I am back ‘home’ in Portland but, still my soul is floating around the earth. We have returned to our hometown and are putting down roots again….phone contracts, bought a used car, set up utility accounts and kids are now at Montessori but, we aren’t done with this journey or the next steps.
I write now to continue to document our adventures for posterity and for the boys. We will be processing all this for many a moon to come and with that, comes new decisions and directions. Although, I can’t say that too loudly near our youngest son or he will run screaming from the room….just kidding. 
So, Norway….we have some stories to tell. This was not on our big list when we made the ‘dream list’ at the beginning of the travel plans but, it came about and I am so glad that it did.
I do have two friends from my Leiden University studying days in the 90s that live in 
Oslo and they both offered advice, homes, meals and warm welcomes to our travel queries.
Also, my mother in law’s grandfather left Norway to find his way to this land as an immigrant in the late 1800s and thus we had a some family lineage to find and follow. 
When we announced that we would be going on this trip my mother in law was not keen on being away from her grandkids for a year so, we said, ‘Come join us somewhere!’
And so, they did. Being recently retired folks from Idaho they started at square one to get passports for the first time and they entrusted me to plan their path. 
For us, it was a luxury to be around family, familiar and warm faces with loads of hugs but, also an opportunity to share in this family finding journey.
My Norwegian friends offered to do a little genealogy research for us and when she presented us with an 80 page document before we arrived of all she found we were blown away.
This kindness and curiosity in our background was a priceless gift. We used this information to pin point places to visit. 
Kelvin ,the boys and I arrived in Oslo before the in-laws in to the welcoming embrace of Marianne and Tore. Marianne and I studied together and had been in touch over the years but, it was the first time we had seen each other in over 18 years.
She had recently opted to not run for reelection to the Norwegian parliament but, gave us intimate access to the Parliament and a tour I am sure you could not ‘book’ anywhere else. 
It was like seeing an old friend as we picked up where we had left off last time. Talking about our kids (she has three) and her new work she showed us what it is like to be a working mom and professional. 
My other friend Brita and her partner Eva (she’s the one that did the genealogy research for us without having even met us) also joined us on walks throughout Oslo to the Resistance Museum and drinks along the waterfront among other places.
All while high school equivalent students were running around the city in their flight suits and tricked out buses celebrating their transition to adulthood. Its called Russebuss and it is a fascinating tradition. 
I’am going to write more about this and the Norwegian Constitutional Day which deserve their own billing.
So, anyway…..family history found us driving (well Kelvin driving, really. We just all cheered him on from the back seat) for what seemed like 100s of miles and hours and hours.
This was not a problem as the beauty of Norway is endless. Even when you go through kilometers long tunnels through their mountains and pop out into a landscape worthy of the best visual calendar you could ever pin up on your wall. 
The glaciers (wow), the goats (oh, my), the lambs (have to mention the for Oakley as he pointed out every one of the 10,000 we saw along the way, the fjords (unbeliveable), the moose (meese?, what is the plural for that), the eye watering bright skies with stunning panoramic views as you just look up from your google map EVERY, 
SINGLE TIME!.
In Utvick, I think we stayed in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to when including the view outside and the chick decorations inside.
I felt like we were in a magazine spread but, did not need a fresher of make up. The sun would barely set and the glow would hover on the horizon in the wee hours of the night. 
We chased down family graveyards, enjoyed several of the many ferries, and just watched the nature around us. Stunning and beautiful. Have I gotten the point across?
You will love it if you go and do get out of Oslo, lovely city yet, there is so much to this enormous by European standards country.
If you do, hug a lamb for Oakley because he couldn’t get across the stoic momma ewe. As much as we tried.
Goat Rush Hour Video – Check it out!
World School Room
Goat Rush Hour
Paradise Airbnb
The Fjord
Not even Mid Summer and loooong daylight
Day One, Tuesday: We woke up in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. 
We had been staying at a nicer hotel as we had been traveling hard for a while. We decided to let ourselves stay in a place a bit nicer than our normal choices. Meaning, we had predictable hot water and the beds were blessedly soft and fluffed with clean duvets. We had some more room and there were not as many unpredictable bugs visiting us.
knowing it would be nearly the last of our tropical weather. 
We got a ride in a van to the bus terminal which doubled as a cafe’ on the side of the road. Our bus was leaving from Sihanoukville at 8:30pm. The sun was down as we climbed onboard our overnight bus to Siem Reap.
For about $25 a person it was not a bad way to travel North through Cambodia in the dead of night.
We departed at 8:30am for Bangkok, Thailand. This bus goes through the notorious Poi Pot border crossing from Cambodia into Thailand. The border crossing is a bit easier this way as we didn’t have to get a visa before going through passport control. However, it is still an assault on the senses and having sensory sensitive kids it was especially so.
It was hard, sweaty and dusty but, we did it. Each stop from passport control to the next is outside in the city along camps of people with outstretched hands offering or asking us many things.
We dug out our the Thai Baht we had saved and bought fresh snacks. We were coming in on 19 hours of travel. The bus driver dropped us not far from the hotel we booked in Bangkok near the airport.
Day Three, Thursday: A rest day in Thailand. A good friend from back home Grace came to hang out with us for the afternoon. 
This is after Kelvin ended up cooking our eggs and breakfast for us at the restaurant as they were, seemingly, short on staff.
It was the start of the Lunar New Year so many fireworks exploded through the night as we tried to sleep.
We flew from Bangkok, Thailand to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates in seven hours on Etihad Airlines.
All wiped down with tissues seeking nafarious substances. We had a short layover and then took off for London. Another seven hours in the air.
Our plane held 496 passengers and 22 staff. Our row was ten seats across with two aisles and was a double-decker with a staircase and business class in what I read were actual beds. When we landed it felt like a barely a bump.
Our ride from the airport cost more than seven days of accommodation in Cambodia. Jet lagged and chilly we counted the hours we were awake (24) and fell into the comfy and clean beds of our friends house was we were nuzzled by their two kitties.
Day Six, Saturday: We woke up before the sun to gather our belongs one more time and shuttled off to Luton Airport. We had an interesting ride through the fog gazing out at the hills reaching for green as we wheeled past.
After boarding a Ryan Jet flight by trudging up the stairs in the icy wind from the tarmac we bid goodbye to Britain for a while. We winged our way to Copenhagen, Denmark. We found our way to the train connections to bring us to the Danish village we were going to stay.
Wincing, we found our alternative train and trundled towards our destiny on the Island of Fyn to the town to Nyborg where our host was patiently waiting for us as we disembarked some nearly two hours later.
What followed was an amazing Danish farm experience. That will be documented on my next post.
In the 1990s, I worked for a short time in Hong Kong for a colleague of my Dad’s. It was an interesting time and experience.
While most of it is under re-construction, it held an air of prestige with high ceilings, white columns, giant billiard tables and support staff dressed as Raj royalty. It felt a little rich for my blood but, I did love being there and smiling up at my mom.
The food areas in Chinatown and the Golden Mile were well worth a visit. 
Sumptuous food for really fraction of that cocktail! Such a wide array of foods; Indian, Malay, Chinese, Thai, even Italian, English and American among others.
I didn’t have any cash on me. He directed towards an ATM several blocks away.
work with ended up at 
time one the beach and riding bikes along the water front for a couple of miles enjoying the giant Pelicans seeking snakes and brown snakes waking up after a long winter and sunning themselves on the beach.
And an even bigger deal when we try to do it in three days in a country we haven’t driven in together (Kelvin was there on his own in 2001), driving on the ‘other side of the road’ for us Yanks and in a camping vehicle we have yet to rent or even select. The situation gave Kelvin and I some pretty funny conversations as we were trying to rationalize a mammoth drive to get in between locations for a place to stay.
It sounded good but, we were coming from Hawaii and wouldn’t be there for the first two days of her trip. She, again kindly, offered to make her trip work with ours so we can be her support and she ours.
It’s one thing to throw things in a backpack and dig out my passport but, an entirely different kettle of fish to be arranging four flights to another country with visa applications, baggage requirements, thoughts about timing, food accessibility, world schooling plans, accommodations and time changes for all of us.
Baby’s R Us with the crib my in-laws had bought us.
ckets that will transport our family to the other side of the planet.
The idea of connecting cross cultures for all of us in these ways feels exciting and a little bit nerve-racking. A bit like the night before Christmas or our wedding day.
My husband and I have set up bi-weekly meetings with each other to tackle some of these areas and to process ideas.
My fear would wash up inside and worry about being named as a non-doer, someone with all talk and no action and a tiny fear of superstition. If I write about it will it not happen.
holding back our dreams, choosing the slow and safe lane, redirecting our wants toward the loudest naysayers opinion.
Yes, what seems like a lifetime ago. I arrived in this big, neon city with my Dad as he had me connected to a business partner of his to do some work. We flew business class. I think it might have been the first time I had spent 11 hours sitting next to my Dad.
At this point in my life, I had left my home country for foreign places several times but, landing in Western Europe each time. There, I could find a way for my caucasian self to blend in with my English and weak Dutch. I could be on a train and most would be none the wiser until I ordered a coffee, even then I could tilt and soften my accent to draw away from my American self identifiers.
it but, I don’t want to be painted with the brush or spotlight of FOREIGNER where ever I go.
However, perhaps we can point ourselves in the direction we want to go. Like a boat on a stream…there are plenty of obstacles but, we can navigate.