Grand Canyon

Our trip to Grand Canyon was great! 

Wall Drug

Badland National Park

The sky in Badland National Park is beautiful. On our way home from Mt Rushmore, we drove through Wall Drug and then the Badland National Park. I have never seen anything like this before. The sky is so blue, it took my breath away. Wish we can come back next year to see sunset.

Trip to Iowa

Stormsburg Swedish Midsommar Festival - Taste of Sweden

The downtown area of Stromsburg has a town square in its center. This square forms a park, with lawns and mature trees, where festivals and events are held.

In the center of the square is a two story Swedish style building made of brick with decorative toll painting and the phrase "Valkommen" (Swedish for "Welcome").

The performance

It took us one and half hour driving to Stormsburg, a small town close to Omaha.

Stromsburg is a city in Polk County, Nebraska, located 100 miles west of Omaha, 20 miles north of Interstate 80 on the Pan-American Highway, Highway 81. Fertile farm ground producing corn, milo, and soybeans surrounds this rural city of 1,232 residents. Stromsburg is the largest of four towns in Polk County, with a population of 5,639. The population was 1,232 at the 2000 census.


Stromsburg was settled early in Nebraska history. In 1856, 155 people from Ockelbo, Sweden, sailed aboard the vessel 'Carolina' to a new life in America. After several years in Illinois, some of the people decided to move on to the state of Nebraska, with Swedish real estate agent Lewis Headstrom as their leader. Delighted that the landscape resembled their homeland, they chose to name their new town after Stromsborg, a section of Ockelbo, Sweden. By 1882, two brickyards were furnishing bricks for business buildings, churches, and homes.

In 1966 the Nebraska Governor came to Stromsburg for the Swedish Festival proclaiming it the "Swede Capital of Nebraska", a title that the community still claims.

The downtown area of Stromsburg has a town square in its center. This square forms a park, with lawns and mature trees, where festivals and events are held.