First time in North Dakota

So, here's a bit of an update:
I'm employed, yay! I'm going to be a part time elementary music teacher for the Jamestown Public Schools and I plan to teach flute lessons the other part of the time. This means that Andrew and I are going to be living in Jamestown!


Fun Facts about Jamestown, ND:
-It is the 8th largest city in ND.
-It's home to Jamestown College.
-Has a total of 5 elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.
-It is known as the Buffalo City.
-It is home to the National Buffalo Museum and has a live herd of buffalo!
-Among the home of the live herd of buffalo are 3 very rare white buffalo named White Cloud, Dakota Thunder, and Dakota Miracle.

Upon gaining employment we decided it would be best if I could travel up to North Dakota to look for places to live so my mom and I came up yesterday.
We flew from ATL to Chicago then from Chicago to Fargo. Wow, was the Fargo airport the opposite of ATL! Our plane landed in Fargo a few minutes after 2pm and we had our luggage and were in our rental car by 2:20! I was very encouraged by this, however it was kind of an exhausting travel route.
Also, our plane was quite tiny.

This was our plane in Fargo. It landed right by the rental cars.

After we left the airport we drove around Fargo and acquainted ourselves with the big city... No really, it was not necessarily a big city but it had as much if not more stuff than Columbia! I was excited by how close everything was to each other.
Here were Elise's Fargo highlights:
-Target
-Costco
-Multiple Caribou Coffee's (yum!)
-A mall with J.C. Penny's, Macy's, Herberger's, Sears, Loft, GAP, Victoria's Secret
-Smashburger
-T.J. Maxx
-Pier One

While driving around we also found THE FARGODOME!

Also, this should not have been surprising but you can take up Curling!

That's all of the the Fargo highlights. 

This morning we got up and headed towards Jamestown! My favorite billboard along the interstate was a little ways outside of Fargo on 94 and it has a picture of an open road and said "Your rush hour commute, North Dakota" hahahahahaha! Mom and I could NOT stop laughing! Anyways, along the way to Jamestown we made a stop in Valley City to see where Andrew would be teaching. 

This pretty bridge is supposed to bridge the community to the college and is right next to the music building! There are bridges all over Valley City. It is quite a nice town! 

 This is the President's House Inn on VCSU's campus. It was also quite beautiful.

This was to show all of the "Christmas Trees" around. I guess it's like how South Carolina has Palmetto trees all over the place? I know Christmas Trees is not the appropriate term but I don't really care, they're Christmas Trees. 

Valley City was super cute and small but it had some really nice houses. I'm definitely looking forward to visiting it often to hopefully teach lessons and to see Andrew and his students perform! 

It was really only 25 minutes from Valley City to Jamestown and we saw a few signs for the National Buffalo Museum which was super exciting! We knew we had arrived when we could see THE WORLD'S LARGEST BUFFALO from the interstate! 

World's Largest Buffalo

Mom and I by the World's Largest Buffalo

 We checked out the Buffalo Museum as well! It was only a dollar each for entry today, apparently they celebrate White Cloud (the original white buffalo's) birthday each July 4th and continuing in the celebration today it was only a dollar to see the museum! It was small but informative and I enjoyed it!

Stuffed Buffalo in the Museum

"Hugging" the buffalo. We were not supposed to touch it. 

Mom "hugging" the buffalo. 

Buffalo head. 

Moose head (in honor of the blog name). 

Buffalo up close. 

After we left the museum we were looking for the live buffalo herd because we had heard so much about them and luckily they were right next to the museum! Do not be sad for the buffalo, they live on like 200 acres of land so they are by no means caged in like a zoo. 

For lunch we went to a coffee house called Babb's and it was really yummy! Also, they had a large selection of tea so, I was sold! It was actually loose leaf so major plus in my book! 

Then for the rest of the afternoon we explored Jamestown and looked at properties to possibly rent for the coming year. We found some decent stuff and tomorrow we are going to meet up with some realtors and see the inside of some units. 

I was particularly intrigued by one apartment complex called "The Meadows" which, if you know, we call our tiny house in Columba "The Meadow" so it would be an easy transition. We don't know if the Meadows has any availability so we'll have to see tomorrow! 

ALSO speaking of signs, as we were walking from the World's Largest Buffalo to the Buffalo Museum we ran into a couple decked out in Carolina Gear and a Cocky stuffed animal that played the fight song! It was really neat to run into them within an hour of being in Jamestown. They were just tourists but it felt like seeing a familiar face! 

Tonight for dinner we ate dinner at Grizzly Grill and Saloon. It was also quite yummy. 

This bear was right in the entrance of Grizzly Grill and well, I had to pose! 

For those of you who stuck it out to the end of the post, thanks for reading!