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.

then we found this cool archeolgical dig site where owen scooped dirt (we could have stayed for hours!!) into a bucket then sifted it out for "magic beads." we then went into the hut/cabin (the one with the open door directly behind him) and strung his beads onto a cool necklace.

after reaching the top of the bumpy hill (and discovering a cemetery which owen went running down shouting "look mommy! a maze!) we made our way back down towards the boat docks. owen stopped to check out the treasure map while i took note of the very ominous clouds that started to move in.

we made our way down to the boat docks where we had a ticket for a viking ship ride. while waiting we found this boat-assembly craft area and i suggested we just push the boats that were already made in the water after noting that there were power drills, nails, and saws all set up for the little folk to build boats.

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. . .