Vikings, Ho!

 After lunch on Thursday, we went across the river to Moorhead, Minnesota (only a few minutes away, but the lovely woman working at the hotel gave us a ride) to see the Viking Ship replica at the Hjemkomst Center.  (Hjemkomst means "homecoming" in Norwegian.) 

The ship was basically one man's dream project, and he recruited his family and community to help build a replica of a viking ship, and then his family sailed it to Norway (he died of cancer before the voyage).  It took them about five weeks at sea, but they did it!

The center also included an exhibit on WWI and replica of a Norwegian stave church, made out of wood.  It was a fun way to spend some of the afternoon!  It was also amusing seeing all the Norwegian-themed stuff not so long after coming back from Norway.  In fact, although the replica ship first made landfall at Bergen, Norway, they did travel to Stavanger as well!

Then it was just a short walk back to the hotel (sadly, no sign marked the border between North Dakota and Minnesota over the river), and off to the airport.  They made us nervous with another ground stop delay, but this time we made it to Chicago, and back home to Buffalo.