Cabin Trip - Day 2

Our second day up north featured a parade. Beth's friends, Marion and Ivan, were scheduled to ride on the "Sons of Norway" float in a small-town parade and they were looking for more participants. They asked Zoe, Gretchen, Paul, and Braxton if they wanted to ride and they provided costumes for them all.

The parade was a celebration of the 100th birthday of the city of Marble, Minnesota. Marion had hand-sewn dresses for the girls to wear (she had originally made them for her granddaughters) and there was some Vikings paraphanelia for the boys to wear. Braxton had to play the role of the wounded Viking warrior.

It was a very hot day in Marble. The sun was out and there was very little breeze, so those costumes were quite warm.

All of this was made worse by the presence of the Chisolm Bugle Corps which has to be the world's slowest marching band. They were a group of old men who took rest breaks every five to ten feet. Even as a spectator it was painful to watch. The first portion of the parade had passed and gone. We kept watching down the street for the rest of the parade and there came the World's Slowest Marching Band. Their director kept telling them to stop and breath. Even the sign listed the band as active from 1924 - 2005. I guess no one told them that they had disbanded three years ago!!

Emma enjoyed the parade. She grabbed arm-fulls of candy that was tossed her direction by the parade participants. David even got in on the action when there was too much candy for Emma to keep up with.

The rest of the day was dedicated to boating and fishing. The kids spent some more time opn the paddle boat and then hit the docks for some fishing. The water was filled with little fish that would bite anything. The kids just put kernels of frozen corn on the hook, dipped it in the water, and pulled out a fish!

At first they needed Beth out there with them so that she could take the fish off the hooks. But eventually Gretchen got up the courage to handle the fish, too. She bragged to Zoe and said that she was braver than a fourth grader. Eventually Gretchen coaxed all of the kids - even Zoe - into taking a fish off the hook themselves.

That night we had the kids all watch "Back to the Future." They had never seen it before and they all enjoyed it. Maybe we'll have to rent II and III.


+ posted by David