Adventures with Marcus: Decorah Fun Weekend

Nordic Fest: "May the Norsk be with You!"

– Decorah, IA –

Last fall at the Luther College Young Alumni Benefit a bunch of my friends and I went in on a really fun silent auction item. We purchased a place to stay for Nordic Fest in Decorah IA, the home of Luther College. It was an great weekend, full of friends, laughter, and a little bit of rowdiness (but not too much). It was fun we had friends come and go throughout the weekend, and all in all there were 9 gals, 3 husbands, and a few kids.

Here are some of the highlights:

On Friday night we spent a bit of time downtown. Some people were already setting out there chairs and blankets for the parade on Saturday so we decided to check it out. Here is a pic of us all pretending to wave at the parade going by.

Jami, Andrea, Heidi, Vonnie, Amy, Angie, and Jen

On Saturday we actually watched the parade – right across the street from the Vesterheim- the largest museum in the nation that is dedicated to a single group of immigrants (the Norwegians).

Back Row: Aurelia, Angie, Jamie, Andrea, Vonnie, Amy
Front Row: Linden, Jess, Heidi

Each year Nordic Fest has a theme; this year it was "May the Norsk be with You." It made for an interesting mix of Norwegian and Star Wars parade entertainment. One of my favorite floats was the giant cow, but then again, I love cows.

Jamie, Andrea, Heidi, Vonnie, and Jen

The food at NordicFest was pretty awesome – we ate some Lefsa and some people even indulged in the Varme Polse (sausage wrapped in lefsa). But even better than that was getting the chance to eat at all of our favorite Decorah haunts: T-Bocks (Mmmmm... Veggie Melt), Mabe's (Pizza), Happy Joe's (Pizza), and Ruby's (Ronnie's Rolls).

We also spent a bit of time hanging out at our house, Trodheim #4, and playing games of beanbag golf – I pretty much sucked at it. Fortunately, Luke was a lot better so that helped when we played together.

We ended the night downtown Decorah for some Fireworks (I swear it looked like some of them blew up way too low twice with rolling fireball going above the treeline and everything) and a very good cover band. The band was pretty good, but I think they added an extra chorus to every song because they seemed pretty endless compared to the usual versions.