Nordic Fest 2005 (July 2005)

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At the end of July, Holly and I went out to the Midwest for the Trytten family reunion. This gala event, held every four years in the tiny hamlet of Decorah, Iowa, was scheduled this year to coincide with Nordic Fest 2005.

Decorah, home of Luther College, is a primarily Norwegian town. We had a running bet about how many Asians we would see during our weekend (not counting me). I bet five. We saw six. Here are some photos from the Nordic Fest parade.

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An army of Nordic dancers parades down the street	Their Nordic dancing is unstoppable!	Even young children are pressed into the Nordic dancing army	Cute Norwegian children dancing

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Closeup of children dancing	Girl in Nordic dancer garb, with cool braids	Some sort of frightening bowling pin mascot guy	Bowling pin mascot guy hugging kids

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Behold the glory... of the BEEF QUEEN!	The Beef Queen coolly considers her subjects	This is what Beef Queens look like before they mature	The primary diet of Beef Royalty

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Beef Royalty retainers	If you're not into beef, perhaps you'd like a visit from the string cheese chick	Hormel truck (throwing out candy, not Spam!)	Walmart truck. Very Scandanavian!

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Traditional Norweign bagpipers	The third Asian we saw in Decorah (not counting me), Seonah Iverson	Bankers who long for the good old days when bankers rode in stagecoaches	I think these folks throwing beads have the wrong parade

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The Luther College Class of 1965, featuring a genuine tie-dyed hippy	Someone bring that hippy some grass! He's fading fast!	I suppose this is a legitimate question to ponder in Decorah, IA	Norway is famous for its herds of thundering buffalo

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I guess Harmony is a nearby Iowa town, which has beauty pageants	The Harmony Community Band	Totally random float with fully functional barbecue grill	The MooMobile, which we later patronized. Milk shakes go down pretty well in the Midwest in the summer!

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My first thought was, "wow, those guys look younger than 137"	Sure enough, along comes the rest of the Norweigian singing troupe	Mountain View Ranch	Oktoberfest? Uhm, wrong country

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Tiny ponies hooked up to horses	"Quality Chick" is an actual business selling chickens, we saw lots of these T-shirts	Some random little kid with his remote control H2 (pretty low bar to enter a small town parade, I guess)	Folks in Viking drag, in front of the Viking Bank

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An array of wildly costumed Nordic spirits	This reminds me of the black and white dudes from Cheron on Star Trek	A swan, or possibly a white goose	Some sort of fenrir prototype

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Crazy fire dude	Crazy fire dude attacking children!	I was a little surprised at the depth of the (tongue in cheek) anti-Swede sentiment	"Frighteningly Anorexic Dairy Princess Clearly Abstains From Dairy"

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Presented without comment	Mini combine!

After a full day of Nordic festing, we convened for dinner and some family presentations at First Lutheran Church. Here are some photos of the Trytten clan.

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Joe, Perry, and Holly chat before a group photo	The Lutheran church where we had a Norweigian smorgasbord dinner	Joe, Jack, Sue, Lynn, and Deborah	Julie, Holly, and the Nordic SuperTeens

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Julie, Sue, Jack, Holly, and Andrew	Grover, Lola, dick, Marilyn, and Perry	Dick, Marilyn, and Deborah	Guess who isn't really a Trytten?

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Hanging out in the Luther College dorm common area after dinner presentations	Ann discussing future reunion plans	Holly and her father chatting with Ann	Holly taking photos of the dorm common room

We didn't have much time after returning to Chicago, but we did manage to see Devin and Jay and Kitty. We also went to go see Millenium Park, which was way cool (and a much happier place now that the ridiculous photography licensing policy has been abolished).

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Clint, Jack and Bonnie's enormous Maine Coon kitty	Holly, Devin, Kitty, and Jay sitting around the table chatting	Kitty	Holly

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Kitty talking (or maybe laughing)	Devin pontificating	Holly and Devin	Jay strikes a pose

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Holly sneaking up on the Millenium Park bean	Holly and her father by the bean	Kids splashing and having fun at the "faces" sculptured fountain	More folks splashing at "faces"

It wasn't as hot in the Midwest as I feared. The week before we came it was really hot (like 100 degrees!) but it was actually pretty nice when we were out. I was almost disappointed that we didn't get that unique Midwestern blast of nighttime heat when we got out of the airport.

Andrew Ho (andrew@zeuscat.com)