On Saturday we set off on a 6-mile hike from our house to Estenstadhytta in Strindamarka and back again. It starts off on the same route that I take to work, then off into the woods. Most of the way was quite nice, but they were doing some construction work on part of the path so some of it was muddy and rocky, and a lot of climbing. We could have taken a longer route through the woods with a more gentle incline, but we weren’t sure that the kids would tolerate much more! Anytime you get up high enough around Trondheim you can see the fjord in the distance.
The reward at the end of the trail is Estenstadhytta, one of the staffed cabins in the woods that serves simple cafeteria-like foods–cold sandwiches, waffles, baked goods, coffee and other drinks. There are many places to sit and relax, lots of other families with kids and people of all ages, and many people who biked up to the top. It’s a very well-used system, a local treasure. On Thursdays they have taco buffet! So we will have to hike back up on a Thursday. There is another natural site nearby that we didn’t visit this time, Burmaklippen, a kind of rocky outcropping that you can stand on and looks dramatic.
We were tired out after our multi-hour adventure. We stopped at Bunnpris on the way home to get groceries because stores are closed on Sundays, so we have to make sure that we have everything we need on Saturdays to make it through to packing lunches for school on Monday! We all slept well.
On Sunday we spent the day at home. We invited a family over for coffee and cake in the morning–takk for sist Rikart og Lisa! Their boy is in Anders class and their daughter is in Nora’s class and they have are good friends. The kids played a game and went outside, so the grown ups got some quiet talking time. We learned more about soccer.
Their son stayed for lunch and a game, then he and Anders picked up another friend and took the bus downtown on their own to see the Avengers movie. I told them the time they had to get on the bus, and they were off. When they got home Anders said that I told them the wrong bus time–but they took the wrong bus! We have 2 buses that come nearby, one of them goes straight to the movie theater and the other stops farther away. They can navigate the buses on their own, so they hopped off and ran across downtown (safely) to get to the movie on time. Then are back again successfully. Good life skills.
Nora was so into the face paint at Rockheim that Ted suggested using her water colors to do some face painting at home. It worked surprisingly well! We also had some time to do some quiet activities on our own while Anders was at the movie. I adjusted his band uniform by hand, a bit on the waist and letting down the hem. Ted worked on learning an AI algorithm and Nora wrote some Harry Potter fan fiction.
Ted and I are still working on our Pandemic Legacy game, we had to play 2 games to meet the month’s objective this time. We did it in our face paint characters this time too.
Then dinner of veggies, salmon, and flatbread.
And Nora’s dumpster diving finds–the housing association put some spring-cleaning dumpsters outside, but they should have just had a swap meet. Now we have some chairs on the balcony, a handbag, and scale. We can just store the chairs in the storage closet for the next people who live here. Reuse!
