We left the B&B on Lake Elsie Friday morning after a gourmet breakfast and arrived to Fargo (not quite 1 hour drive) before noon. It felt like "back to civilization" with much more traffic. We lucked out and were able to check into the Hilton Garden Inn early and were happy to be able to stay for two consecutive nights. After 15 hotels, one night each, a real luxury! Also, we found a laundry room, which helped!
We threw our luggage into the spacious room and drove out again to Scheel, founded by German immigrant Frederick A. Scheel as a small hardware and general merchandise store in Minnesota beginning of the 20th century. By 1954 the company expanded and added sporting goods and more shops opened. Unlike any other sporting good stores, special attractions - like a ferris wheel - are part of the experience. Today, Scheels is one of the largest sporting goods stores in America.
Especially the gun department is worth being seen (with its own shooting range) and we were blown away by the luxurious ice fishing tents (very common in ND and MN in winter) and the highly functional hunting clothing and accessoires. It's still operated by the great-grandson of the founder and is employee-owned.
Fargo, North Dakota, has - like Grand Forks - a sister city in Minneapolis: Moorhead. The latter is known for Hjemkomst Viking Ship, a replica of an original viking ship. The metropolitan area of both cities is situated on the North Dakota–Minnesota border, on opposite banks of the Red River. Fargo is the most populous city in the state of North Dakota with about 123,000 people. Main employers are Health Care companies like Sanford, the ND State Universit and Microsoft.
In the afternoon we had two tours: one at the Fargo Theater on Broadway (pics above), built in 1926 as movie and vaudeville theater and later renovated in beautiful sleek, modern Art-déco style. It serves now as a cinema and as a venue for concerts and live events.
Second, was a tour at the Plains Art Museum, the largest art museum in North Dakota. It is located in a renovated historic warehouse in downtown Fargo, featuring national and regional exhibitions of 20th and 21st century art. A big painting of famous pop-art painter James Rosenquist - born in Grand Forks/ND - hangs in the spacious atrium. There is the Center for Creativity, a multipurpose arts facility, attached to the museum, which offers art classes and studios, and houses ceramics facilities.
Walking the Broadway (pic) extensively, we not only noticed the historic buildings (and new constructions coming up), but also the mural arts program (examples on top and below this paragraph). Also, there is an increasingly attractive culinary scene with all kinds of fancy places. Also, there are foodtrucks, seven breweries, and, on Saturday morning, the Red River Market (picture below). This large farmers' market, open-air mostly, has vendors of all sorts: produce, hot food, baked goods, pantry, household, art coffee, wine and beer. Live music on the stage, though it was ice-cold on Sat. morning! After our visit we warmed up at Sandy's Donuts on Broadway with coffee and excellent donuts.
Brandnew in town: "Brewhalla". Drekker Brewery opened in 2014 in downtown, but the new venue in the warehouse district, is just open for about a month now and had its official ribbon cutting this Friday. And, it is spectacular! Four young guys came together and decided that this old railroad repair facility is the place they wanted to have and they called it "Brewhalla". Old timbers, high ceilings, tables made out of reclaimed wood, and, state-of-the art brewing equipment, modern murals and plenty of space. The architect, who owns the building lives in one side wing of the building. For next spring a more beergarden-like outdoor space is planned and foodtrucks are hooked up in the parking lot. We got a tour and tasting and loved their IPAs, especially the Freek Parade IPA, a double IPA,but also the Milk Maiden Stout, a chocolate stout, was well worth a try.
It continued with culinary delights at Maxwell's restaurant, where we had dinner in good company. Enjoyed rib-eye steaks with delicious sides and sauce, appetizers and desserts, before we called it a (Fri)day.
Saturday: more of downtown, including Acres Mall, a huge vivid shopping mall. Around noon, we headed out for the tailgating party of the Bisons, the NDSU football team. Boy, the tailgating area was like a village on its own, all in yellow and green, huge buses and RVs decorated, BBQ and parties in full swing, just crazy!
The Gold Star Marching Band was terrific, too:
NDSU Fargo counts about 15,000 students, their focus is on agriculture - and their flagship is the American Football team, the Bisons, which we watched playing the Illinois State Redbirds in the Fargodome. It was so much fun - the show at the beginning was spectacular, too (pic above).
College sports in general, and football in particular, is much more attractive than pro sports. The Bison won 28:14 and we celebrated their victory at the Fargo Brewing Company, in walking distance of our hotel.
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