Fargo!

Last weekend was My Better Half's introduction to Fargo, North Dakota, the land where i grew up. We went to celebrate the birthiversary of my sister, who if i remember correctly just turned twenty-three (she's been twenty-three for a few years in a row, now).

MBH and i flew into Minneapolis on Friday, rented a car, and did our usual vaudeville act of driving through a snow storm. Once we got to Fargo, we headed straight for the old downtown area, checked in at the hotel, and met my sister at Dempsey's, where she and her pals compete at bar trivia every Friday night. (With a total of five members, The Fizz finished second for the night and won some free beer.)

On Saturday we all had breakfast at the Fryn' Pan, one of the many places i used to hang out drinking coffee as a disaffected youth. Then my sister gave us a driving tour of Fargo, which didn't take long since it's not that big. My old elementary school has been torn down and rebuilt; my old junior-high is now Fargo South High School "Campus II", despite being a half mile from what i guess is now "Campus I"; the mall now has a pimped-out food court. Somebody's been building expensive condos in downtown, but it sounds like nobody's buying. The Fargo Theatre is still there, thank goodness.


After hanging out with my sister's cat Harvey Wallbanger, we had dinner at the restaurant in our hotel, the unfortunately-named "HoDo" (for Hotel Donaldson). Like the hotel, the restaurant is well-appointed and stuffed with work by local artists (some of which is great and some of which is not, though the balance is better than one might expect). The food was quite good; we had bison, beef, and pork that would satisfy any big-city carnivore, and wrapped it up with too much dessert, all of which was top-notch.

We spent a lazy Sunday morning hanging out with Harvey and his human, then hopped in the rental and headed back to Minneapolis to fly home (no snow storm this time, strangely). MBH said Fargo was "OK".