Monday, July 29, 2013

Summer 2013

While I've been dragging my feet on posting the vacation photos, the summer of 2013 has inexorably been marching along.  Right after we returned from Sweden we ran into the 4th of July celebrations, with the ever popular Kids Parade. Mathias & Johan decided along with the neighbor boys that they wanted to be Cops & Bank Robbers.  Lest there be any confusion, the robbers are the ones in the striped outfits and face masks! With Cops on their bikes and the Gator now serving as a getaway car, the chase was on!
The gist of the story was that Mathias and his friend robbed the State Bank of Delano.  A funny thing happened at the end of the parade where the kids ran into none other than the president of the bank. He wanted his money back. A shootout ensued. The kids ended up walking away with second prize in the parade for the second or third year in a row. 

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Sweden - in retrospect

When you make airline reservations, two weeks seems like a long time to spend on vacation. Then while you're vacationing it goes by in a flash. Then, looking back at what you did and the people you met, we really did shoehorn in a lot of vacationing into the vacation!

The boys came home many experiences richer and having seen a bit more of the world.

On a recent evening, the sun was setting and Johan asked Ericka: "Where is the sun going?" Ericka told him that the sun was on its way to Sweden to give sunlight to Farmor & Farfar (perhaps a little early to introduce the idea of the sun standing still and earth rotating).  He replied by asking: "Does it need to go to the airport?"
Not everyone has to!


Monday, July 22, 2013

Sweden - Road tripping in castle country

Sweden fondly holds onto its pagan holidays. The biggest one of these is Midsummer. It is such an entrenched celebration that we probably did the pagan thing by heading out on a road trip on Midsummer's Eve. We drove south from Dalarna to Södermanland. 
In a roundabout way we passed through Söderköping where we met Aunt Annika for ice cream. We took a ferry across Bråviken (the boys though that mode of transportation was second to none!). We stayed at Södertuna Slott (one of the few places where you can find an open pool on Midsummer's Eve). 
We finally arrived in Ålberga where we visited with Ericka's relatives in Sweden. We had a fabulous day catching up, reminiscing abut the old days, sharing photos, eating, and having fika (see previous post) with relatives we see much too infrequently! 



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sweden - the FIKA nation

The average Swede consumes about 20 pounds of coffee a year.  That's about twice the US average, even though only two thirds of what the average Finn sloshes down. 
You can't consume that much coffee by simply drinking a cup of Joe with breakfast and after lunch and dinner. You need to find additional occasions to have a cup. Hence: fika. 
FIka usually happens either late morning, early afternoon, or if someone comes to visit your house. Think of it as the British five-o-clock tea but with coffee instead of tea and cookies and pastries instead of finger sandwiches. 
The boys quickly got used to this daily ritual.  Eating cookies comes easy to them... 






Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Sweden - cowboys on fancy horses

The unofficial symbol of Sweden is a wooden horse, often colored in a light red, with ornamental paintings on it. The history of the horse, which is usually about 6 inches tall, dates back to the 1600s. It was originally made as a toy for children. 
Somewhat out of the blue the boys decided that they wanted to go to the place where these are made. It is in Nusnäs, just outside Mora. They got to see the manufacturing process from lumps of wood being rough cut, to the hand carving to finalize the shape, to the base coloring, and lastly the painted details. 
Afterwards they had the opportunity to paint their own horses and climb on the over sized versions outside the gift shop.  Ever since we came home Mathias has been lobbying that we should carve our own. I have a hard time picturing him wielding a sharp knife though. 


Monday, July 15, 2013

Sweden - If Harry Potter was your travel agent

In the village of Jädraås there is a really large museum. Actually it is a very long and narrow museum in the form of an antique railroad where steam trains still roam.  Several times a day during the summer you can travel the three miles to Tallås where you take a 30 minute break before the return trip. 
Before you get on the train you stop at an old-school ticket office. An old-school station master waves the train off. An old-school train conductor collects your tickets. You get the idea!
There's nothing like the smell of burning coal to build up an appetite for Aunt Anna's cinnamon rolls at the end station while they turn the locomotive around for the trip back. 
No wizards were spotted on this train though. 

Monday, July 08, 2013

Sweden - globetrotting with the Toot Fairy

While on our way down to southern Sweden to visit Ericka's relatives Mathias lost a tooth. It had been loose for weeks and, finally, in an ICA parking lot in Västerås he pulled it out (while waiting for his brother to go to the bathroom).  Oddly enough we put the tooth away and Mathias kind of forgot about it. It wasn't until until after we got home that he wanted to put it under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy. So he got $2 for the tooth instead of what the Swedish Tandfe might have brought. 
That was tooth #2. 18 to go. 

Sunday, July 07, 2013

Sweden - old-school roller coasting

After lunch it was time for the other half of the Furuvik park. While the 35+ crowd much enjoyed strolling through a park landscape on a sunny day, the 4-7 year-olds came for the rides. 
Johan is fond of Merry-Go-Rounds, an endearing trait that I'm afraid won't last, and he was pleased to find one. He also much enjoyed a ride that lets you sit in a dragon while going around in a circle. He also, somewhat surprisingly, joined his brother on the kids roller coaster. And he stepped off with a big smile on his face. 
Mathias enjoyed his very first real roller coaster. He was very proud of that and I suspect there is no going back to kids rides now. 
But it seems if you want to get really miserable after lunch you need to get on the giant swing contraption that makes you go around, and around, and around.... After one ride with me Mathias had to go by himself.  It would be impossible to lose your lunch in that ride without hitting at least 12 people...

Sweden - running with the lemurs

Just east of Gävle, on the shore of the Baltic Sea, is Furuvik a hundred year-old zoo and amusement park. In addition to its age it is quite similar to the Como Zoo in St Paul (with the additional ocean front location and the hefty admission fee).  
We visited with Aunt Anna and Uncle Per, along with Pers' son and family. We spent the first half of the day in the zoo half of the park. The sheep and goat section and the amphibians were particularly popular with the boys. 
The lemur section had a walkway through it with a very low fence to keep visitors from walking on the lawn. So while people were meandering around in there the lemurs were running all over amongst the visitors. When they crossed the lawn fence Johan thought the animals were escaping and he yelled for most of the park to hear. At least someone was looking out for the zoo staff! 




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