Fargo, ND: Gourmet dining, train-chasing, and Bonanzaville!

From the Waldorf to the Super 8!

 

We did 8 of our 9 night trip from West Virginia to the hunting cabin in British Columbia, Canada on our accrued hotel points, and we stayed at variety of hotels including the Waldorf-Astoria, Holiday Inns, Super 8s, and Choice Hotels, and in West Fargo we chose to stay at a Super 8 right near Bonanzaville Pioneer Village and Cass County Museum
The Super 8 was clean and decent, (but no, it ain't the Waldorf... LOL), and it put us minutes from downtown Fargo and right next to Bonanzaville, which was truly great- a reconstructed historic pioneer town done absolutely perfectly: real, local buildings, moved and placed in proportion to each other on real streets, and filled with an amazing collection of local, historic items- everything from the stock in the stores to the personal items in the homes to an amazing collection of vehicles…

Dan, waiting for a haircut at Bonanzaville

 

Snowplow-car! At Bonanzaville

Elisse "tending bar" in Bonanzaville!

Elisse in the Pokey!

As "railfans" who own the Elkhorn Inn in Landgraff, WV, an historic inn that welcomes a lot of "railfan" guests, one of the things we enjoy doing when we travel is "train chasing"- shooting photos of trains along the way. And on this trip we got to do a lot of it as we drove across the plains and the "badlands"...

 

 

We had a totally delish, gourmet, farm-to-table dinner at HoDo, a gem of a restaurant in the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo.
We parked the truck in downtown Fargo, and Dan went to scout out the nearby restaurants. He chose HoDo based on the restaurant’s elegant yet “Village-y” vibe, and excellent sounding menu- and we were Not disappointed! There were so many other places that looked great, too, but we only had the one evening! We “discovered” Fargo to be a town with a Lot of great things going for it- in great measure, I think, because it’s a college town- and we hope to be able to return!

Elisse's delicious duck at HoDo's. 

The next day, as we headed north out of Fargo, on the Facebook recommendation of a trucker friend we had lunch at Space Aliens http://spacealiens.com/ an extraterrestrial themed restaurant chain! (And no, it ain't HoDo's. LOL)