Snippets

Went out for lunch today and…

their windows were painted for Christmas. Halloween isn’t for another two weeks! But the poinsettias are pretty and I bet they got a good deal on the price, so 🤷🏼‍♀️(shrug). 

Jaclyn asked me to show my friends her latest vocabulary test. This is her first 100% correct test and she’s (rightfully) very pleased. Her first test of the year was -12 out of 13, so this is a big deal. 😍

The new Lexus, that we’ve had for 5 whole months, is back at the dealership AGAIN. Same problem as before, where it won’t start and the battery just clicks (or is totally dead). So tired of this…

Celebration

We put off celebrating our wedding anniversary with the family 

until we got back from our Iceland trip.

So slightly shy of a month late, 

we packed up the CA branch, 

along with 3 friends of Leia’s and Leo’s, 

and headed south to Medieval Times in Buena Park.

We wanted something that would be fun for everyone 

and this definitely fit the bill. 

Horses - check. 

Dress up - check. 

Medieval, sword fighting, Star Wars princess

Sword fights - check. 

Knights and 

princesses - check. 

Plus the food was decent (the tomato soup dragon’s blood soup is a family favorite)

and the 2 hour show was entertaining,

especially the part where our Blue Knight tossed TWO flowers to a very thrilled Jaclyn. 

Mary, Cheyenne and Donovan had never been, 

and Jac was too little the last time to remember it, 

Skeleton Man (if Jac was going in costume/dress-up, so was Donovan!)

so that made it even more fun.

If you’re interested in going, their website offers a 15% discount (currently)

and if you have a group of 15 or more, it’s even cheaper… it cost less to take 15 people at the group rate than 12 at the 15% off price. 

Traveling Home - Sunday, 10/6

Hubby* wasn’t feeling well on our last day aboard Norwegian Prima, 

so while everyone else went ashore 

(seriously, everyone was gone - there were maybe 4 other couples we saw all morning), 

we enjoyed the very peaceful, very quiet Observation Lounge.

Timer started 10 hours into our journey

Which turned out to be a very fortunate choice 

Bus ride from ship to plane

since the next day’s journey home 

 Heathrow charges a fee to drop off passengers. A sign of things to come in the US?

took a total of over 26 hours and 26 minutes. 

 Terminal 3 was a huge mess. So crowded, so unorganized, so awful. Never again! (If we can avoid it.)

We were sooooo tired!

 Hanging out in the lounge for 6-ish hours, waiting for our flight. Good food, nice drinks, great staff. 

Even with lie-flat seats - 

so nice! - 

a 10 hour plane ride is *very* long.

We had a 2 hour lay-over in Seattle but arriving from London meant we had to get our checked bags, go through Customs, then get the bags loaded onto the next flight.

Plenty of time… unless Delta takes over 45 minutes to get said bags from plane to baggage claim. The ONLY reason we made our flight was I remembered the Mobile Passport Control app I’d downloaded before our trip (highly recommend!) and filled it in while we waited (and waited!) for our bags. 

The MPC line had 3 people ahead of us compared to the long, winding Disneyland-style lines for non-MPC users. We still had to hustle but we made the flight! 

Me: So cool! The captain’s announcement said the triangles always point toward the bow (front). Him: what triangles?? 😂

*Don't know if we’re still jet lagged or if we picked up a bug along the way, but we’ve been exhausted this week. Not much is getting done besides sleeping and hanging out with the grands. Still planning to post about our day in Amsterdam, so please look for that soon. 

Bergen, Norway - Wednesday, 10/2

Bergen! 

I wasn’t expecting much from today, 

probably because I didn’t know much about the area, 

Pretty houses on the mountain

but it turned out to be really fun.

 Local park and fountain viewed from the bus

We rode the hop on, hop off bus again, 

 Same park, viewed from Mt Fløyen - it’s huge!

getting off halfway around the loop 

  Very steep, pretty road leading to funicular station

at the Mount Fløyen funicular stop - 

the station had a huge line, but we walked right in after I bought tix online while standing in line. Score! -

for a ride up the mountain 

for lunch, 

Wine bar restaurant 

 Those very big wine glasses held Coke - there’s no Diet Coke here, only Coke Lite which I can’t stand

goats -

including this guy, who refused to let you pass until you scritched his head -

forest

with huge trees- 

trolls -

this was my favorite -

and spectacular

180° views of town, fjord and mountains…

and our ship in the distance ⬇️ (red dot).

The bus’s tour recording wasn’t synced with the route, 

 Colorful shops facing the harbor

which was really disappointing, 

 Famous block-long fish market, established in the 1200’s 

so there’s not much info on some of these pics. 

 University History Museum (I think…)

The one story that (almost) synced up was of these “chimney houses”. 

After a major fire in the 1800’s, building laws said housing had to be built of brick….which was expensive… 

so they built with wood and covered the exterior with a layer of bricks… essentially creating a “chimney” if the house(s) caught fire. Hugely dangerous

Thursday, 10/3, we are at sea; 

 Looking back at the downtown shops

Friday we’re in Amsterdam; 

 St. Mary’s Church

Saturday in Bruges; 

 No idea… love the style

then to London on Sunday for the flight home. 

 Drive wheel for funicular, on top of Mt Fløyen

 Love the cobblestone pattern

 Only sign we saw for the trolls. They are behind the restaurant, up a hill, so if you don’t know they are there you’ll likely miss them

 Going down!

 Waiting for the funicular

 Baby yacht parking - the big yachts were off to the right…

 One of at least 3 companies using the ‘hop on/off’ slogan