Northfield

We made it to Northfield late in the afternoon, on the fourth day from Seattle.  I guess it could be done in 26 hours of driving (according to Google Maps), but not by me!

Northfield is a pleasant little town of 17,000 with two colleges and a Malt-O-Meal plant.  Apparently the town motto is Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.  We didn't notice many cows, at least in town. We saw a lot of Carleton during our brief stay (and will undoubtedly see much more of it in the next four years) and briefly drove around St. Olaf's (Um Ya Ya).  Contentment?  Well, I did get a whiff of something awfully good (maybe some sort of chocolaty breakfast cereal) walking past the old Ames Mill next to the Fall, which it looks like Malt-O-Meal still uses (they have a much larger factory a short distance away).

The Cannon River runs through town, on it's way to the Mississippi, which it meets in Red Wing, 25 miles east or so from here.  Northfield has a riverwalk - maybe not San Antonio or the Seine - but scaled nicely for the town.  It's too bad we can't stay until the end of the week, when the town gears up for it's big festival, the "Defeat of Jesse James Days."  Which commemorates the fact that Jesse James wasn't able to rob the local bank back in 1876.