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| I could be "Out Standing In A Field", as long as I have my crutches. |
Petersburg was named after Peter Buschmann, a Norwegian immigrant and a pioneer in the cannery business, who arrived in the late 1890s. He built the Icy Strait Packing Company cannery, a sawmill, and a dock by 1900. His family's homesteads grew into this community, populated largely by people of Scandinavian origin.
Bill says that I gave myself
a broken leg for Christmas, and I guess that's true. Since I missed out on the Norwegian Christmas fun in Petersburg, I was determined to enjoy their holiday in May, which is conveniently called Mayfest, The Little Norway Festival. It's the day Norwegians celebrate the signing of their constitution, and the end of Danish rule. It's a week of events, food, activities, and the Norwegian Ambassador to the U. S. even visited.
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| This year's logo, and button. |
I'm still on crutches, but I attended most everything I wanted to. The main street downtown was closed off to traffic, for the parade, the Viking jail, the Viking kids games, the annual herring toss, (vs an egg toss), Guns and Hoses competition, (law enforcement against the fire fighters, to see who can pull a fire engine across the finish line first. FYI, the Guns won.), sled pull, a weight competition, vendor booths, and food.
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| Get outta the way, here they come! |
We missed the parade on Friday, we were still in Wrangell on Thursday all ready to slip our lines at the dock, when Gus, (the scallywag) decided to go hide on another boat, and we couldn't get him to come home. We waited all day, and finally nabbed him that evening. On Friday, we didn't let him out, left Wrangell, and arrived Petersburg too late to catch any of the parade. NOT cool GUS! We did have a delicious salmon dinner with some of our friends though, and Saturday was a full day of Norwegian fun.
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| A friendly Viking in the Sons of Norway Hall. |
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| The Vikings, and Valkyries were everywhere. |
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| Cute! |
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| The Viking Grog Bus |
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| Bill, in front of the chainsaw sculpture booth. |
We attended an event to sample authentic Norwegian foods, sandwiches, pastries, and cookies. All of it was quite yummy, and we saw the Ambassador, as well as a former Alaskan Governor. (not Palin, before you ask) For dinner, we went to a benefit for the Petersburg High School basketball teams, an All You Can Eat Shrimp Feed. The shrimp was delicious, but also the salads, and beans. They kindly let us white-hairs in wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and crutches in early, to get our shrimp, and seat.
We were going to attend a play that evening, but I was pretty done in. My fitbit said that I had done 5800 steps that day. We had a much better time enjoying a glass of wine with friends on their cruising trawler,
Adventures.
Cream of lutefisk - wow, I think I'll pass on that one :-) I'd love to go to this festival with my hubby. He's Norwegian-American and I think he would enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteHey, Very nice page you have, will be reading it al when i get time, now its warm and sunny here in Norway, so no time to spend indoor reading. sail safe, and if you ever do go east, to our side of the Atlantic. there is a very nice sailing gound here. And also tell them up there , that Viking did not have horns on there helmets. :)
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