We took a trip to John's parents house for the 4th weekend. His hometown has a big celebration with parades and street dances, kids activities and the like. It is also a nice long weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa.
We arrived in the late evening on the 3rd, after the parade. Odin was just going to bed, late, when the fireworks started. He promptly woke up, afraid, and wondered what all the booms were. We then all watched the fireworks display from the deck behind the safety of a screen door (the mosquitoes were fierce).
On the 4th Odin was in his first running race. He came in first of the "unofficial" 2nd heat. The starting gun startled him and he waited to make sure it was not a trap before he started. This way he did not have to worry about being crowded either.
One of the kid activities was the sawdust pile coin dig. Basically there were two piles of sawdust (17 yards between the two) with $4oo in coins buried in them. The kids (sorted by age) wait in anticipation and when the signal is made dug feverishly in the sawdust. It was madness. Odin found $1.25 in quarters. He was wearing an orange shirt. We wondered how the extra coins were sorted out..
Odin got to see some of the big mine trucks at Mine View in the Sky. An interpretive center of sorts about mining on the Iron Range.
