Ft Sisseton Days

 In all of my years living around here, I had never been to Ft Sisseton Days.  It was always around my birthday.  Apparently, I had other things to do.   This year, Eric was away on a fishing trip, so I called up my BFF Shana and planned the trip for us to go to the fort.  With Ramsey's newfound love for war history, I figured this would be right up his alley.  

Fort Sisseton was established in 1864.  In 1959, it was turned into a state park.  About 14 of its original buildings are still intact.   

Everywhere we walked, there were soldiers in uniform, battle items, look-outs, food and goods vendors.  And, they had all sorts of activities going on in various directions.  

Ramsey thought these cannons were pretty neat.  Frankly, so did I!

After our intial "oohs and aahs", our first two missions were to go find TOYS and FOOD.    Toys came first.   Ramsey talked me into buying him a wooden rifle, a wooden pistol, and a wooden sword/sheath.  Cuz... why not.  ?!?   The food wasn't as awesome as what Shana remembered it to be (she had worked there a few years after high school), so we only bought a Mongo-sized bag of kettle corn.  I should have brought a pack mule to carry all of the items we had purchased.

Shana filled us in on some of the history of the place.   Ramsey loved this fort, even though it was sparse and walking inside of it felt like a funhouse, with wonky stairs and unlevel flooring.

He played like he was watching out for enemy troops, poking his guns out through the flat rectangular windows.

From here, we found an area with a lot of kids gathering; it was a gold/mining wash plant!  Each person received a overfull mug of muddy sandy dirt.  They had mixed in "gems", gold, and other treasures for kids to find.

Auntie Shana really got in there with her hands to show Ramsey how to pan for gold.

Incidentally, after we got home, I washed Ramsey's "treasures" even more.  There were all kinds of cool little rocks in the mix, plus a stone arrowhead.  Nice little bits to add to his collection!

After this, I was adamant about getting over to the Gatling gun demonstration.  The fort is large and we had no idea where we were going.   We found the location (beyond the vintage baseball diamond where live games were being played by men in old-time baseball uniforms - and even farther than the vendor stands).  We didn't get the greatest view, but we made it just in time!

I thought Ramsey would LOVE this.  He thought it was cool until it started going off.  Cuz uh... it was LOUD!   Nonetheless, I can now say that I have seen (and heard!) a real Gatling gun firing.

We didn't tour all of the buildings (maybe next year?!?) and just wandered about until we came to something a big magical.

"The Bubbler" was there, entertaining the kids (and adults!) with his bubbling antics.   He had intricate ropes and wands for making every size bubble imaginable, plus a bubble machine going full blast.  

The smiles on the kids' faces were joyful. It made me feel like a kid again too!

Kids were jumping and running after bubbles, trying to catch and pop them.

...fun for ALL ages!

After a few hours of the heat and tons of walking, we decided it was time to head back home.

We will see you again, Fort Sisseton!  Maybe next time, Daddy and Connor can come too.