Here's Karina swinging around on a rope in one of the buildings (pretty sure the rope wasn't there to demonstrate a 19th-century swing).
The protected and shallow harbor that was used by the fishing boats back in the 1800s.
It was hard for me to think of these fishing vessels being rowed or sailed out into open water for weeks on end and the cramped and cold quarters offered to the fishermen on board. The kids had fun climbing up into the boats, though.
Driving back from the trading post, we stopped at a beach in Geitvågen. Derek spent time throwing rocks into the water. Lydia spent time hunting for shells. Karina left the part of the beach where we were to wander with Tanja and Mormor out to the edge of the ocean (our part of the beach was in a harbor area, and not directly on the ocean). The views of the water and the island mountains make me wish I went out there too. Karina spent a lot of time climbing over all the rocks and had a great time.
Back at Mimi and Mormor's, they hung up a hammock in their yard that proved popular. Snoopy was an unwilling participant, but was a good enough sport to take a picture.
Derek made sure to keep up his lawn mowing duties which he takes quite seriously. Mimi was a good sport letting him "help". I think we were all relieved when the lawnmower ran out of gas and Mimi didn't refill it (everyone but Derek, that is, as he kept trying to get Mimi to mow the lawn some more).
We took a hike up the steep mountain next to Mimi and Mormor's neighborhood, Hopsfjellet, which was close enough that we just walked there from the house. It was one of the more challenging hikes we did, and we didn't like the bugs or the mud that we had to push through to get to the top, which definitely had some pretty views. On the mountain was an old abandoned copper mine - the kids liked shouting into it to hear the echo. It was nice to have the cool air coming up from the mine.
Once we made it to the top, the kids loved climbing on all the rocks and we liked looking around to see the view.
Our next outing was a nice walk through the woods in Tverlandet. The path we were on led to a peaceful waterfall from a stream, and it had some good rocks for climbing and a shelter to sit in. Here's Lydia on a bridge over the stream.
Karina developed and demonstrated great skills at climbing while we were in Norway. She was able to climb up most of this steep rock wall by herself without any issue. I was very excited that she would take these risks and try something new, and then was very proud at her success - especially since she was safe and smart about it and didn't do anything too dangerous. Good climbers are safe climbers who know their limits and she did a great job.
Lydia decided she wanted to climb too, and she was also a great climber - she stayed safe and pushed her limits. I had a lot of fun climbing with both of them.
Derek however is too little to know his limits and he is just crazy. Fortunately, Mimi was there to keep track of him and keep him entertained, mostly by letting him throw rocks in the water.
Mommy and Karina with the stream and the waterfall in the background.
The benches there were made from local stone.
We tried to get a good family picture - I think we did reasonably well.
There were several muddy sections as it had been pretty rainy, but fortunately, the trail was well cared for, and had planks of wood in several sections for people to walk on and avoid some of the worst of the mud and marsh. Here's Karina on one of the longer stretches of planks.
Lydia picked Mormor a bouquet of flowers that looked like small puffs of cotton and enjoyed finding the puffiest ones she could. The plants are called 'myrull' which translate to 'marsh wool'.
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