Our main focus while we were in North Dakota, as always, was as guests of sister Zona and mother Evelyn in Bismarck.\u00a0 Zona lives up on a hill just outside of town in an enormous house that includes a separate suite for Mom.\u00a0 The center of our activities is socialization with friends and relatives, of which we saw many. \u00a0Zona\u2019s son Erik and his wife Cindy and their children Sophia & Evan are temporary lodgers with Zona as they decide on a home after moving to Bismarck from Minneapolis.\u00a0 Across town live Zona\u2019s daughter Cathy and her husband Jon and their children Cole & Katie.\u00a0 Zona\u2019s daughter Suzie and her husband John and their children Mattie & Oliver, also from Minneapolis, stopped in for a few days on their way to the western Dakotas for a family vacation.\u00a0 Zona\u2019s brother-in-law Floyd and his wife Sheila stopped in for a visit.\u00a0 Nearby neighbors Jerry & Jean were guests for dinner one evening.\u00a0 On another occasion, we got together with across-town friends Dawn & Jerry.\u00a0 Friends Violet & Marvin, next-door neighbors of Zona\u2019s cabin out at Lake Isable, and companions with us on our first visit to Norway, also came for dinner one evening.<\/p>\n
When it was just Mom and Zona and Barb and me, we often played progressive rummy, during which Mom showed all the spunk and intelligence and competitiveness that has kept her young for all of her 95 years.<\/p>\n
Barb and I also partook of some of the local attractions, visiting historic Ft. Lincoln, where General Custer lived for a time.\u00a0 We also drove north of Bismarck to see the Three Ditches site of a Mandan Indian village \u2013 a site that had already been abandoned when Louis & Clark came through because of a catastrophic small pox epidemic caused by contact with White traders.\u00a0 And we visited the North Dakota Heritage Center located on the grounds of the State Capital.\u00a0 This is a first class museum that should not be missed by anyone passing anywhere near Bismarck. \u00a0It was with a sad heart that we left Bismarck, for we always enjoy our visits.<\/p>\n\n\t\t