a Spam birthday?!?!

So we arrived in Minnesota yesterday (Albert Lea, MN to be exact).  We are staying at another fairgrounds.  Lovely fairgrounds with grass and trees and much newer buildings etc. than the Sioux Falls fairgrounds ~ we are very happy "campers" but....... because of the trees we have no satellite!  So we won't be on line (email or blogging) so much for the next week.  At the moment I am at a local library using their service  

Rick thought it would be most appropriate if I celebrated my birthday at the Spam Museum in Austin, MN about 20 miles east of here.  He forgot, however, to bring candles!  

We took the bikes over there and really had a fun time.  Hormel knows how to make a "museum" ... it wasn't as "hokey" as I had hoped, but it was close, but it was full of fun facts and lots of fun exhibits - and they all included the visitors...... hands on stuff!  Fun, fun, fun ...

Above is us (obviously) with "Spammy" who is there to greet you as you enter ... (hey how am I doing with the Alves school of smiling - keeping up with my refresher courses as needed aren't I?!?)

Below is a statue located outside the entrance ~ no we did not bring Babe and Wendy (thankfully).  But let me tell you .. Minnesota has more corn fields (and pig farms, by the smell) than I could ever imagine possible.  I wondered out loud how a world could need so much corn and Rick pointed out to me that perhaps, probably, it is used in ethanol production - let's hope that is so!

Here I am hard at work at one of the exhibits ~ the challenge was to see how long it takes to "package" cans of Spam.  I don't remember my time, and I guess we didn't take a picture of it but let me reassure you all, I will not be hired by Hormel as a Spam packager anytime soon!  It was fun though, and this is one of the "hands on" exhibits I was referring to.

Below are the "Pig doors" you go through at the beginning of the self guided tour of the Spam Museum ... aren't they too cute and creative!  I loved them (you know that "pig thing" again).

And lastly, the bikes outside the Museum.  We really had a fun day.  We were both ready for naps I think when we got back, but Sir doesn't like it when we return after four hours or so away and want to have naps - rightly so, he thinks it should be HIS time!

I'll try to get back to the Library often, but we are here for a week so it probably won't be every day.  Although, it is going to rain tomorrow (or so they say, weather forecasts don't seem to be all that accurate here in the Midwest) so perhaps we'll be here again tomorrow.  Or we may go in the car with Sir and explore whatever else may be around ...