Norway: Pancakes

This post is dedicated to the delicious rounds of tasty goodness available at our hotel from 3p-6p everyday.

The kids finally fell asleep last night around 1am Norway time.  C struggled staying asleep even after that, fixed only by getting past 4am (8pm Mountain).  We woke to the alarm at 915am to make sure we'd get free breakfast at the hotel - this being part of our "avoid ridiculously expensive Norway prices" eating plan.  After breakfast, (mmmm... swedish meatballs for breakfast), the sun was actually out and it was not raining, so we struck out to explore.  (A guy last night at dinner told us that we shouldn't have come in April as it rains all the time.  He said to come back in May.  Like... next week?)

We walked through the historic Bryggen area up to the Domkirke (Town church) whose bells were tolling at noon.  Inside, there was an organ performance going on, so it was pleasant to sit and listen for a few minutes, and the kids liked the music.  Outside in the churchyard there were white and purple crocuses, grape irises, and daffodils opening up - a very hopeful spring sight.  Walking back down toward our hotel, we found the base of the Fløibanen, the funicular that climbs Fløyen Mountain just northeast of town.  We jumped at the chance to take the trip, making it #8 on our list of funiculars of the world.

The views of Bryggen, the harbor, and the rest of Bergen from the top were spectacular.  There was a small playground too!  Unfortunately, our still potty training dude had a bit of an accident which prompted us to take off for home before too much fun could be had.  This wasn't a bad thing, as clouds were gathering.  We briefly discussed whether we should continue with our plan to walk down the mountain or bail and take the funicular back down.  Every one was feeling pretty good, besides the wet panted one, so we decided to keep to the plan.

The scenery was gorgeous as we made our way slowly down with mossy green verdant forests, babbling brooks and waterfalls, and ethereal fog.  It rained on and off as we started and then towards the end it was mostly "on."  The delay of our luggage meant we didn't have the Ergo baby carrier, so D rode in the stroller snugged up in a blanket (and fell asleep) and C rode in daddy's arms wrapped in his coat (and fell asleep).  Daddy's arms got pretty tired, as it was a pretty long way and she had to be carried just so to keep her out of the rain.  Still it was a lovely walk, and made us want to do more trekking in this part of the world.

By the time we got back it was pancake time.  The hotel puts out a bowl of batter next to a hot griddle, and you can make-your-own crepe-style pannekaken (Norwegian pancakes) for afternoon snack.  Or... lunch as in our case.  These things are so delicious, I think I could eat them for multiple meals a day.  They set out some toppings - blueberry jam, strawberry jam, orange marmalade, and plain yogurt, but I prefer the simple butter and sugar approach.  A cup of hot tea along with that and mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... I'm all set.

After we emerged stuffed with pannekaken, our suitcases were waiting for us at the front desk - yay!  C had a nap, and the boys ran out to the grocery store for some milk and a walk in the rain.

When they got back we had dinner at the evening "appetizer" spread at the hotel (part three of the "Eat Norway for free" plan - tonight, nacho/taco bar with lots of fresh veggies), and then headed out for another walk around Bryggen, because, dude, the sun came out.  On the way back in we headed up into the clock tower that tops our hotel, and had "adventure," as D repeated over and over and over...

That's what it's all about right there.

Norway: Energizer Bunnies

Back at it again, and violating the rules of starting a new trip before the blog of the last one (and the one before that for that matter) is finished, but oh well.

We began Tuesday evening with a relatively easy, low drama flight to San Francisco.  We overnighted at the Hyatt Regency airport where we used a suite upgrade to upgrade to the super large, very nice, yet subtly weird suites they have there.  The suite has an enormous living room (or parlor, as the check in agent called it) connected to a bedroom with 2 double beds that is a normal hotel room.  The weird part is that all suites are apparently on the 2nd floor (of 9).  Some have balconies that are shared... with the next room.  The room next to ours was inhabited by someone else - don't walk out of the bathroom naked or anything....  This particular suite has magnificent views overlooking the back of the lobby bar/restaurant, with such sights as the garbage can rack, the pop fountain, and those elaborate restaurant cash registers.

But I get ahead of myself.  Let it never be said that I am the only one who makes mistakes - my husband left the our checked bags at the shuttle bus stop at the airport and had to frantically ride back around with the hilarious and helpful Chinese driver to get them ("Next time you count bags!  One! Two! Three! Four!")  Meanwhile, I showed up at the Diamond check-in counter without the Diamond in tow, but with a boy on my shoulders and a sleepy girl in the stroller.  Checking us in was no problem (she never even asked for my ID, let alone T's, which I was carrying).  She was making eyes at Andrew, and offered us complimentary cookies and milk, which I readily accepted.  She said, "Tell your husband I'm giving him the bonus points as well as the food amenity."  I thought she was talking about the cookies, but she then handed me the standard Diamond amenity selection card!  So we got chips, dip, hummus, and two iced teas in addition to our cookies and milk!

After winding down, sleep there went pretty well with D and T in the bedroom beds and C and I in the living room (uh, parlor) in a pack and play and the pull out couch, respectively.  It was a short night, though, and we woke up tired.  I figured this would help us on the ensuing red-eye (ha.).

We'd been worried about our tight connection in Chicago (like 36 minutes) so we were debating how to request a reroute, when it appeared that there'd been an equipment swap to an international 777 on SFO-ORD.  And we weren't on the upgrade list (thanks, SHARES).  It took T about 45 minutes of haggling at the check-in counter to get them to add us to the list (which should be an automated process) and get three of us upgraded instantly.  Then after hurrying to the gate, C appeared as #2 on the upgrade list with two seats remaining.  We advised the gate agent that we were present and accounted for whenever she was going to clear that upgrade, and then got read the riot act about something having to do with being entitled elites who expect the upgrades (which sounded to me like quite the Continental attitude coming from this PMUA gate crew - the assimilation is working?).  This then turned into the agent insisting that C was actually #7 on the list, refusing to even look at the monitor, telling us that the computer systems aren't synced up (? - this give me great confidence in the airline right there), and eventually forcing us to board with C as a lap child after all.  Drama.

It wasn't over though, because we got to Chicago and our ORD-YYZ flight was already delayed so that our tight connection in Chicago was now fine...  but robbing Peter to pay Paul means that we now were going to have a tight connection in Toronto.  We huffed it over to the ORD-FRA United flight to beg to get on it, though it was closing in a matter of minutes.  After a few minutes of giving us the Easy Answer ("Nothing we can  do... can't be separated from your bags...  FAA."), it finally clicked in one agent's head when T said, "So who do we need to talk to when we misconnect in Toronto?" that this really was about to be a huge mess, so she called Luthansa to get the ticket endorsed over to United and put us on the flight.  So we were Those People who boarded last and clearly were the cause of the flight delay.  (Can't blame the sequester and the cuts to ATC for this one!)  But with the tail winds, the flight was a fast one and we all got in an hour early anyway.

The flight started well enough with meals and shows and all that.  We put the kids in jammies, and expected the best after our short night previous.  But C wanted to climb me like a rock climber on a crag, and D fell asleep for about an hour before just watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood over and over for the rest of the flight.  And I got a migraine, which was miraculously the first time that had ever happened on an international flight.

When we hit the ground an hour early in Frankfurt, we realized that we had the chance to make it on the morning flight to Bergen - but we'd have to hurry, we had just over an hour to make it happen.  The alternative was a 7 hour layover in Frankfurt with non-sleeping babies, so I'd say we were sufficiently motivated.  We found an angelic United agent who changed the flights and wished us luck, then had to stop at the Lufthansa transfer desk to get boarding passes.  While T handled that, I asked the information dude the fastest way to get to A52.  He said 'where are you going?'  I said Bergen.  He said, "That flight is going to close at 10:00.  It's 9:40.  Ma'am, I must advise you that with your family, it will take 30 minutes at least to get there."  I simply said, "We'll run."  He tried again: "Ma'am, you don't understand.  This isn't an American airport.  This is like a small city.  To go that far in this amount of time.... impossible."

Well... you should know not to say the word "impossible" to any American, let alone a member of this family.  We took off like a shot.  Through passport control, over to Concourse A, through the family security checkpoint, where they are without fail the nicest security agents ever (they held C for us through the whole process!), and into Concourse A.  As we rounded the corner into the A50-A69 hallway, the clock read 9:52.  I thought - "We're golden!"  T grabbed our stack of boarding passes and ran on ahead to the gate where they accosted him with "Where have you been?  In the lounge??"  (T:  "Does it LOOK like I've been relaxing in the lounge *while wiping the sweat from his brow after a not-quite-all-out sprint through 3 terminals!*) but they shooed us onto the bus which rolled up to a little CRJ-700 parked out far out on the tarmac right next to... the United 777 we had just disembarked.  Hot, sweaty, exhausted, and headachy, we were completely triumphant.

The flight to Bergen was as pleasant as it could be under the circumstances.  Considering we were supposed to be on the afternoon flight, the whole situation resulted in us getting in 6 hours early!  We easily arranged for our poor misconnected bags to be delivered to the hotel and then found the bus to the city center.  We found our hotel and all four of us were tired enough to delightfully crash all at the same time for a few hours, and had high hopes of this being "nap" and being able to go to sleep at an adjusted time.

As I write this it is currently 12:15am in Bergen and our kids are showing no intention of slowing down.  One hour of sleep last night, what?  No!  Let's play trains!

Climbing and Sliding

The kids have really been enjoying the elephant slide that Grandpa built for Travis when he was a baby.  Andrew is getting very good at taking turns, and loves to take turns with all of his stuffed animals: "Tigey turn!  Tow truck turn!  Andrew turn!"

Clara likes to crawl underneath it and watch brother go up the steps, but recently she has made it to the top, both by climbing the steps and climbing the sliding board.  She is quite the climber these days, climbing anywhere she can find a foothold.  She can make it from the main level upstairs in approximately 8.2 seconds.  And it's faster if you've walked into the other room and aren't paying attention...

First haircut

Clara's hair had a similar feature to Andrew's as an infant - she was rocking a pretty awesome rattail.  Unlike Andrew's this grew out down her back.  It was becoming difficult to keep untangled, and it was hard to see how it would integrate into her eventual hairstyle, so... we lopped it off.

I told Travis when Andrew was a 10 month old who looked like a hobo that you can't cut a baby's hair before they turn one.  But here I eat my words.

Before:

 After:

Ten months

Weekend in Florida

Oh, Florida. 

A cheap fare to Orlando led us to take the opportunity to get the kids together with one set of their great grandparents.  The plan was simple - fly into Orlando, take a nice drive up to Daytona Beach, spend time with family, maybe play in the sand a little bit... sounds nice, right?

Well.... then Andrew came down with a stomach bug on the Thursday prior.  The vomit, the diarrhea, the fever, the whole nine yards.  He spent the day on the couch drifting in and out of sleep and watching movies.  Our plans to travel were officially on hold. 

But then... on Friday he seemed much better.  We were scheduled to fly midday on Saturday.  Due to our status, we have the ability to shift our flights by a day if availability exists, so we decided to see how he was feeling on Saturday morning and then decide to go, or to move the flight to Sunday and leave another day of observation. 

By Saturday morning (or even Friday night!) he seemed like his usual self.  By the time we got the the airport, he had been fever free for over 24 hours and vomit free for almost 48.  We opted to go ahead and go.

I will spare you the long drawn out story, but on our two flights (COS-ORD and ORD-MCO) and in the O'Hare Airport, we experienced two episodes of diaperless explosive diarrhea (one of those in the United Club in Chicago) and two episodes of projectile vomiting (one of those in the first class cabin).  There was nothing to do but press on, so that's what we did.

Newly minted Premier Gold baby

But... we got to the hotel and he seemed to be feeling better.  He had a good night's sleep, and in the morning he was himself again. 

So we packed him up in the car to head up to Daytona.  Not five minutes on the highway and he started to squirm and whimper, "Burp....!" at which point he yakked all over the car.  We turned right around.  At this point I was really sorry that we had dragged him across the country and doubting my mommy judgement that had said that he was perfectly fine.  I was also sad that it looked like we were going to miss visiting the great-grandparents.

Luckily, Daddy came to the rescue and volunteered to stay with the sick boy while he rested, and sent Clara and I up to see the great-grandparents after all.  It was a lovely visit, and a good time with just us girls.

Later that night, Andrew couldn't be prevented from eating a rather large BBQ dinner.  I was braced for the worst, but he miraculously kept it all in.  Interestingly, the explosive poop issue seemed to really have an effect on him and he had no potty accidents for the rest of the trip, in spite of dealing with some (ahem) issues.

Finally, a happy boy