Well, our planned trip out on the Viking ship had to be postponed due to bad weather. It has been rainy here for the past week…. actually the last month! Today on the news they said we only have had 3 days without rain in July! I am hoping August is a little sunnier. We have rescheduled the Viking ship trip for tomorrow, and as of right now the weather looks like it may cooperate. The sun actually came out around 10 pm tonight for a bit and the last weather forecast I saw just called for cloudy skies. On Thursday we will be traveling by bus and train to Trondheim. It is a larger city a bit north of here where some of our relatives and friends live. We are traveling up with our friends Jessika and Anna, and will be staying with my cousin, Else. We will be there for just under a week, and then will fly back to Alesund to spend our last week here before we return back to the states. Send lots of good weather thoughts our way!

July 6, 2007

We had wonderful weather for a first full day in Norway. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the upper 70s/low 80s. We ran a few errands and spent a little time in town with our friends Jessika and Anna before heading out to the beach at Volsdalsberga with my cousin, Anne. We had been there a few times on our last trip, but since hten they have trucked in sand, so the beach isn’t just all rocks. It made it much nice for walking in and playing in, but it also makes the water a bit dirty which made Lanie not want to actually swim in it. We were able to get her to jump off some rocks into some clear water away from the sand and she loved that, but the water was a bit on the chilly side so after a couple of times, she was ready to just go back to play in the sand and water. She kept trying to talk to the other kids to try and play with them but since she speaks English and they speak Norwegian the language barrier was a bit difficult to overcome. I think she may start seeing the benefit of speaking Norwegian though!

July 4-5, 2007

After our stay in the Flagship Lounge in Chicago, it was off to London. We flew in a 777 and the business class seats are about the size of first class seats in smaller planes. It was pretty comfortable and Lanie fell asleep before they even got us our dinner. She slept the whole flight until I attempted to wake her for some breakfast. That didn’t work too well, so it was probably only about a half hour before landing when she actually woke up. We had a few hours in London, most of which were spent walking across Heathrow Airport! Word of advice; if you ever have to fly through Heathrow make sure you wear your walking shoes and that you have at least a 2 hour layover if you have to make a connection! We made it to the British Airways Lounge and they had a children’s room with a TV and toys which kept Lanie occupied with her Mormor, while her aunt and I took a look around the airport shops. At first look, the prices seem great, but then when you have to double them (it’s about $2 to 1 pound), then it’s not such a good deal! Finally, our flight time came and we got on our 3rd flight of the trip. Again, Lanie slept pretty much the whole flight. We arrived in Oslo, and had to deal with passport control and customs, so we had to collect our luggage. It is neat here in Norway with the Duty Free shop because they have one right in the baggage claim area, and with your incoming international boarding pass you can take advantage of it. So we did a little shopping there while we waited for our bags. We then sailed through customs and made our way to the SAS desk to check our bags in for our final flight to Aalesund. Unfortunately, they are the only airline flying into Aalesund and because they are not a partner with American Airlines or British Airways they don’t care that we were traveling internationally, and only give us the domestic baggage allowance. With a little re-arranging we managed to get everything checked without any charges for additional luggage, unlike on our trip in 2005. We had a few hours layover in Oslo, but after dealing with customs, rechecking bags, and getting Lanie something to eat (polser, of course) we didn’t have too much time left before we were able to board the plane. Unlike the other flights, Lanie was wide awake for this one, while I was so tired that I had a hard time keeping my eyes open! Of course, Lanie helped make sure I did!

Once we got in to Aalesund, we collected our bags. After I had gotten all of the bags off the conveyor belt I went to get the carts and my backpack (which had all of my money, passports, etc), and it was missing! I was about to come completely unglued, thinking someone had stolen it, when we saw Lanie standing by the conveyor belt which was still going around (at one point the items enter through a opening in the wall, and go around into another opening). She was grinning and at that moment I saw my backpack coming out the other side! Lanie thought it would be fun to put Mommy’s backpack on the conveyor belt and watch it go around! Needless to say, I was relieved and infuriated all at the same time! After that, we made our way out of the terminal and to the bus that took us into the city (the airport is on one of the many islands around Aalesund, and the bus has to go through tunnels that go under the sea to get from island to island). The bus stops right near my cousin’s apartment, where Lanie and I will be staying for our time here. She came down to help with our luggage and we finally were able just to relax a bit after a very long trip!

The other day we were driving to one of our relative’s homes for dinner, and Lanie’s aunt, known to all as Kikishell, asked Lanie in Norwegian “Do you understand what I am saying?” to which Lanie responded, “Jeg snakker Norsk!” That translates as “I speak Norwegian!” At the time we had been here 5 days. She is catching on very fast. It is fun to hear her using new words and phrases. Lanie will be looking at the things around her and just start asking what the names of everything are in Norwegian. It will be so fun to see how much she learns in the next 4 weeks!

Well, we are on our way to Norway! We left today out of DFW at 1:00 p.m. and will get to my mother’s hometown, Alesund, tomorrow around 8 pm local time. It will take over 24 hours of traveling! So far, Lanie is doing well, but the wait here in Chicago is annoying her quite a bit. She just wants to get on the plane! She slept most of the way to Chicago, but didn’t get as long of a nap as she usually does so I would have to say she is a bit on the cranky side, but overall doing very well. We are spending our 5 hour layover in Chicago in the Flagship Lounge which is for First Class travelers (no, we are not in first class, but my mother and sister are, so we were able to come in as their guest. It is a nice place to wait but a bit on the snobbish side. We were told when we came in that we would need to make sure we kept Lanie quiet or we would have to leave! They do have food and adult beverages so we’ll put up with the snobbery! It is very nice having two other people here helping keep Lanie occupied, especially when she won’t listen to me she will usually listen to one of them!

Anyway, I will post again when I have an internet connection and when I start taking some pictures I will get them posted as well!