We’ve started our vacation from touring! It is really nice not to have any bus reservations, or museums we have to see.

Plus it’s is really beautiful up here. It feels and looks like the Mt. Hood/Mt. Raineer area until you look closer and see the trees aren’t really what ours look like, the buildings are constructed a little different and painted black or red. Not our normal barn red a beautiful deep burgundy red and many of the roofs are “living roofs”. I would like to know what kind of barrier they use under all that moss etc to keep the spring thaw from dripping inside the house.

About 10 days into the trip Maggie got quite homesick but that only lasted a day. Michael seems fine, dramatic sighs from time to time but overall he is engaged and I think enjoying himself. The Viking stuff interests him the most. I was glad to see the British Museum has lots of Viking history too.

Michael hanging out in Stockholm apartment 🙂

Maggie didn’t think the thatched roofs worked well but I thought those buildings were dry and would quite cozy with a fire burning. I didn’t see chimneys though so I expect the Vikings lived with a lot of smoke in the winters. The king had a huge lodge and the rest had smaller huts. I’ve been impressed with the use of stones and wood to prevent mud in main streets clear back to the 900s up to the 1790s. I wonder why that didn’t get brought to America’s wild Wild West or even the early days back east. How much of the original towns used cobble stones? Guess I need to explore the east coast too. Better figure out some way to retire eventually.

For my fellow water snobs – tap water everywhere has been just fine for drinking.

It really does feel a bit like home to be sitting in a timeshare resort with lots of families walking past. The tone of voices (adults and kids) is the same but then I realize I don’t understand what they are saying and there is a bit of an accent of course 😉 The other reason I know we aren’t at home is I can’t understand the washing machine. It’s suppose to be drying the clothes now but instead it’s washing them again. Time for Google translate again – there isn’t much english up here.

Like Maggie noted earlier – we must look Swedish because all of a sudden I have to ask cashiers to talk to me in English.

The ride up hear was beautiful lots of rivers, lakes and Lupine. Unlike at home the wild Lupine hear blooms in pink, white and even variegated colors. I’ll look for some seeds to bring home 🙂

Lupine

My chronic pain issues haven’t been too bad and pain meds are keeping them very manageable. Best of all is remembering to do my Physical Therapy though.

It’s fun to be on vacation where the locals vacation! We went to the grocery store and bought some stuff we’re not sure about. Wayne googled one thing we didn’t take – turns out to be reindeer summer sausage – we’ll have to go back for that!

Sorry this is all such a random brain dump. We’re using the iPad with a key board which is ok but too much effort with out a mouse to move paragraphs around and make this more cohesive.

Feel free to ask questions!