for planning this reunion, to all who traveled from near and far to attend, to Mindekirken and the Danish American Center for hosting us, and the whole Thorsheim family for being awesome in general. It's been a great weekend, though it feels too short! See you in two years :)

Slekta Mi Again - Day 2

We started our day with a wonderful, wonderful breakfast at the hotel. I stuffed myself with fresh fruit and a veggie omelet! After breakfast we visited with relatives for a half hour or so, during which time we tried to explain the concept of cranberries and cranberry bogs. Ha! Cranberries are a foreign idea in places that are not the United States, which makes sense, given the cold and wet needed to grow them.

The Hegland family's plan for the morning and afternoon was to bike around the downtown with cousins Kaia, Nicole, and Amber. We biked all over the place -- through Loring Park, the sculpture garden, down by the Guthrie, across three or four bridges, and finally to St. Anthony Main to see the dam at Upper St. Anthony Falls. 

Back near the hotel, we had a late lunch at a French bakery (croque Monsieur for me) and then went back to the hotel to freshen up. A little before 4pm we went downstairs to catch the charter bus (Wayne this time, instead of Les) to Mindekirken. There are only two churches quite like Mindekirken in the country now, one in Chicago and the one here in Minneapolis.

After touring the church, mom and I sat in on a genealogy talk. We heard about genealogical records (commonly called the Bygdebok), primary sources, and a whole lot of other (no longer living) Anna's. We learned that Norwegian records are organized very differently than we would expect, based on our American tendencies; they're sorted by region and then by first name, rather than just alphabetically by last name. Cue like eight pages of Anna. We also found out that apparently most, if not all, Norwegians can trace their heritage back to just 47 families.

Dinner was prepared by two women from the church: Swedish meatballs, boiled potatoes, cole slaw, refrigerator pickles, flat bread, lingonberries, and rice pudding with raspberry preserves. After dinner, we heard greetings and remarks from Mary Jo and Sigrid. Next, a family trivia quiz! Not too brag, but I was included on the quiz, in the question "who wrote a blog from a trip to Italy?" My table, which included my family and my Auntie Jo and Uncle Lowell Luhman, got 11 of 15 correct! We came in fourth? I think? 

Howard provided the prizes, which included glow stick bracelets, flashlights, and glow wands. Kaia set up a slideshow of her pictures from the 2012 reunion in Bergen and Bømlo, which was a fun background to the conversations that started up all over the room. I focused on talking and visiting, so this is where my post ends for tonight!

As a post script of sorts, here's tonight's LED display on the building across from our hotel room. No aquarium tonight, instead there's a baseball zooming around!

Slekta Mi, All Over Again!

Yesterday morning (Friday), we Heglands drove 6 hours from Kenosha to Minneapolis for this year's Thorseim Family Reunion. We got to the downtown Hilton just in time to get checked in, then run down to our chartered bus! Les, the bus driver, took us on the scenic route from Hilton to the Danish American Center (by way of the riverfront drive, University of Minnesota, and University of St. Thomas), where we had dinner and chatted with relatives.

While at dinner, cousin Mary Jo asked if I was going to blog about this reunion, like I did with the one in Norway -- and I realized I hadn't even thought about that! Since she asked, I'll comply :)

It's great to see the family members I haven't seen since the last reunion, and even better to have some come all the way from Norway! How special :) Dinner at the Danish American Center was catered by a restaurant called Magnolia; they served us fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, rolls, and a fruit and veggie plate. Plus there was cake for Howard and Julie's 50th anniversary in august! After dinner we talked as a group about the plan for Saturday; we'll probably split into groups for walking tours, touristy things, and more. Cousin Kaia offered to take people on a bike ride tomorrow and a walk tonight. Since we'd been in the car for so long, all of us Heglands went along for a stroll. A number of people ended up going and I got to be all nerdy and talk about Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. Back at the Danish American center, I talked with cousins Gloria and Gerhard for a while before getting back on the charter bus with Les. Once at the hilton, it was off to the parking garage in search of our water bottles. Gotta stay hydrated. When we got back to our room, we discovered that the skyscraper opposite our window has an "aquarium" at the top! I took pictures, don't worry.