happy birthday grampa!
we got you some cake. it was sooo delicious and tasted good and we sang happybirthdaygrampahappybirthdaytooooyouweloveyou!
but then we had to eat the cake all up!
love owen
quote of the day
it's been crazy over here with michael working 15+ hour days and we're all tired and hotel-weary. so this afternoon (after we missed breakfast) we all managed to sneak in a family lunch at invit. we indulged in gourmet sandwiches and smoothies and then ordered ourselves a french press pot of coffee and all shared a flourless chocolate cake with melty vanilla icecream. covered in chocolate bliss owen exclaims:
we're having a breakfast party!
indeed :)
friday five!
so while we're not exactly sitting poolside, here are five signs it's summer in ålesund:
1. pickled fish has made room for kiwis and almond pastries at breakfast.
2. "turists" are out taking pictures of the judgenstil from the bridge.
3. ding ding! the bytoget train-bus is taking sightseers around town
4. strangers offer to take your picture
5. the radisson wii room is officially open
owen the fearless wee-king
today owen and i hopped on the 18 bus and went out for the SUNNMØRE museum viking day.
we didn't actually know it was "vee-king" day so it was just bonus fun. we were equipped with a completely unreadable map for a dozen or so activites, but owen just had fun shouting out numbers and very seriously saying:
"ok mommy, now go up this very bumpy hill and past these GIGANTIC conifer trees."
(i'm realizing that hypertext is perhaps the best way to decode three-year-old speak).
the weather has been pretty miserable all week so i was excited to see sun in the forecast. it rained, of course, on our way to the bus station but cleared up and we had crisp blue skies when we set out in viking land.
first we found this boat-ish teepee-ish thing that owen said was a spaceship boat and i tended to agree.
at this point i realized my camera battery was completely dead and then thought what luck! i have owen's camera. but, alas, his battery had died too. go figure. anyhow, we climbed down into what seemed a viking-ish ship and got a seat right on the front bow peering into the water. i pulled out my sunglasses, held tight to owen and then the rain started. i also realized that what i thought was a fun tour around the harbor was an hour long boat trip in the now pouring rain. being a viking, i think, couldn't have been that cozy. luckily we had an umbrella and despite my eventual seasickness and sogginess we did join the other reckless norwegian kids running around the boat and posed with viking man on the bow and enjoyed quite an adventure. an american couple (who funny enough thought we were norwegian) thought owen was too fun and thought it was a travesty they couldn't take a picture with our camera so they snapped one with their telephoto lens and got our email--so look for the bonus picture in a post in a month or so. . .
norwegians like to party in the rain
check this link out for the solstice festivities (these are the same pyres we snapped the day before--see post below)
a weekend of sand and stairs
it's been a stormy weekend out here in norway and not a lot of signs of summer--at least not until this afternoon when the rain stopped, the clouds broke and we headed up to volsdalen for our sunday picnic. there are camping cabins around this little sandy beach area and we found a great blanket spot just up the rocks. owen quickly scrambled down to the sand and went to work with his bucket and spade. note the two gleeful children in the background who are definitely taking advantage of this fleeting summer sun--yes, swimming and jumping off the rocks. our norsk picnic skills are getting much improved as we made some grilled shrimp and asparagus and even found some proper blue and cheddar cheeses (a nice diversion from the ubiquitous white cheese that's simply "norwegian).
we also sighted the preparations for summer solstice--the tall tower in the background of the next picture is actually a pyre for the bonfires that will commence tomorrow evening to celebrate the longest day of the year. after tomorrow, however, the days will get shorter. i doubt, however, that we will see dark evenings (unless the clouds come in). and the last picture was right in the middle of the park. we did note 
that the fire department was conveniently right around the corner.
the rest of the weekend had been pretty quiet. owen and i are recovering from nasty colds and michael's getting ready for the big "go live" next week. friday we joined a dozen or so of michael's colleagues at XL for some superior bacalo and owen couldn't have been more of a gentleman. of course, the new lego firetruck bribe helped ;) on saturday we joined what seemed like all of sunnmøre at møa--the mall outside of town. we wanted to get some provisions from the coop (the mega grocery store pronounced like chicken coop not co-op) and escape the miserable weather. the highlight, though, was walking up the escalator and hearing owen say "oh? what's this button?" and suddenly the escalator stopped. the funny thing about that was that nobody seemed fazed. i swear had he pulled the emergency switch out in a cali mall we'd still be filling out forms. when discussing the incident this afternoon owen said, oh mommy, it's ok. i just made stairs. and you can't really argue with that. . .
speaking american
i've been (re)reading the book of salt, a fictional account of gertrude stein's vietnamese cook at 27 rue de fleures in paris and there's a great passage about stein's relationship to a particularly american english--it has become something she wields with authority, something she has developed an intimate relationship with as she no longer hears it spoken (and her command of french is awkward, and unsophisticated to say the least) but only reads it in her detective novels and in letters she holds in her hand. i love this passage (and the entire novel is truly a feast of language) and have been thinking about "american" english.
a few weeks ago i arranged a playdate with a woman i had met briefly on our stay here last spring. we had planned to meet up at the playground and i described myself and owen in case she didn't remember our meeting and she laughed and said--don't worry, you'll be the only one speaking american. and like stein i realized i don't actually hear american spoken--everyone here speaks to us in english but we are accustomed to the sound of norwegian conversation, the emphatic verbal gestures of another language. last spring we were regulars at the jugenstil museum cafe and the young art student that worked there apologized for his english--we don't usually speak english here until july. and later that spring we met the goalie of the alesund team at invit when he overheard me talking to owen and said "from california? don't meet too many of us around here." so all that to say is that it is july here and officially cruise ship season. and at breakfast yesterday there was a loud, jarring sound coming from a table across the room. american! how foreign and familiar it all sounded. and yesterday while reading said book in the cafe i peered up from my very american words to hear americans exclaiming over rosemari's chocolate cake. it gave me the odd feeling you get when you hear yourself on an answering machine and you ask--do i really sound like that??
thoughts on going home after five cups of green tea while owen assembles "the longest words" using magnet letters with no magnet board
so we booked our tickets home! i'm excited but also realized we've fallen into a comfortable routine here, made our little boatroom home and this town our little neighborhood. when we're out on our afternoon walks we are no longer among strangers--we get a nod from tom the artist with his dog at the crosswalk, we chat with ingrid from reception in the bytunnelen, and we stay after the hand-written "close" sign is flipped for extra strawberry cake and coffee at rosemari's. and our daily route too has become a familiar part of the aalesund landscape. i guess that's the lesson about travel, right? wherever you go you make it your world, you adapt, you adjust, you learn, you leave your imprint, you leave. we're not packed up yet, and indeed we have several more weeks here which is certainly longer than your casual visit. but i am at the point of making lists of places i want to see, shops and msueums i want to be sure and visit, boat rides to take. of course the rain always makes me a litle melancholy, a little philosophical and a bit on the side of whimsical. and the cargo ships off in the distance do indeed look like pirate ships coming out of the misty fjords.
"orange pufferfish in big water"
it's been a typical week in aalesund, overcast and drizzly and we've been doing a lot rainy day activities. which i have to say, is nice. owen did a mixed-media painting (my fancy term for part watercolor, part fingerpaint) of the fish on his favorite teeshirt and over our window it does look as if his little pufferfish is indeed swimming in the big water.
sunmøre weekend
this weekend was my favorite kind here in norway--we enjoyed local art, cake, and lighthouses. saturday was an unusually busy day in Ålesund with two art exhbition openings, the unveling of the street to molja fyr (the lighthouse), and a streetfair concluding the summerday celebrations going on at the mall. our saturday plans were ambitious--especially considering owen hadn't quite recovered from his london jet-setting. we did manage to make it to the opening at our friend nihl's gallery at artifex where owen made friends with a young finnish guitarist and we enjoyed some collector's prints of tellnes (quite out of our price range but we do have a gorgeous one waiting to be framed back in the oc from our last visit) and a swedish artist lars jonsson among others--the browsing was brief since owen only wanted to visit with rosemari at cafe nomaden next door where he knew she had cake waiting. we had wanted to make it to a sculpture opening at the kube--the modern art museum where janniche tørlen had a collaborative sculpture exhibit with her sister (i'm smitten by her jewelery--michael had bought me a bracelet last year and i'm eyeing some of her new pieces to take home). i think owen and i will peruse the kube later on our own as he was art-ed out. instead we walked down to see if there were still pancakes by the molja (there wasn't) but we ended up chatting with ingrid about some of her gorgeous new glass art pieces (also on that ever-growing list of things to take home!). we ended saturday watching the sweeden-spanish futbol match over fish and chips in the sas lobby. . .
on sunday we celebrated father's day by getting out of town and driving out to the neighboring islands to picnic in godøy and see the alnes fyr. to get there, though, we had to drive through four tunnels which are a little crazy. the last one is a one-lane tunnel, and when you see oncoming cars you pull over in the little turnoff marked "m" (perhaps for move?!). we had gone last spring when my parents were visiting and it was a highlight of our visit. this time the lighthouse was open and there is a gorgeous watercolor exhibit by ørnulf opdahl which i know papa would have enjoyed. owen walked up all five flights of stairs to the top and was rewarded by some local pancakes in the cafe. we then hiked out around the cliffs and grilled some pølse and enjoyed the view. i think we took enough pictures to assmble a short documentary--but here are just a few. note the surfer in the last pic--one of the few surf accessible beaches nearby.
the georg stage tall ship
on our way to dinner we noticed this tall ship docked in the aalesund harbor so we decided to check it out and ended up climbing on board the georg stage-- it was a bit crazy climbing up the plank, but the seamanship students were very friendly and even told owen they'd let him stoaway and raise the pirate flag once they were out to sea. you can see the trademark Ålesund clouds have rolled in for a dramatic seafaring backdrop.
recent conversations with owen
while eating sushi with little ryan:
r: what does bok choy taste like?
o: a grasshopper
o: i love sushi. do you like sushi?
r: it's like california snow
to mommy, while painting foamy fish for his best friend w.:
i'm just going to mix the paints all up and put them on this fishy so we can eat it like a cookie with milk.
after discovering a pit in a nectarine.
are there pits in fruit?
yes, pits are big seeds. that's how fruit trees grow.
oh? well, that's magic.
"london town of fish" ("the fishes are in that water"--the thames river)
"this is a map of owen's shadow"--here we are in london town, right there where owen is pointing from daddy's shoulder. we started our tour along the albert embankment where we walked alongside the thames river, and made our way from the waterloo station underground to covent gardens and explored the london transport museum. the morrells took the train in and met us there for a hands-on history tour of horse drawn carriages and steam engines and double decker busses and all things delightful for little boys. owen says his favorite part of the museum was dressing as a bus driver and then getting to ride on a double decker bus.
on monday the boys indulged me by following the footsteps of virgnia woolf's mrs. dalloway through london. it was a full afternoon's hike, but i did mangage to find flowers on bond street and enjoy a scone in regent's park. along the way we saw the changing of the guard at buckingham palace and owen liked the boys in funny hats on the horses. we headed back on the number three double decker bus through oxford circus, past westminster abbey and over the lambeth bridge. there we quickly caught a taxi to victoria station and rode the gatwick express train to catch our flight back to allesund. good night london, good night trains, good night big ben!
our english homestay: the morrell windsor cottage
we enjoyed an english weekend with the morrells who make us look like mere weekender travellers--they were previously living in amsterdam and have since been in england for hte last few years with their three gorgeous boys: thomas, ryan and andrew. it was a welcome break to get out of the hotel scene and drink some british ales and drink in the sun out in their backyard. (here's where i have to confess--when we left california i snuck a little gold sunshine in my carryon, and it's been with us ever since--copenhagen, aalesund, windsor, and london all had unexpected breaks of stormy weather and recond sunshine when we arrived. coincidence?).
after our late night arrival on the recently added SAS flight from aalesund-gatwick we awoke on saturday to proper english scones, clotted cream and jam and a fresh pot of french press stumptown coffee (this was after a great english cheese spread--some stilton, brie and cheddar to go with our nightcap on friday).
after our late night arrival on the recently added SAS flight from aalesund-gatwick we awoke on saturday to proper english scones, clotted cream and jam and a fresh pot of french press stumptown coffee (this was after a great english cheese spread--some stilton, brie and cheddar to go with our nightcap on friday).
lily june
5 lbs 11 oz, 17 inches long and practically perfect in every way! we miss her already, but know she's (literally) in good hands. sending our love across the oceans to the proud parents!!!
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