Little Norway

We had quite the weekend planned while in Decorah, IA last weekend. We arrived on Thursday evening and headed straight out to our family farm to get to work. Mother and I were in charge of lunch for the family reunion as well as all the tables and arrangements for the event. We stayed out until sunset and then headed to check into our hotel...aka the hell hole. If you follow me on Twitter you know how terrible it was. I have admitted that I am a hotel snob, but I am by NO means above staying in a chain hotel, the only requirement is that it be clean. This hotel was NOT clean or sanitary or safe. Upon checking into our room I began calling every hotel in town begging them to double check their computers to see if anyone had cancelled and they suddenly had availability. On the third call I got the best news one could have hoped for that night...the only catch being we could not check into the next night. Thankfully, we made it through the night and peaced out faster than you can blink the next morning.

Before heading back out to the farm on Friday morning we popped into town. Decorah is very much a mini Norway. Their are still signs in town that are in Norwegian, the only Norwegian museum outside Norway is located here as is Vanberia, a Scandinavian gift shop.

Vanberia sells everything from traditional costumes...

to home decor...

to LOTS of blue and white china...

to figurines (look at that collection of Norwegian trolls!)....

to more traditional clothing for those COLD winters...

to this new European creation, the Skoy Cloth, which takes the place of paper towns and is reusable...

to darling mail boxes!

My mother is 100% Norwegian so I grew up going to Vanberia and we still cannot visit Decorah without popping in at least once!

Another Decorah landmark (I am sure you are shocked there are so many after seeing my devotion to The Whippy Dip) is the Vesterheim Museum. As mentioned, it is actually "the most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated to a single immigrant group." On Friday evening a new exhibit was celebrated and said exhibit actually commemorated my mother's family, a Norwegian immigrant family, and our 100th family reunion on our farm. The exhibit was so well done and I feel extremely lucky to have so many old family photos and documents. My mother's side of the family can actually date our ancestry back to 800 AD!

While the special exhibit was the showstopper of the evening I could not resist taking a peak into the other rooms of the museum. I apologize for the terrible photos (I had my camera on some weird setting), but I loved traveling back in time to a typical Norwegian home.

My mother and I decided out love for color dates WAY back. Don't you just love all the brightly painted walls and furniture in this home?!

I LOVE altar pieces and could not resist a photo of this one found in the museum. It keeps is made very Norwegian by the rosemaling (Norwegian decorative painting) on the bottom.

Last, but certainly not least is the TradeWind. It is a 25 foot sailboat that made its' way from Norway to the United States in 1933. TradeWind is actually the smallest known ship to cross the Atlantic without assistance. It took about twelve weeks for the ship to cross the wild seas, but it made it and is now on display at the Vesterheim!

Decorah, Iowa has lots to offer in the way of culture (and food) and is most certainly a hidden gem!