Wrapping up the Festival

Cookies and pastries… little tykes fishing for little fish… roller derby… Vikings and Valkyries roaming the town…

…rosemaling classes… a Mummer’s play… an all-you-can-eat shrimp feed to support the basketball team… a muskeg walk… a herring toss… a pageant… folk costumes and amazing embroidery…

…a halibut filleting demonstration by some of the experts at Petersburg Fisheries…

…massive chunks of glacier ice set out for people to touch and see, and for young Viking hopefuls to practice their sword skills on… the Coast Guard helicopter showing why they are our heroes… and my favorite event: the parade. I love a nice old fashioned hometown kind of parade. (Thanksgiving morning you will find me glued to the TV watching the Macy’s Day Parade in NYC.) I think Petersburg does a great parade!

Antique fire truck carrying our Norwegian-American of the Year

Police and firefighters tossed candy to the crowd, as did some of these little Vikings in the small ship… and spectator children were quick to collect all the sweets.

The big Viking ship was full of fierce characters…

…led by the serpentine line of our 5th through 8th grade Norwegian traditional dancers.

A Tlingit man in his tribal regalia drummed…

…and we helped the US Forest Service’s Smokey the Bear celebrate his 75th birthday!

Smokey was pretty reserved, just posing for pictures, but the salmon had some great dance moves!

Our Sons of Norway lodge was well represented by members in their bunads, and I thought it was especially lovely that the whole parade looped up to pass by the Long Term Care wing of the hospital so the residents there could enjoy the show too.

Now we’re casting off the lines to start cruising, and we sure could use some quiet days at anchor to recover from the Festival!

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