Day 8: Vilhelm Moberg and shopping

After one week on the road we have found good routines. We make sandwiches for lunch and the last two nights we have bought dinner at a local supermarket. Actually, the travelling has been much easier than anticipated. But today, everyone were a bit tired. So Oskar went with me to explore some of the Swedish towns, leaving Fredrik and Filip in the hotel (by the TV).

Some history now: The first Swedish family came to Taylor Falls in 1850. They found the area very promising, good for people with knowledge about how to ship timber on the river (as they do in the northern part of Sweden). The family sent letters to friends in Sweden, asking them to come, and talked to a Swedish-American organisation. So more Swedish families arrived, and finally more than 300.000 Swedes settled in the area.

So first, we went to Lindström, where we found a statue of Karl-Oskar and Kristina, famous from Vilhelm Moberg's novels about a Swedish family that emmigrated to the US. We also found a Swedish bakery, that for some reason sell Swedish donuts... Have never heard of those before... But the bakery also had real Swedish bread (Limpa). Great! After Lindström, we visited a very Swedish church in Center City, and then we went to Taylor Falls. In Taylor Falls we went on a sightseeing tour with a steamboat. That was fun!

Unfortunately, we not only have come to "Swedish Country", we also have got some Swedish weather, both chilly and rainy... So in the afternoon, we decided to leave the Swedish country and go back to America. And can there be a better way of doing that than to visit the largest mall in the world?? So we went to Mall of America, where we spent the rest of the day (all of us....). The best thing according to the kids was the amusement park in the center of the mall. We went on a rollercoster ride in the middle of a mall!