July 25, 2025
Another sleepy morning for our crew! It’s hard to not stay up late to hangout each night, especially with it being light out. Our bodies are starting to get tired but it’s so pleasant outside it’s easy to ignore the tired feeling. I’m sure it will catch up to us, but for now the kids enjoy each extra minute we sleep in as it increases their TV time.
We eventually made our way back to Bergen a bit after 1PM with the plan to go to the aquarium. After the parking ticket incident yesterday we entered in a parking garage as the destination in our GPS. I thought it would be close to the aquarium but was pleasantly surprised that it was right underneath the entrance!
For some reason in my head we have been to a lot of aquariums on this trip but it has only been two, Cape Town and Seville. This one was nice with an outside area, right after you enter, showing off a large penguin exhibit. After a few minutes watching the penguins swim and walk we headed inside for a bathroom break, followed shortly by a snack break. Then we were off to explore with the whole group.
The exhibits were very nice and had quite a variety of animals to see. Everything from shallow tanks to big tanks we could walk underneath. There was also a section about old sail boats with a full-sized wheel, rope ladder to climb, and weighted rope pull to simulate hoisting a massive sail.
The variety of animals was really good and with a group our size we were able to get some great photos between all of us. We finally got to see a full grown brown crab in person. After which I don’t think our blue claw crab drop lines would have been able to handle even if we got them down 150 feet to the bottom where they dwell.
There was a also a few snake exhibits, including one green anaconda, that the boys enjoyed pointing out to Kayleen (AS ALWAYS!). The last thing we saw were the two resident otters, Bella and Gizmo, playing tag. Saving the best for last!
There was a playground area on the roof that gave the kids some space to run free. It overlooked the otter enclosure so we got to take turns watching the kids and otters play. Like most places we were forced to exit through the gift shop. Our kids have been told no so many times in gift shops on this trip they barely ask anymore. We waited for the rest of the crew outside playing on a steep grassy hill, some combination of tag/freeze tag/wrestling.
Once everyone came out we split up the duties for shopping, Chris’s car to the liquor store and my car to the grocery store. I was overconfident in finding the REMA 1000 near our house that we had been to a few times, but luckily instead stumbled across a SPAR we had also passed a few times. Kayleen and Lindsey shopped while Ollie, Connor, and I tried to figure out how to charge our car. It rejected the charge at first, either because it could sense the kids were still sitting inside or the car was still on, hard to tell when it’s on or off still. We eventually got it charging but only gained 6% in 9 minutes of charging for a cost of just under $5 before the shopping trip was completed.
The kids ate and showered once we got home and then watched Wild Robot in the movie room upstairs. During the movie the adults enjoyed our last meal (salmon, grilled shrimp, veggies, & halloumi) and gin and tonics together. The kids went to bed after the movie and the adults chatted and watched a stand up on Netflix but the highlight was that Jamie completed her puzzle. It was 1,000 pieces and she did it mostly on her own in dim lighting after a few drinks. Oh and the puzzle was almost all the same color brown so quite the accomplishment.
