Food Festival...YUM!

Howdy!

We broke in our raincoats today! It was a drizzly day here in Norway, but we didn't let that stop us! As the saying here goes..."It isn't bad weather, it is wrong clothes..." so...

Today we indeed went down to the food festival in downtown Stavanger (pretty soon we will have our own designated parking spot in the garage,) and boy am I glad we did! There were dozens of tents, some from restaurants around town and numerous others serving up food with local and international flair! We sampled a cinnamon roll, sjokolade (chocolate) muffin, organic ice cream (delicious!), fresh grilled salmon with Norway's version of potato salad (also yummy), an Indian pan (kind of like a tortilla or flatbread), a lamb skewer with sides, and then later, we bought a kilo of fresh shrimp right off the boat at the pier! We enjoyed that for dinner tonight. Other amazing things we saw...an entire cow skewered and being cooked over an open charcoal pit (see picture!) If I had more money and more room in my tummy, I do believe I would have eaten more...Spencer also enjoyed a couple Aass (yes, go ahead and laugh, that is the name of the brand) beers - a stout and a bock, so no worries to all you buddies who have been concerned that he is being deprived!

We then went a-hunting for the Children's Museum and after a brief search, we found it to be closed...no surprise really - still vacation month here! Instead we found a play area that is really part of the Petroleum Museum, but outside. It is like a park, but uses various pieces that go on an ocean rig. The kids (and Spencer) had a great time exploring and we decided a trip to visit the inside of the museum is in our future. It is supposed to be awesome according to all the tour guide books.

Once we got back to the apartment, we logged on to Skype to see who we could chat with. Much to the kids' delight, our little niece Rebecca was available for a video chat. Shortly after that, we heard from my cousin, Kristina and my Aunt Kelly! Yea! We loved chatting! Then, the kids called grandma too! The kids are LOVING Skype, as we are, and fight over who gets more screen time :) They can't wait to see who is "green" so they can place a call!

That is pretty much our day...we decided to save Pulpit Rock in hopes we will luck out with a nicer weather day since it is about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour hike up.

As promised, I am including a picture of the "new" car.

Bank update...we have been able to use our debit card everywhere except gas stations and today we used an ATM and got a current balance - WooHoo! We have also requested a new PIN so we can do the internet banking thing they use here which is supposedly really cool...if we ever get on it!