Getting Ready!

Kaelen and I are busy today getting ready for our trip to Norway which will begin tomorrow. I hope this Blog will help keep our friends and families interested in our adventure and what we learn together.

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Returning Home: Reflections and Hopes

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The last night that we were in Norway was the eve of Vivi’s birthday. We very much wanted to celebrate that event with her. We planned a dinner at the restaurant at the Akerhus, a special location for celebrating special days among Oslo’s residents. Vivi called her elder sister, Randi, to join us. Randi was delighted. Randi spent a few years in upstate New York starting a retail business for fishing and other outdoor pursuits. She came to visit my parents with her mother when she was in New York. Ken and I were living in Melrose; Kurt was just 3 and Steven was 6 months old. Randi is the first Norwegian cousin I had met so she was the first cousin who helped me understand and appreciate the Norwegian heritage we share. Randi now   lives near her daughter Tanya and grandchildren in a flat about 30 minutes outside Oslo.   We arranged to meet her near the entrance to the Akerhus park. Kaelen was so interested to meet Randi. They had such an easy conversation as w...
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Travel Day and Wildflowers

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Tuesday was a travel day; we traveled from Oslo to Homborsund on the south coast.   Vivi and Erik have a cottage there overlooking the sea. Erik and Kaelen had a conversation about country music and Erik found the country station in Oslo on the car radio . So it was   three and a half hours of country music traveling along E-18. We arrived at the cottage in a light mist, but Wednesday began with a cloudless sky. Vivi, Kaelen and I walked across the rugged stone paths to view the light house and the harbor from the peninsula. The wild flowers were amazing. They grow in the crevices of the rocks, along the sandy paths, just everywhere. The colors are so vivid and clear. We picked so many interesting blooms to fashion bouquets and sketch them.  Here is the view from the deck at 10:30 PM
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On the Sea

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Since we have been in Homborsund, we have been focused on the sea. We watch its many moods sitting on the terrace; the sea from that vantage point can seem milky gray and calm early in the morning and in the long twilight. It can be deep blue with impressive white caps or sparkling azure when the sun is high. So of course we were all quite excited when we were preparing to go boating. Erik keeps the boat moored at a marina a short drive from the cabin. Vivi packed a lunch and we set off with food, water, fishing gear and plenty of sunscreen. The coast of Norway always stuns me with its shapes and colors. To say the coast is rugged is hardly capturing the size and shape of the many stone “islands” that give character to the coast. From a distance they are predominantly grey. But when you are close to them in a boat you can see a variety of colors and patterns in white, quartz, pink, and beige. The rocks along the coast toward Lillesand, a small town 2...
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