A Beautiful Hike at Bru

The weather was absolutely fantastic yesterday. There was a very light breeze and only a few little clouds. The bright blue sky made the water on the fjord and sea a beautiful turquoise. We took full advantage of the nice day and went out to an island north of here and hiked just outside the village of Bru.

Getting there is part of the fun. There is a tunnel dug under the sea that has an 8% grade and descends to 233 meters below sea level before coming back up again. It is about 7 kilometers long. Once out, you take some very narrow roads out to a farm. From there, the hike is along some relatively well-marked paths out to the sea and back.



The main attraction of the hike is the installation artwork along the way. There are several permanent sculptures, carvings, and other attractions taking advantage of the natural surroundings along the way. Here you can see "The Nest"and "Now". Local artists built these things a few years ago, and the farmer that owns the land agreed to keep it opened up for everyone to see.



The walk takes you through sheep pasture, and there are sheep in various stages of wool growth and physical size along the way. Most of the pastures are separated with stone fences that look ancient.


Speaking of ancient, we also went to another of the villages (Aamoy) and saw some ancient petroglyphs from the pre-Viking era. There are 3000-4000 years old and document what appears to be sea voyages. There are four such sites open to the public here, but we were getting close to dinner time so we just visited the one.

We had a wonderful dinner of grilled steaks and potatoes last night. We ate on our patio while looking out at the fjord. While we were there, we saw the swan family out swimming near the island across the way. The have their new brood now, and there appear to be five or six little ones!


Kimber is feeling much more normal a week after her bike wreck. She still doesn't remember the incident, but is able to think much more clearly and go through an entire day at a normal pace. Thank you to everyone who has kept her in your thoughts, and a special thanks to Marc, his family and his department for the flowers - they are beautiful!



We've had a couple of recent visitors to the pier. One was the Siem Aquamarine, a brand new ship that came in to have the A-frame taken off. Another was this little cargo vessel, the Molo Trader that came in to either pick up or drop off a small shipment. The crane ship is currently not here, but we did notice that one of the first visitors we saw here, the Boa Deep-C is currently involved in the BP sub-sea work to stop the leaking well. Our best wishes go out to all those involved in or affected by the incident.

The Loss of a Loyal Friend and Repatriation

First, this is a rare post by Kimber. And it is unusual to put these things in the same post.


We have said goodbye to a dear loyal friend. Alex, our dog of 16 years, has died. We knew it would only be a matter of time before this day would come but it doesn't make saying farewell any easier. Alex was the best dog ever and one of the hardest things we did was to leave him when we came here. We left him with a great friend and he maintained his "retirement" with Michelle who loved him as much as we did. Alex was the best dog anyone could have. He was loyal, playful, obedient and loving. And he looked like a puppy for all of his 16 years.

The second part of the post is about our pending move. We also knew our time in Norway would be temporary. We will be moving to Houston sometime after September 1. So our mission now is to do as many more things as we can before then. I will be taking on a Process Safety Coordinator position supporting all of Marathon's international assets. It is really a great opportunity and means I will continue to support Norway. We will post more details as we learn them.

Last an update on me. I tried to go to work today but it was still too much. My head is still not quite well enough to stay up for too long and my right arm is still not very functional. I am getting better just not at the speed I would like. I still hold out hope to do the next race in three weeks. My legs are OK but obviously it is good if I can hold the handle bars of my bike. And I need to maintain my legs.

Thanks to all for your well wishes and thoughts as we go through all these transitions and trials. Our friends and family keep us together.

A condition update...

Kimber is moving around a bit better this evening, but is still not able to recall any details of her bike wreck yesterday. We spoke with the race director to get info on the location of her bike, and he was able to fill in a few details of the incident for us.

Apparently Kimber was close to the 66 km mark (around a windmill that was near the course)and going down a hill when two guys went to pass her. One of them cut in front of her, striking her front wheel and causing her to be thrown off her bike. The two guys did not stop. The next racer behind her stopped and called for help, then stayed with her for about 20 minutes until the ambulance arrived (he basically gave up his race to stay with her.) She was unconscious until the ambulance got there.


Her bike is actually in pretty good shape, with the only damage being a missing portion of her traffic bell. Based on what we can tell from the bike, when the other person hit her, Kimber's bike planted down head first and she went over the bars and onto her right side. You can see the road rash and bruises on her right arm and shoulder, as well as the bandaged laceration in this picture. She has matching road rash on her right hip and bruises all over her right side.







Here are the updated pictures of her laceration on her forearm. It seems to be healing, but there will be a significant scar.

Fortunately tomorrow is a holiday in Norway, so she has one more day to recover before going back to work. We will change the bandage on the sutures tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see how it is looking.

Kimber still wants to do the North Sea race in three weeks, but we will have to see how the arm is doing before that one. I just want to see her get back on the bike and have fun.

And this is why you should wear a helmet!

Kimber's bike race was today, and as you can tell from the title of the blog, all did not go as planned.

She made it past at least 52 kilometers okay, but something happened (she doesn't remember the incident at all) and she was found by one of the other participants in the road. She has a concussion, a full-thickness laceration on her right forearm that is about 10 cm long and required 11 stitches, and some road rash.

I met up with her at the first clinic she was taken to about the time they were getting ready to do the stitches. She was then sent to the hospital for a CT and x-rays (all negative), then discharged home.

She is pretty disappointed about not finishing the race, but considering the condition of her helmet, she is pretty lucky to have escaped with the injuries she has. No idea on the condition of her bike - it is locked up at the real estate office in the town the race was in and we probably won't be able to get to it until at least tomorrow.

She is resting now and will hopefully get some sleep before waking up very sore tomorrow.

The View

And no, I'm not talking about an episode of the she-woman man-haters club on television.

Living on the seventh floor of an apartment with other tall buildings in front and beside us, and having 27 windows, provides us quite a view. We can see the fjord, piers, mountains, the soccer stadium, parks, the NATO facility, and all sorts of other stuff. The other stuff makes things a little interesting sometimes.

We aren't the only building with windows. Now, I am not saying that we would sit in our apartment and spy on the neighbors with our binoculars. But if we happened to be looking out at the mountains and noticed something funny in our field of view, well, we can't help but notice.

Sometimes we don't even need to look through the binoculars. For example, our neighbor in the building next door has a habit of watering the plants on her balcony in her underwear. As she has not necessarily aged gracefully over her 75+ years, it is not a pretty sight in the morning.

We have also accepted the fact that we can be seen as well as we can see the neighbors. I have come up with a way to live with this, though. I just think of myself as being invisible, and it doesn't bother me as much.

Kimber bikes in a big race (80 kilometers, 2500 participants) tomorrow. We will post pictures if we get some good ones.

Alt for Norge!

There is currently a show on Norwegian television called Alt for Norge (translated "All for Norway"). It brings together several Americans of Norwegian decent that are competing in various "Norwegian" challenges in order to win US$50,000 and the opportunity to meet their Norwegian family. Challenges range from singing the Norwegian national anthem (yes, in Norwegian) to rappelling down a waterfall, to cleaning out a cesspool at a mountain cabin. It is mostly in English, and pretty entertaining.

In the spirit of the show, we have tried to give Betty and John (Kimber's parents) their own version of these distinctly Norwegian tastes of culture. In the past week, we have been to a mountain hytte (cabin), hiked and biked in the mountains, prepared and eaten familieribbe and pinnekjot (see posts from around Christmas), driven the 27 switchbacks at Lysebotn, and marched in the 17 Mai parade.

Sorry John and Betty - no $50,000 for you.



As for the last activity, the 17 Mai parade is in celebration of Norwegian National Day. It is sort of like the 4th of July, but more formal and better dressed. There are several parades in town, beginning with the Children's Parade in the morning. Children from every school march (generally every school-age child in town) and people in traditional Norwegian or formal clothing line the route. There are Norwegian flags everywhere and the children all sing traditional Norwegian children's songs and school spirit songs.


Sidney and I both marched with the British School contingent. Kimber, Betty and John watched the parade and then went to a friend's place for brunch. Sidney and I went back to the school, as required, for registration and polse (hot dogs) and cake.

John is feeling a bit under the weather, so we do not plan on attending the other two parades in town tonight. Since we were up so early this morning, I think we will all be taking a nap this afternoon instead.


Gratulerer med dagen to all the Norwegians out there!

A Norwegian Mile

When asking directions in Norway, be aware that a "Norwegian Mile" is not equivalent to an English measured mile. A Norwegian Mile is equivalent to 10 km, though the old standard was just over 11.5 km. Either way, 20 Norwegian miles is a pretty long distance, so don't think you can get there in just under 1/2 an hour.

This comes up because Kimber and I did a long bike ride yesterday. We were trying a course that she is supposed to race on weekend after next, and the course is 80 km long. We missed a turn about 15 km into the course and ended up going into the mountains. It was only a couple of Norwegian miles out of the way. Between the hills and the wind, it kicked my butt! We were both sore and worn out when we got up this morning.


I did do a little fishing this afternoon with Sidney, though. I caught two flounder, including this one that was just over 12 inches long and provided almost a pound of fillets.








Activity over at the piers next door has been pretty high, as the ships that were there a couple of weeks ago came back and had the equipment removed. This was done during the evening, and looked pretty cool. There were also some neat clouds, so the pictures were pretty dramatic.


They also have been busy on the pier Kimber's company's building will be built on. The new building they are currently in is only temporary until the new one is built. The one they are building will extend out onto the pier.

Kimber's Parents Update

We are heading down for our Thursday evening dinner of Norwegian waffles in a few minutes. For those that don't know about Norwegian waffles, they are quite a treat. They are a good bit softer than the ones we typically fix in the U.S., and are also quite thin. The batter is flavored with a hint of cardamom, and they are served with sour cream and either strawberry or raspberry jam. Sidney actually likes hers with just sugar sprinkled on top.

After waffles, I am taking Kimber's parents to the airport for their excursion down to Germany. They are visiting with the family there over the weekend and will be back here Tuesday. We are hoping they can bring us back a few treats from Germany as well!

Once they get back, we are going up to the cabin for a long weekend, then back here for the May 17th (Norwegian National Day) activities. Sidney and I have to be in the parade for the school, and then there will be other things going on after that. I will write a post on May 17th as it gets closer, since we know a bit more about it now than we did last year.

Kimber's Parents

Kimber's parents are currently visiting us from Colorado Springs. It took 16 1/2 hours of actual flying to get here, but they made it without encountering any volcanoes. They arrived Friday afternoon.

Unfortunately, Sidney became ill at school Thursday afternoon, and has been poorly (there's a British term for you!) since then. I plan on taking her to the doc's tomorrow, and I suspect a bad inner ear infection. I am not one to run to the doctor for an ear infection, but we have been going since Thursday to try to keep control of fever, so it is time to do something different.

Despite Sidney's illness, her parents have been able to enjoy a little taste of our lives here in Norway. The weather was actually very nice today, so John and I did a little fishing after a short walk and a good dinner of lamb roast and veggies.

Speaking of veggies, I saw several fields with lettuce and other fresh veggies growing near Randaberg, and we are looking forward to strawberries soon. Fresh Norwegian strawberries are very good, and are even better dipped in the Norwegian version of Nutella called Nugatti!