DECORAH

We forget that since we lived in Decorah, IA for over 13 years, not everyone knows what it looks like. It's a town of 8,000 people (mostly Norwegian), with a large downtown and it's home of Luther College. It has a restored hotel, fish hatchery, Dunning Springs, beautful houses and the Upper Iowa River, which is famous for flooding and canoeing. We thought we'd share a few photos-the first is Don's old office on the left (through a dirty car window).

A Norwegian Nisse on the side of a building-they're found in house and store windows to bring good luck. Decorah is known for their festival on the last weekend of July known as Nordic Fest, which is a lot of fun.

Our old house-quite a bit larger than our current home!

One of Decorah's favorite stores-in the summer it's a chick hatchery and in winter, they sell ski clothing. The kids used to love seeing the chicks!

On Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning, they have a farmer's market. They're trying to fund a permanent building, which would be nice.

The downtown has many stores on the main street and side streets. Mabe's Pizza and the Whippy Dip (ice cream)are the most popular. I would have taken pictures, but I would have wanted to go in. Since the reason for our visit was yearly Dr's exams, didn't think that was a good idea. You know how hard it is to control Mulert, when he has a craving!