For my birthday weekend this year, we stayed at the Maplewood State Park and then in Fargo for the Viking Festival in Moorhead. Maplewood State Park is absolutely stunning. It was one of the most vast and diverse parks we've seen, huge expanses of fields, hills, prairie and marshy ponds, all amid miles of trails for hiking surrounding a lovely, still blue lake. Upon check-in, this adorable bird and its partner flitted in and out of their nest :)
This elderflower lemonade was delicious!
Our view of the lake
I love all the different kinds of dragonflies
A view from the dock
Water lilies
A tiny frog
Tent worm
A gorgeous crow high in the trees
A bird of prey who kept shrieking all the while
Look at this beautiful brown mama spider! At least we think that's a mama with an egg sac...
Another mama...this determined turtle came stomping through our campsite
Our neighbors took video of her later digging a hole and laying her eggs!
An osprey?
Ants on a water lily...hey, how'd they get out there?!
A great blue heron :)
Strange plant foam
A morning portrait
Brekkies of eggs, bacon hash and coffee
This lovely trail went all around the lake, though we had to double back because a storm came upon us very fast! We ended up running back to camp!
Beautiful black and white moth on a leaf
Deer tracks! Now we know where all those ticks came from...
Gorgeous monarch hanging about on the trail
We enjoyed a very romantic, relaxing stay in this incredible park. The only downside, which was actually quite the bummer, was that we got absolutely infested with ticks! It was after all the rains we had in the early summer, and the crew said they hadn't been able to groom the trails as well as they usually do and that the deer were heavily using the trails. The grasses were as high as my shoulders in most areas, so we knew we'd have to do serious tick checks. But even with that we think they were in the cabin because we would check each other when we'd come back from hiking, then in the morning I'd see some crawling around our stuff. I was mature about the whole thing until we reached Fargo, when we checked into the hotel and I picked off another 7 or so ticks from John, a couple of them so small I almost missed them, and I had them on my shirt, pants and shoes. I completely and utterly FREAKED. Thankfully, we had booked a gorgeous new hotel that had free laundry, and my wonderful, amazing and patient husband went and did ALL of our laundry for us. AFTER checking each and every piece of clothing and pockets and bags and tiny crevices for evidence of tickitude, mind you. The man is, quite simply, the bomb. The hotel was completely booked with kids' baseball teams and that was NOT FUN since most of them were not chaperoned in their rooms and would come banging on our door, giggle and then run back to their rooms. John went next door and sternly told the girls to cut it out and for the most part, they abided. But he had to fight for washing machines and dryers because all the teams had über amounts of laundry themselves. Ugh. I showered as if I'd been living in a sand dune for 14 years, scrubbing and rinsing and praying ticks fell off and/or drowned in the water. I then had to wait for clean clothes so I sat around in a towel and tiptoed around the carpet. I did not trust that the ticks had all vacated our stuff only to get into the carpet and then crawl into our ears as we slept that night. See, this is where my mind goes...
After a nap in the pristine, fluff of a bed and some hot, complimentary coffee did wonders for our (my) dispositions! We headed off to grab a couple of burgers at JL Beers, then to enjoy the first day of the Viking Festival, followed by a special show in a cool art gallery featuring my friend and Kari. The next day was more fun at the Viking Fest, and another special show of Kari's that was held in the replica of the stav church in Vik, Norway. We only found out about the replica when we went to visit the original! We can honestly say, the original is MUCH cooler :) Here are some scenes from the Viking Festival and Kari's show in the stav church.
Detail of the arched entry way
A small scale viking-style ship that actually sails along the Mississippi...
by this guy! He is a fantastic story-teller, and he just sails The Mississipp' in this gorgeous boat that a friend of his made for him! Thankfully, he does not use the boat to "go a-viking", which is how the Vikings got their name for their notorious raids. He's just a cool dude that likes to sail and tell stories.
Some serious beer from Hammerheart Brewing
Look at these cuties!
Look at the detail on these Hardinger Fiddles
One of Kari's performances
Kari's performance in the stav church. She even got me up for a rune chant and dance in front of a bunch of people!
Kari talking about the drop spindle
Kari in full Viking-era regalia, all hand-stitched. Kari spins THREAD, not just yarn. It is incredible to see her spinning! Kari is also an amazing, AMAZING singer, and she is my spiritual mentor. I consider it an honor to work with her.
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