July 21, 2013 Day twelve

Patti joined her parents for services at Bethel Lutheran Church.  That congregation has really grown since Patti attended there.

Then, we all headed off on a little trip to a couple of towns about an hour away.  We went to Brownsdale MN, the little town where the family lived when Patti was 2-6 years old.  We saw the house that Patti’s mom, Joan, made the plans and blueprints for.  It was her dream house, and Harold and a carpenter friend built the house one summer.  

Joan and Harold stood proudly on the porch of their old home.  It was easy for them to put themselves back in this communitythat they had lived in nearly 50 years ago.

It is nearly next door to the elementary school where Harold was the principal.  It was really neat to see the places again, and Patti, Harold and Joan were filled with lots of old memories.  There was no one home at the old house, but we talked with a neighbor across the street. As it turns out, HE had also been principal of that same school replacing the guy who replaced Patti’s dad.  Talk about a small world!  We enjoyed visiting with him and then driving around the small town.

 We also went and visited the world famous Spam Museum in Austin MN.  Although people really come and see this from around the world, for their love and Spam and kitchy things, no one that anyone in our family know has ever been there before.  It is totally the sort of thing that Patti and Dick’s grand adventures likes to include, so our family got to come along.  If you love Spam, this is your place.  It featured: The Hormel Girls (a band and singing group that would feature Hormel products), the history of Spam, an opportunity to try on meat packer uniforms,  to have a try at packing Spam in a can, and there are now 11 different kinds of Spam including Jalapeno and Black Pepper Spam.  We didn’t try to deep fried Spam curds…although the guys swore they were delicious.  Patti’s family didn’t give the place such a ringing endorsement, but it was quite cute and interesting to have a whole museum dedicated to a processed food.  Only in America!

 Then we stopped at one of Patti’s parent’s favorite out of town restaurants for a nice family dinner.

 Evening gave an opportunity for Dick to test his basketball skills against his talented nephew.  It was size against quickness which resulted in a draw.  There another chance to see Josh on the scooter still working to perfect his “grind the box” stunt.  It takes your breath away watching all of these kids whizzing around on bikes, scooters and skateboards but we didn’t see any major crashes.  It takes coordination and some dare devil blood.

 Another nice day with the family.

“Maps are essential. Planning a journey without a map is like building a house without drawings.”
― Mark Jenkins, The Hard Way: Stories of Danger, Survival, and the Soul of Adventure