|
By Caroline Wigmore
Staff Writer
My British in-laws, Rosemary and Charles Wigmore, took the nine-hour trip across the Atlantic (or “the pond,” as the British like to say), for our wedding in August.
This was their first trip to “real America,” as they said, having only seen Disneyland in Florida on a family vacation many years ago.
“I think the most surprising thing about Minnesota was the amazing sky,” Rosemary said. “There was so much of it, as the countryside is flat in Minnesota compared to where we live (in England). I love to have a lot of sky, and the bright blue color was fantastic.”
My parents put them up in Cokato, and made sure that they saw all they could see on their short two-week visit, taking them to Lake Superior, the arboretum, the Swedish Institute, Como Park, the capitol building, and of course, the twine ball in Darwin.
Their biggest misadventure was being accidently locked into the Minnesota Capitol building after closing hours.
Apparently, my parents had taken Rosemary and Charles into the Twin Cities to visit the capitol, and hadn’t noticed that the building was already closed to visitors. For some reason, they were still able to get into the building, but the doors locked behind them.
They were concerned they would be spending the night there.
Charles was thinking how embarrassing it was going to be when they eventually met security and asked to be let out the next morning.
Fortunately, through the use of deductive reasoning, the four of them followed the sound of a janitor talking on his cell phone, who was able to open the doors, and they made their escape.
“Everyone we met seemed welcoming, relaxed, and big-hearted,” Charles said. He recalled how the caretaker at the Ergot Centre in Dassel (where our wedding reception took place), who had heard that I was marrying an Englishman, had dug out a Union Jack flag (the British flag) from his closet to fly along side the stars and stripes outside the Ergot Center.
“Generous and large-hearted I call that!” Charles said.
|
