After our Africa tour, Nate flew home to Maryland to get back to work. The kids and I were luckier, and went on to fly to Bodø to visit my parents and brother Thomas, who was also visiting. Our layover in Oslo ended up lasting most of the day because of an unexpected 5 hour plane delay that followed a 5 hour layover because of British Airways changing and cancelling flights multiple times. The other major airline, SAS, was going through a multi-week strike, so I suppose we were lucky to have booked with the airline that still had domestic flights in Norway. We were all exhausted, and the kids managed to sleep in a noisy, bright airport.
It was wonderful to get to my parents' house and be able to relax and go at a more leisurely pace. The girls painting:
The weather was gorgeous our first week there, which is rare. We hiked to Heggmovatnet, the lake that is the main water source for Bodø.
The kids wanted to have a camp fire and roast marshmallows. They don't actually like roasted marshmallows, but building the fire and putting a marshmallow on a stick and eating it raw is fun:-)
We made a friend of this pretty dog that some nearby boaters brought.
The next day, we drove two hours and took a 30 minute ferry to go to Svartisen Glacier. Once you get off the ferry, it is still a multi-hour hike to get to the glacier. Lydia and Uncle Thomas on the boat:
The glacier doesn't look that far away, but it is melting and the trek to reach it gets harder and harder every year. This section of Svartisen is called Engabreen and is a glacier arm. Looking at photos from 100 years ago, the glacier used to be very wide and reach all the way to the lake. It is narrower now, and receding.
Even four years ago when we were last at the glacier as a family, it was much closer to the lake (and it's fun to look back on the picture of our younger kids). 2018:
2022:
Once we got off the ferry, Karina announced she didn't feel well. She had a headache and just felt exhausted and her throat bothered her. She was a trooper and just kept going for a couple hours. Normally, Karina is the head of the pack and racing forward, climbing rocks. But this hike, she lagged behind and kept wanting to rest. It was strange to see her so out of it. After a couple hours, she just wanted to turn around. At that point, it seemed like we were almost at the glacier. Looks can be deceiving though. Mormor agreed to go back with her (I think Mormor was happy to turn around). Mimi was behind with Derek who had had a tantrum because he hadn't been the group leader forging ahead (Lydia was always ahead of him). At that point, Lydia and Thomas were ahead, and I walked on alone to catch up to Lydia and Thomas. Eventually, I caught up to them, and we reached the ice some time later. From the time I left Karina and Mormor, to the time we reached the glacier, an additional two hours had passed and I was walking at a steady pace up the rocks. In other words, this was a very difficult and long hike. With the way the glacier is melting, I don't suppose we will ever have the chance to touch a glacier again.
Lydia was determined to reach the ice and just kept going and going along the path.
At a distance, the rocks were deceptive and it was difficult to judge distance and elevation gain.
Below, you can see both the fresh-water lake with the glacier run-off, and the piece of land that separates it from the fjord beyond that connects to the ocean. Also in the image below are Mormor and Karina in the distance. These rocks just never ended and it all seemed flatter than it was.
We made it! Thomas and Lydia:
In the pictures above, the piece of ice of the glacier does not look very tall. However, in the photos below you can see that it was actually many stories high, and Thomas looks tiny in comparison.
We heard several cracks from the ice, and didn't linger long. It was amazing to reach the ice. I wish Karina could have made it too. And I was very proud of Lydia getting there so easily.
Thomas, Lydia, and I ran out of water and food because Mimi had the backpack and we didn't plan well when we split up. The three of us rushed down to make an earlier ferry and made the return trek in only two hours. I was incredibly exhausted when we finally came running to the departing ferry that my mother convinced the worker to hold for us.
When we finally got home, I tested Karina for Covid and she tested positive! Derek had tested positive a couple days before that, but was better. Nate, back in Maryland, had also tested positive, and had a more severe case than Derek did. After two years of being surrounded by coronavirus, it took going to Africa to finally get infected. I had had a runny nose the days leading up to the glacier trip, but had taken an at-home Covid test twice over the previous days and it had come back negative both times. That night, after the glacier trip, my test came back positive. I suppose that explains why I was so exhausted during the hike. I felt bad for Karina because we were trying to hike a glacier the day she had Covid. If we had known that she and I had Covid or that she didn't feel well, we would have postponed the trip.
On the drive home from Svartisen, we passed some domestic reindeer. Their coat was gross and shedding.
As Karina recovered, Derek and Mimi played a lot of soccer. The mountain view from my parents' house is beautiful. I think Derek and Mimi played soccer multiple times per day, every day the weather cooperated.
A couple days after Karina (and I) had Covid, Lydia also came down with a runny nose sore throat and she tested positive! Lydia was strangely very excited to join the Covid Club. She was so happy to have it. My parents had already had Covid, so that left Thomas. Unfortunately being stuck in a house with people who have it is not a good way to avoid becoming infected, and he soon also tested positive. It felt like a long series of one person being sick with it after another.
Mormor found this dress she made half a century ago, and Karina tried it on. It was a little loose on Karina, but I think it would make a great Halloween costume.
Derek helped Mimi mow the lawn for a little bit with this push mower.
All summer Mormor was clearing out things in the house left from decades past. My parents are thinking about selling the property, so she was going through a house and barn full of old things. There was a hard drive to be disposed of, and Thomas decided we should hammer it to destroy it. Each of the kids got into the hammering:
As you can see, a certain little boy thought this was the best idea ever. The girls had fun too.
My mom was also trying to convince me to take this vintage mink coat that was her mother's. It is a beautiful coat in terms of softness, quality, and warmth, and I don't like the idea of wasting something that was made from 50-60 minks. However, it is not my style:-) Derek looked good in it!
This was a wig that my mother's mother used to wear.
The combination of my grandmother's wig and mink hat and coat was hilarious on Lydia. She is giving us the royal wave. She combined it with my grandmother's real snake skin purse (that we did end up taking home because Lydia loves snakes).
Another day, we hiked to the old quartz mine (in background below).
As my mother went through each room, finding things to donate, throw away, and keep, we came across endless supplies of old (expensive and mostly nice wool) yarn. The kids made various creations with some of it. Derek was proud of his spiderweb.
Lydia is wearing all sorts of pins that Mormor's mother had, another afternoon project.
We also watched the women's European soccer cup and enjoyed many games. In the below picture, Karina is wearing Lydia's glasses, in a funny role reversal.
Below is a little waterfall a shortish walk from my parents' house.
What good memories!! Love, Mormor
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