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!
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