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8/24/23

Family Fun in the Dakotas, Part 9: Fargo, North Dakota

This is my ninth post about our family's visit to the Dakotas. I suggest reading the firstsecondthird, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth trip posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received free admission tickets, media rates, discounts, and other benefits for some of the places we visited during the trip. Other places we went are free for everyone. We paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. If you see any gaps in my narrative, it is because I didn't love that particular attraction, restaurant, or hotel enough to recommend it, regardless of how much I paid or didn't pay.


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Fargo, North Dakota



On Wednesday, August 2 we had breakfast at BernBaum's, across the street from our hotel. Bagels, latkes, knishes... everything was really good!


Then we went to the Fargo-Moorhead Visitor Center. If you have seen the movie Fargo, you probably recognize the wood chipper. It's not THE wood chipper though.

  

THE wood chipper is inside the visitor center. 


We had a special reason for going to the F-M Visitor Center and it wasn't to see a wood chipper, another painted bison, or a sidewalk with the signatures of famous people who'd visited Fargo. 



We were there to join the Best for Last Club. If you save North Dakota for your 50th state, you are eligible to join. They gave us t-shirts and certificates and we joined the Facebook group. I'd been looking forward to this for years!



Dressed in our new matching t-shirts, we headed to the Red River Zoo


I posed with the "tiger" without realizing it was actually another painted bison!


Red River Zoo is relatively new, opening in 1999. It focuses on animals from climates similar to that of North Dakota. The zoo is beautiful and great place to visit. 







We looked at all the animals, of course, but we spent the most time with the white-naped cranes and the Sichuan takins



There were Keeper Talks about both of these species. We were the only people who showed up, so we had the keepers' undivided attention. We had a lot of questions and learned so much about these interesting animals. 

The Children's Zoo is really nice too. 





The next time we have to redo our fence, I want this. 


After a wonderful visit to Red River Zoo, we went to the mall. Not to shop or eat. 


We were there for the Roger Maris Museum

  

Roger Maris is most famous for hitting a record 61 home runs in 1961 for the New York Yankees, which broke Babe Ruth's record of 60 in 1927. Fargo is Maris' hometown. 


There is a lot of memorabilia from Maris' three years in the minor leagues and his 12 years in the majors. 







Allow plenty of time to watch the historic footage of Maris while sitting in seats that actually came from Yankee Stadium. 


We ended up spending way more time at the museum than we'd expected, so our lunch at Sickies Garage was much later than we'd planned. 


Fortunately, our food came out quickly. And oh my gosh - the food! Steve and I shared a Mozzerati burger and it was seriously one of the best burgers I've ever had. 


Sickies famously has 50 burgers on their menu and so many of them sounded amazing. If we're ever in Fargo again, we'll be returning.  


We dropped the car back at the hotel, then walked through downtown Fargo. It's really nice, with lots of cool public art. Look at the utility boxes in this photo. Each has a list of items to find in the mural. We had great fun finding them all. 


Even something as simple as cow spots makes the downtown area so much more appealing. Good job, Fargo!



  


The Plains Art Museum is in downtown Fargo. 


The first thing you see when you enter is the North Dakota Mural


Current exhibits showcase the work of Gerald Cournoyer and of the museum staff themselves. What a neat concept for an exhibition!







Dinner was at Spicy Pie. They have grinders, Mexican food, wings, and more on the menu, but we were there for pizza by the slice.  


We ended up getting four different slices for the three of us to share. We each had different favorites, but they were all fantastic!


After dinner, we headed back to the Jasper hotel for our last night before flying home. 


Or so we thought! Tomorrow I'll tell you what actually happened. 

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