Elsie Martin was the organizer of the Minneapolis, MN meeting on June 23,
2000, Midsommar weekend, so travelers could take advantage of the festivals
in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

The day was full of surprises starting early when Diane, Darlene, Helen and
Elsie were having coffee in the Kaffeestuga at the American Swedish
Institute in the afternoon, a surprised Elsie was paged to the telephone.
On the other end was LeeAnn (Dixieswede) from Alabama, who had been to her
family reunion in Fargo, ND, and on the return trip home to AL, driven to
Mpls. to visit with relatives here.  She realized that she could make our
"Get Together" and asked to come with her daughter.  That was "no problem,"
and the restaurant was notified to set 2 more places.  At the restaurant we
learned that Roger was meeting cousins for the first time when David and
his wife joined our group of Smultron members.  Even more of a surprise was
when after talking for a while, LeAnn and Betty found out they were cousins
(1st cousins once removed or 2nd cousins?)!  Then we had the surprise of
having the chance to celebrate Helens birthday as a group.

In attendance were: Elsie, Anna, Priscilla, LeeAnn and her daughter from
Alabama, Helen, Betty, Diane and her mother Darlene from Iowa, Roger and
his brother Ted  from CA, and Roger's cousin David and his wife from
Minneapolis.  We were seated at a nice long table at Q Cumbers Restaurant
in Edina, MN, with Swedish flags and trinkets on the table.  We enjoyed
good food, sang "Happy Birthday" to Helen (who just celebrated an important
birthday), had wonderful conversations, took pictures, and hung in there
until after 9:00 p.m. when the restaurant closed.

Many in the group had other chances to see each other on Sunday at
Svenskarnas Dag in Minnehaha Park.  It was a weekend full of laughter and
good memories in the making.