Eat, Drink, Repeat

 


No breakfast at the hotel, which Kurt complained about even though he never wants to eat free breakfast at the hotel, so we went to Randy's University Diner. Main reason I wanted to go is they have coffee cake as option versus the usual toast with your breakfast. I had a meat lovers skillet with my coffee cake and was good. Not the best I've had but good.
After breakfast we went to Carol Widman's Candy Company. They are the home of the Chippers - chocolate covered potato chips. You know I had to check it out! Had to get a box and of course my favorite - malted milk balls as they had the big ones like I like. Kurt got a white chocolate bar, his favorite. The Chippers are okay, the malted milk balls excellent!
Next we went to Hjemkomst Center. This is the home of Hjemkomst Viking Ship. Back in the 70s a guidance counselor, Bob Asp, decided to build a replica Viking ship and sail it to Norway. Nothing crazy there right??? He spent 8 years building this ship. A couple years into the project he was diagnosed with leukemia and the community stepped in to help complete through both fundraising and labor. Finally in 1980 they were ready and it was trucked to Duluth. Bob was able to sail it on Lake Superior but unfortunately he passed away before he was able to attempt to sail to Norway. Finally in 1982 a crew of 12 (including 4 of Bob's children) made the journey from Duluth to Oslo. They started out with 13 but one member dropped out in New York as he missed his family and felt it wasn't safe to sail all the way to Norway. I can't say I blame him - looking at it I can't imagine sailing across Lake Superior much less an ocean. They had a short movie on the journey showing at the museum. Very interesting little place!








I was shocked by how small the ship is considering 12 people lived on board for 2 months. I don't know that I would last a week! They only had maybe 6 bunks and slept in shifts. No thanks!



They also have an replica Norwegian Stave Church on the grounds but that was still closed for the winter but looked cool from the windows. Next time we are in town will have to go back.

Next we headed for Brewhalla. This is a large complex - used to be a railroad facility - that house Drekker Brewing. They have the brewery, multiple shops, restaurants, and the top two floors are a hotel. We decided to drive and check it out that way if we enjoyed it we could go back later. It was a really neat place with very good beer. We really like that they have 6 oz pours, this way you could try different beers without getting all drunk.
After Brewhalla we made a stop at Fargo Brewing Company, need to get those stamps! Another nice little brewery. Maybe would have stayed longer but no more beer while driving and I was starting to get hungry.
Back to the hotel to drop off the car and walked to No Bull Smokehouse. Cute little BBQ place. Kurt had a 3 meat sampler and I had their version of poutine. Kurt's sampler had briskett, ribs, and sausage. My poutine has tater tots, cheese curds, bacon, chicken, with country gravy over it. All was delicious! Was interesting - the kitchen was actually on the second floor and they had a dumbwaiter to send the food down. Cute little place!




On our walk back to the hotel we walked Broadway downtown - would have maybe spent more time but it was a bit chilly and quite windy so not the best weather for strolling.
It was time to use Uber. I needed to go to one more fine establishment to get my free t-shirt so took Uber back over to Moorehead and Swing Barrel Brewing. Wasn't a big fan of their beers so we had one and were back on our way. Decided to go back to Drekker. Was a great place to sit back and people watch as it had gotten quite busy. 


At this point I needed a little something to balance our samplings. The restaurants at Brewhalla were all a little too fru-fru for me, or too heavy, so we Ubered back downtown and went the Wurst Bier Hall. Another great stop! I had pretzels and Kurt had a bacon flight. I got the cutest little mug for a sample. I was tempted to accidently drop it in my purse but I am much too honest for that and not really sure what I would do with it... I need to get rid of junk not bring home more!
One last drink and then walked back to hotel for the night. It was time for some sleep!!!















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