vacation Saturday, part 2 (June 13): walking around

For late lunch we had reindeer sausage with lingonberry.  We did have to fight through a crowd to get it because there was a music festival and maker's market right outside our hotel, but the sausage stand was only about a five minute walk.  We thought we'd have to wait a bit because the line was rather long, but it moved faster than I expected.  Hmm...I also took a quick trip into the 7-11 to see what things they had there, so maybe that skewed my perception of how long the wait was. (Our hotel really was in an ideal location!)  It was good!  I had reindeer!  We also had Kvikk Lunsj.  Cheryl had gotten several chocolate bars.  The other two were just normal (and good) chocolate, but these were like KitKats...but better!  They had more chocolate, which always makes things better.  It also makes for a weird overseas tradition of having KitKats that are better than the ones we can find in the US.

We rested in the afternoon and had an early dinner so we could get to the swim and sauna on time.  Oh!  We were excited-nervous about it!  We got there, found the captain, and found out that it was too windy to go out.  We were welcome to swim/sauna from the dock, but that wasn't really what we wanted to do.  Also, we had forgotten the googles, and while the kids would have been ok without them, they would be better with them.  We rescheduled for Monday since we had some flex in our schedule.  We were a little disappointed that the captain hadn't contacted us before we got out there, because we had to pay for the trolley ticket and we could have found something else to do.  

However, it ended up working out well!  Our train ticket was good for an hour, so we were able to return on the same ticket.  (Joshua enjoyed standing between the cars because as the train turned one foot would move and the other wouldn't and it was a fun sensation.) Isaac and I had seen some "rocks on poles" very, very briefly on the trip out.  Enough to say, "were those rocks on poles?", but not enough to get a good look.  So we chose an intermediate stop to get off at and walk back, hoping to see the rocks on poles again.

At first we weren't sure we would find them.  We walked through some parks and saw some sights.

We were very confused by this.  We thought it was an interactive, brightly lit sculpture, but in the end it might have just given the weather.  We never fully figured it out.

Cheryl in her happy place: finding new plants

We found them!  Isaac and I had a photo shoot by them because rocks!  Up high in the air!  It turns out that the poles are actually lamps and they stand for each district.

Joshua likes rocks too, but not always pictures.

There was also a playground right by the rocks on poles, so of course the kids spent some time at it.  It wasn't an amazing one, but playgrounds are always at least a little fun.

We continued to walk back and just enjoy the city.  There were several other rocks to get pictures by.  There were a lot of favorite animals to get pictures with.  We finally made Cheryl tell us what her favorite animal was.  After a bit of threats that we would choose her animal for her, she chose dolphin.  And what luck!  We found a dolphin a block later.  We also stopped at the grocery store for lunch stuff on our tour tomorrow.  We found a good selection of items, but the few grocery stores we went in were so crowded!  Low ceilings and barely enough room in the aisles to get one cart through.  My sample size is low (two) and they were both in touristy areas, but it was still rather surprising.

We found a lot of favorite animals!

Although we had sort-of had an early dinner, Isaac was hungry again.  We got some waffles to share and a moose burger for him.  It must have been delicious...I saw him start the burger and then suddenly it was gone.  The waffles were also good, but we savored them for a bit longer.

These two photos were taken at 9:30pm.  While the sun is starting to set, there is still quite a bit of daylight left.

As we were not really going to sleep but starting to get ready for it, the room next to us got really, really loud with voice noises (not music).  Oh boy.  It didn't quite matter to us yet, so we just let it go. It went for a bit, but then suddenly...stopped.  My guess is that everyone went out at that point, but it stopped surprisingly quickly.

Friday: basement

I finally started working O:CtH - basement again.  Not a whole bunch seemed to get done, but I did put up the curtains.

I got a lot of chores done.  There were several quick things I was able to finish up even though I spent more time than expected in the LEGO room. 

Hmm, these blog posts are getting a bit boring.  I'll attempt to make them a bit more interesting, but I'm not sure how well that will work...doing chores is not all that exciting.

Wednesday: groceries

I was getting groceries today and was surprised at the lack of things that I needed that were on sale.  But then I hit the frozen aisle and everything changed: most of the things I needed were on sale.

This week's amazing item was ice cream bars.  Lately there has been about one item per week that is on a really good sale and I end up saving $8-9 if I get a whole bunch.  So we've now stocked up on pepperoni, chicken patties, dark chocolate banana granola bars, and ice cream bars.

Isaac had a half day, so I decided to pick him up after my errands.  I got there six minutes after school ended and it was a pretty good time.  Most of car line was gone for picking up, but we still had to wait a few minutes to get out of the parking lot.  Making a left out of the lot was a little tricky, but not too bad.  I think I will try to not get there any earlier on days I pick up Isaac.

Isaac enjoys using AI to alter images, so today I got a Creeperchino.  Creeper was not happy about the picture - he said he looked too cute.

Tuesday: not Thursday

There were several times today I thought it was Thursday, only to slowly realized it is only Tuesday.

It was a busy day, as normal.  I worked hard today though, but am happy to report that I finished all the work that needed to be done at Hope.  I picked up Joshua from school, made dinner, went rock climbing.  Climbing had some success, some failures.

I'm trying to think of something interesting, but it was really a rather normal day.  

Monday: check

Today was a rather normal day.  I did my chores.  I drove people around...and around...and around.  I went to karate.  It was actually a really good class.  I mostly remembered my forms and we got through a lot of stuff.

As for chores, my raspberry jam set, the kitchen is still clean after dinner, and progress was made on some longer chores.

As for firsts, it was the first time I picked up Isaac at the high school.  I got there about ten minutes late and it wasn't too busy.  Speaking of firsts, I had Isaac make his own appointment for his next ortho visit.  Exciting?  More for me than for him.

vacation Saturday, part 1 (June 13): living museum, walking around

Fun fact!  The slightly extended Hilldore family was on four continents today: North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

The breakfast was great.  There was bread with brown cheese, which was one of the specialties in Norway.  (It's hard, but possible, to get in the US.)  There was a cold almond/not-oatmeal thing that was weird and good.  And there was a raspberry cocoa ball.  These were possibly the oddest.  They were quite dry, but still tasted very much like raspberry.  It turns out that most raspberry things are not dry.

We had several options of things to do today and Monday, but could mix and match a bit depending on weather.  We decided to to the living museum (Gamle Bergen Museum) in the morning.  Ben worked the public transit system like a pro, so we were able to bus over there.  Then we walked a short ways to the spot.  It was rather pretty and involved walking in a circle, kind of like the entryway to highways.

There were a few things outside the official museum, so we explored those a bit.  We found one of apparently several public swimming access points - and there were several people there!  They were also in the middle of restore a building and had printed out a (probably not paper) facade to put up.  It was rather funny, but at the same time blended in well and was a good option.

The living museum had several buildings to explore and there were several like skits throughout the morning.  The actors did a great job being in character and had to change characters several times throughout the morning.  The first skit was a maid working for the merchant and the 'farmer' boy that would come in from his island once a month.  They were in the middle of the slowest love story ever.

The second story was of the dentist in 1897.  I wouldn't believe it if 1) they didn't go out of character afterwards for a mini tour and 2)I didn't look it up afterwards to find out it was true.  Ok, so the story was of someone about to get married, but she had to get all her teeth removed first so that her in-laws didn't need to shoulder the cost of it happening later.  Her brother paid extra to give her morphine, but she kept running away anyway.  It turns out this is completely true: all the teeth were removed at marriage or confirmation.  Sugar had been introduced into their society but not good dental hygiene, so the teeth just rotted.  Dentures were expensive, so you would get one set and they had to fit you for the rest of your life.  If you were especially poor, there would only be one set of dentures in the whole family and you would just take turns eating.  CAN YOU IMAGINE???  (Turns out this was actually a rather common practice in a lot of western countries.)  After the skit there was more info on dentistry practices that I went to listen to.  I don't remember many specific details at this point, but found it all very interesting.

They had beds that would grow in length with the kids.  The main reason seemed to be the ability to get them into the houses (long ones were harder), but the more important reason might be that it saved a lot of space. No need to have a long bed for a short person.  They also had a few beds that would grow wider - during the day you could push half of it in for more floor space.

We explored for several hours, but I'm pretty sure that Joshua's highlight of the visit came near the end with a cat.  It was a nice white cat.  However, it followed us for the next ten minutes!  I was expecting a quick "hey cool, a cat!" but then we kept seeing it as we walked around.  It even let Joshua pet it's belly.  It seemed as though some of the houses are private residences, so maybe the cat belonged to one of those.

At the beginning, going up:

A small alley with Joshua:

Looking towards the fjord:

First Lunch: a bread with meat

Joshua with the cat:

Amanda and Joshua with cat:

Cat following us:

Ben with cat.  See?  It followed us a long time.

Oh, those silly kids.