July 20, 2025
Our kids were up early at ~7am, eagerly waiting for the other kids to get up. When Connor came down the stairs a bit later, Ollie immediately ran up to him, inches from his sleepy face, asking to go on the trampoline together.
Me, Lindsey and Jamie went out to the store to get more food and supplies. On our way into town, Lindsey spotted a black pig walking in the streets. We turned around to check out the pig and learned from a few locals that he/she was abandoned and had been walking the streets for a few days. They let us know that a post on the town’s Facebook page alerted folks of the wandering pig but no owner had come forward. The locals were feeding the pig an egg and cheese sandwich so we made a mental note that if we saw the pig continuing to wander around this week, we’d bring him a sandwich to eat.
We knew most stores would be closed on Sunday in Norway, but didn’t realize that even the “open” grocery store had a smaller store to the side that they instead open on Sundays. We were able to find most things we needed, but the selection was quite limited. After visiting a few more stores, we also learned that the only beer allowed to be sold on Sundays has to be less than 2.5% alcohol and that all liquor stores are ran by the government and closed entirely on Sundays.
The Airbnb homeowner recommended a few spots for us to check out so we took the boat to Oksabåsen island, about a 20 minute ride. There were a few boats already docked near the island but Kyle expertly navigated the boat to dock it without incident. The beach area of the island had rope swings everywhere, lots of critters to hunt in the shallow water, and a hiking path through the forest to the top of the island mountain. In the shallows, we found small crabs, snails, hermit crabs, anemone plants, a small brill and a starfish.
The real hit of the day for the kids was the biggest rope swing on the island where the kids played for hours and taking turns swinging and trying to “stick the landing”. A girl (maybe 9 or 10) kept emerging from the woods to get in line at the rope swing and showed the kids how its done. She swung wide, spun while she was in the air with her toes pointed looking way more elegant and in control than our group of city kids. We learned she hadn’t realy just emerged from the island woods but had come over to the island on a dingy from a big sail boat that was docked on another part of the island.
There was even an outhouse on the island that was surprisingly well maintained. No toilet paper, though, so me and Len did our best outdoorsy roleplay to get him through his call of nature.
Next up was tubing on the boat. Len had begged all day to be the first and he asked me to go with him since it was his first time. During most of his ride, he kept asking to go faster and loved how bumpy it would get. Ollie was next and Kyle cranked the speed to really give us a thrill but thankfully we weren’t thrown from the tube. Roy went for a solo ride but as the boat started going, the line remained slack and he moved further and further into the distance. We realized the rope had somehow become untied but Roy held it together and free floated until we were able to navigate back to him and retie the rope for his ride. Jamie and Connor then took a turn and we thought we were going to be able to convince Liana to go for a ride but in the end, it wasn’t for her.
Len snuck in one more solo tube ride as we drove back to the house. He aggressively asked to go faster and faster and was eventually walloped in the face by seawater a few times. Somehow he held on the the tube with one hand while throwing a thumbs down with the other to signal that he had finally met his breaking point.
When we got back to the marina, it was raining lightly which made the damp children feel a bit chilly and they let us know it. Kyle stayed back to pack up the boat while the rest of us scrambled to get into the cars parked at the marina.
The kids showered up and put on PJs while we cooked a pasta dinner. The food received mixed reviews from the kids but ice cream sandwiches for dessert past 10pm were a hit. Ollie wanted to show Chris how he raps along to instrumental versions of his favorite songs. Then he and Chris went back and forth for a bit and Ollie loved having a “rap battle” partner that wasn’t his mom.
