July 27, 2025
Our last morning in our Norway house and it felt calm and quiet but also empty. I imagine it is the same type of feeling in a house when a child goes to college. Everything is suddenly easier to get done and more peaceful but it doesn’t feel quite right in a sad way.
In an effort to shake off that feeling, as best we could, Kayleen made the kids their favorite giant pancake (Dutch baby) again for breakfast. Ollie was delighted by the back-to-back Dutch babies. I also promised to play one last game of FIFA on the PS5 with him and after his victory in extra time he couldn’t help but let out a yell and fist pump.
We spent more time than usual ensuring everything was left clean and very net in the house. The owner, Liv, was so very kind and helpful we did not want her to come home with her family to any type of mess at all. The house and the use of their boat couldn’t have worked out any better for our group which I was very grateful for.
We hit the road just before 1PM with our first stop being a grocery store to get some treehouse provisions and charge our car a bit. Luckily Kayleen remembered it was Sunday before I led us to a closed store. We went to one of the smaller sections of a big store they keep open on Sundays that was on the way to the tree house but sadly no charger was available there.
We could make it there easily on our current battery life but unsure if we could make it back to Bergen tomorrow morning. Not truly knowing how long it takes to charge the car makes it a bit more stressful than your normal gas fill up. Whenever we were on a downhill, I would ride the brake a little to help charge the battery.
The drive to get to Odda, where the treehouse is, took us through countless tunnels, a few bridges, and one ferry. Lenny slept for most of it which left us to finish the fourth Harry Potter and begin the fifth in peace. The fifth audio book, The Order of the Phoenix, is 26 hours!
We just missed our ferry, due to an emergency bathroom roadside stop, so had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. The ferry process was incredibly smooth, there are countless ferries all over Norway so they have to be good at it! The ride was only 20 minutes and we got out of the car just to snap a picture before getting back in to catch some Pokémon that were hanging out in the fjord.
Once off the ferry we needed to get to the other side of the island where Odda is. The drive was along the coast which was beautiful and the water looked the color of the Caribbean. I could not gaze at all the views as much as I would have liked as the roads required extra attention. There were various spots where if cars were coming the other direction the road would be too narrow so we would have to quickly stop and pull over in a shoulder before the road narrowed. It was much easier to be following a local driver that knew all the spots and I was not thrilled when I was in the lead of a small line of cars.
We reached our parking spot across from the trailhead after driving down a Seville type road. Sadly, no charger in our parking spot so the drive back to Bergen will be an adventure with as much brake riding as I can.
We packed everything we would need for our one-night stay in our two big backpacks and one shopping bag and started the hike. It was only 30 minutes but it was steep with a good amount of rock scramble. The boys enjoyed it and it made the whole thing feel more adventurous.
Once we made it to the treehouse the views were insane. Probably the more Instagram-able place we have been, I think that’s how we found it in the first place. The weather made the views as good as they could be, it had not even crossed my mind that it could have been a cloudy day like we had on Lion’s Head in Cape Town.
Once inside we got a real taste for how small, but thoughtfully designed, the treehouse was. The couch cushions lifted up and there was a second bed/cave under the main bed. The boys were thrilled with the cave and small pull-out ladder to climb to our bed. We also quickly realized that there were no shades or curtains so it was likely going to be a late night and early morning.
We had included a cheese board when we booked and at first, we thought it was just a box of crackers but after some investigation in the fridge we found it all, along with a bottle of cider. It was a nice snack for everyone while we enjoyed the view. Shortly after the thrill of the snacks, view, and treehouse wore off on the boys we realized how only being in a 100 sq foot living space with them for ONE night was a great decision!
We played left, right, center with them using chocolate from the cheese board and Kayleen made pesto pasta with broccoli dinner.
We did a few Facetimes with friends from home; Ollie M’s family in California, our across the street neighbors the Brackett’s, and Uncle AJ. It was good to see them all but the Brackett’s delivered some sad news, they are moving to Massachusetts in a month. Ollie was devastated…their son Dean is one of his best friends and after Ollie M moving to Californialast year, he was very upset. We thought they would be moving at some point in the near future but even knowing that it was a lot for Ollie.
We watched a movie, not a great one, Jungle Cruise with the Rock as a distraction. We only got half way through it before it was midnight and time for the kids to move to their cave bed to sleep. They were thrilled to know they had stayed up until tomorrow…
