Monday: sunset

 The sunset was pretty as I left Isaac's school after dropping him off for robotics.

vacation Tuesday (June 16) part 2: ski jump museum

He headed off to the ski jump museum, which was high on Ben's priorities of places to visit.

We again took public transit and it was again a bit confusing, but people were so nice.  The entrance to the trains was under construction scaffolding, so there is no way we were going to find it.  The person we asked for help took us half way there.  (Ok, we were pretty close, so that isn't all that far.)  Then we double checked with a person waiting for the train that we had the right one and he very kindly double checked where we were going, confirmed we were in the right place, and made sure we got on the train.

And then we walked up a mountain.  There were other things in the area, but it was not overly touristy.  We kept walking up, although it was probably only a 15-20 minute walk in the end.

We made it!

These are our initial views, but we got to go higher later.

Then into the museum.  I wasn't sure what to expect for this museum, but found it very interesting!  The first floor was explorations of places using skis and the second floor was Olympic ski history.  There were several hands-on exhibits.

"How much weight can you pull?"  Ben was the winner and I came in second place.  We all tried a few times though.

"What should you pack?"  It was mostly obvious, but I think there was one piece missing of what we should pack and the next most obvious answer was wrong.

"Why skis?"  And a moose

Ski race.  You raced against the people that had done it before you, so there was a lot of angling about who should go next.

Some of the exhibit was on how Norwegians were the first to the South Pole.  I found this very interesting since they're so close to the North Pole.  That isn't a small trek.  There was a polar bear, so I got my picture taken with it.  Sort of.  I even asked, "Was my face in the picture?"  and received an "of course, *eye roll*".  Let's just say this isn't the first time this has happened.

Then we looked at the skis!  They have a collection of the skis that were used by Olympians over the years and it was interesting to see how they've changed.

This is a model of the ski jump we were at.

There was also a winter wonderland kids area.  It didn't have much to do with skiing, but the lights were dim and there were some fun slides and nooks to explore.

We started meandering towards the top of the tower, but of course there were a few things we stopped for.  Including this "put your face in winds simulating a storm" machine.  I have pictures of everyone doing it, but I liked Joshua's face the best.

Facts about the ski jump at this location:

We went up a 45deg elevator to get to the top.

The view from the very top of the ski jump - the roof if you will.

Then we went down to where the jumpers would start.

The next two pictures are about the same, but I couldn't decide which view I liked better.  The net is there for the zip line, but a bench would be put around that area for the ski jumper and they would take off.

Then we got to go down the zip line!  Joshua asked the question, "what if I don't make it all the way?" We scoffed and said it's downhill, he'll make it no problem.  Well, he made it, but the end was really slow.  The beginning starts out a normal zip line speed and then you hit the stoppers surprisingly gently.

Side note: for our phones, we ended up were I had an EU number and Ben had a US number.  It worked well because then he could get the text verification that you need for assorted websites but I had the number that worked locally better.  This location was the main example - Ben's phone number wasn't valid but mine was.

The people hooking us up had no safety gear on.  I understand that sometimes OSHA seems like an overkill (depending on the exact thing), but this was definitely not OSHA compliant and made me a little nervous.

One last picture...

...and back down the mountain.

On our way home a whole bunch of enthusiastic soccer players were on the train.  They took up several train cars, had a boom box with them, and were very excited about life.  What I was soon to realize is that the first match of the World Cup (after the qualification rounds) was that night.  We saw so many people dressed in Norway flags...but that is for the next post.

We were pretty sick of figuring out dinners by this point.  (And by we I mostly mean Ben, because he cares the most about what we eat.)  We ended up at a bakery and they had several savory pastries.  Oh shoot.  We had the type figured out at one point and I've now forgotten it.  It was sort-of like a pig in the blanket, but different fillings and a thinner, crispier outside.  They were really good.

Oslo city center - walking back to the hotel.

Sunday: mostly normal

Isaac went to the Gathering, Hope's Sunday worship service, tonight for the first time with our church's youth group.  He really enjoyed it.

During that time, I ran into a conundrum.  Do I go back home?  Do I stay?  I would probably be home for about an hour, which is a pretty good amount of time, but it also doubles the driving time.  I elected to stay in my office.  I got a bunch of stuff done, both for work and non-work, so I was happy with my decision in the end.

Unsurprisingly, we have a weird cat.  Whenever someone uses the ice maker Horizon watches it rather intently afterwards.  We're not really sure what he's expecting to happen (or not), but he makes sure that it is working correctly.

Thursday:surprises

I had a few surprises during class.  Students said odd things.  I mean, I know they don't listen to me, but this seemed to go a bit above the normal not listening.

Someone offered to bring Isaac home from climbing and it was such a special treat.  Isaac said climbing was fine...not great, but he found some routes that worked.

Wednesday: nap

By the time lunch came around today I was dragging.  While I'm feeling mostly recovered, I gave myself permission to sleep as long as I wanted (or until picking up Joshua) this afternoon for my nap.

I woke up a few times, turned over, and went back to sleep.  I ended up napping for almost 2 hrs 45min.  That's way longer than I was expecting, but I'm also going to assume that I needed it.

Besides that, a rather normal day.  Isaac and I did his follow-up at the doctor and things were as expected.  Joshua's favorite day (besides weekend days) are Wednesday because I often get a treat at the grocery store and he has clean laundry.  I always find it interesting how Wednesdays are my least favorite days and they're his favorite.

Oh!  I got carded for buying non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice at the store.  It was easier to just give my ID than start up a conversation, but I found it very odd.

vacation Tuesday (June 16) part 1: traveling to Oslo

We had a mid-morning flight, we weren't able to have breakfast at the hotel, which was rather sad.  But otherwise we wouldn't get to Oslo early enough to do anything, and that would be more sad.

Isaac packed up his bed for the last time.  It was really an amazing hotel room.  The LEGO one was nice because the theming was fun, but this one was nice because it had room.

Airport security was a bit lax.  We didn't really know what to expect, but there were no issues.  And we found a water fountain!  They were rare, so it was picture-worthy.

You could see the fjords out the plane window.

Ben had found the Oslo Pass, which let us ride all the public transport for free along with getting into several museums for free.  Well, I guess it wasn't free because we paid a set amount ahead of time, but it was easy and a great deal.  The train ride from the airport to the hotel just about covered the cost.  The train ride to the city center was standing room only, and it was a bit of a ride.  Not ideal, but really not that terrible either.

Figuring out how to get out of the train station was a bit of an ordeal though.  We just didn't know which way to go and the map only helped a little bit.  We eventually found an escape and if I recall correctly it was even in the correct direction.  The next two blocks were annoying.  We had to go uphill, over cobblestones, while dragging our luggage.  We all managed, but we were also very glad when we reached the hotel.  

The hotel was interesting because there were no attendants.  Everything was done via an app.  We had an early check-in so that we could stash our luggage, took a quick break, and moved towards the Ski Jump museum.

Tuesday: update

Isaac was feeling more upbeat than I expected.  We did give him a very heartfelt talk about keeping on top of the ibuprofen, so I think that helped.  His cough is also mostly gone, which helps too.

My cough was annoying today, but probably about the same as yesterday.

Ben is weird.

Joshua enjoyed a half-day of school.

We didn't have to go anywhere tonight and it was rather amazing.