Traveler’s Favorites: Deaf Journey
We hope when you visit Fargo, you love it. We noticed our previous travelers specifically loved a few of our popular (or not-so-popular) spots. This ongoing series will highlight content creators’ stays and what they found in our North of Normal cities.
Lily Yu of @deafjourney visited us in July. She had a packed schedule of seeing everything we had to offer on a summer weekend. Here she shares a few of her favorites:
Local Art
We took a self-guided mural tour to hunt for the art murals on a map. Fargo has so many beautiful art murals to see! One piece that is often overlooked is a bike rack on Broadway. Created by local artist Jeff Knight, it’s a fingerspelling of Fargo in ASL (American Sign Language ).
The Jasper Hotel
Jasper Hotel is one of the top 15 hotels in the Midwest. We checked into the Jasper Hotel located in downtown Fargo for 2 nights. Great location where you can easily walk to the Red River Market, restaurants, boutique shops, and art murals! Jasper Hotel offers a restaurant, lounge, fitness center, and Nordic sauna.
Our ADA-compliant room was so nice, with tall glass windows where you could easily see a beautiful view of Downtown Fargo. It includes a ring doorbell flashing light, which helps alert Deaf and hard-of-hearing people to be aware when people are at the door. Make sure to put in a request for an ADA room when staying at Jasper Hotel.
Axe Throwing
We played ax throwing at Rough Cut Social Club with the Deaf community, where we made new friends, and it was so much fun! An employee explained the axe-throwing game rules and safety as a friend interpreted what he said to us before we played. He also used gestures to show me how to do axe-throwing properly, and I picked up quickly by following his moves. Then I practiced and improved my axe-throwing skills.
Hjemkomst
Hjemkomst Center is home to the Hjemkomst Viking Ship, Hopperstad Stave Church replica, quarterly museum exhibits, and county archives in Moorhead. We took an American Sign Language-interpreted tour of the Hopperstad Stave Church replica, a testament to Norwegian culture and heritage in the Midwest. It is worth taking a guided tour inside the Church because it’s so pretty!
You can see the Hjemkomst Viking Ship, an enormous replica of an 8th-century burial ship. Did you know that Minnesota has the largest number of Scandinavian Americans? Interesting history!
Did you know that Minnesota has the largest number of Scandinavian Americans? Interesting history! ASL interpretation is offered for tours of the Hjemkomst Viking ship and the Hopperstad Stave Church. Make sure to contact programming director Markus Krueger two weeks in advance of your visit for interpreting service.
Explore Fargo parks
Rent a bike or kayak at Lindenwood Park, a 100-acre park in Fargo. It was an easy process for renting a bike or kayak because you can read instructions when walking in and sign the waiver form. There is a huge poster on the wall with pictures of types of bikes and kayaks where you can make a decision to pick which one you want to rent. We chose a single surrey to rent to go riding as a couple to Gooseberry Park, a 130-acre park in Moorhead, which is connected to Lindenwood Park by a trail forth and back in an hour. Beautiful nature to see green trees
Marge’s Diner
Serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch in the heart of Downtown Fargo, Marge’s Diner is a 1970s-themed diner known for classic diner fare, including burgers, fries, milkshakes, and breakfast all day. Breakfast is delicious, and it’s a must-try! My husband and I typically communicate with a waiter by using the speech-to-text method on our phones at restaurants when ordering food to avoid miscommunication.
Red River Zoo
Red River Zoo features world-class exhibits on 34 acres, where you can see bison, prairie dogs, red pandas, camels, and more. We took a guided tour with an ASL interpreter and learned so much from a well-known tour guide. You can put in a request for an ASL interpreter in advance if you want to take a guided tour at Red River Zoo.
Be sure to head to our Instagram page to see Lily Yu’s highlight of Fargo-Moorhead.