Nordicgirl Adventures 2019 Part 2 - March & April

March and April, I became a slave to my ultimate goal. Nobody said training would be easy and with May 31st just around the corner this would become my biggest challenge of my life. When I did my first triathlon, i nearly died, being that it was a very small sprint size, what's all the fuss I thought. For me being the fully motivated and sometimes crazy person, I thought, forget the Olympic size, lets head straight for the Half Iron .. needless to say i put everything into being able to survive that day, more on that in Part 3! 

My schedule was somewhat of what a hamster would endure on the wheel.. going around and around, and it felt like there was no stopping at all. Every single day.. don't stop ! keep moving.  

My swimming became my place to work out all my emotions, days of frustration, happiness and just general work computer related problems.  Only an IT person would understand this !

Keith, my best friend and my training partner.. did his best to keep me moving, but he had his own goals, and sometimes, it was hard to keep the momentum going, cause there was no one pushing me along. Days of slacking off came, usually, I crashed every 5 weeks, getting sinus issues and the odd cold.. but i managed to get back up on the horse and keep moving.

Keith and I did a practice run as a relay of the UBC Triathlon. Worst event ever ! Will never do that again.  I did the swim and bike, Keith did the run. You see after 3 years, i have been suffering with IT band issues, so running has been put on hold in my life, and still today, i don't dare go back to it anytime soon.

The day of the UBC Triathlon, i was freaking out. We left, it was hard to tell where I needed to be, what to do, once we arrived, I was able to check in and figure it out, but the lack of organization had befuddled me, as this is suppose to be the highly anticipated event to start the triathlon season.

When I started the swim, i placed myself in where i thought i should be able to hold pace. As soon as I hit the pool, i panicked, I was passed by many people, my heart rate jumped up way too high, the water was very cold, and to top it off, i had never swam in a 50 m pool !  somehow i made it through, my time was horrible and i was already disappointed in myself.  When i got out of the pool, we had to run outside and change in a tent on the cold cement. That was not pleasant. As Keith reminded me, go for comfort, so take the time, and put on the best clothes for the next leg.

The bike was next. that was OK. I can ride a bike, no problem, and luckily the snow had been gone for a day or two prior, so riding was good. Small hills and 2 loops. I managed to get a good timing on that. When i finished my first loop, i came barreling around the corner, and saw my co-worker and my work dog, standing there. I felt so empowered at that point, so i took off as a quick and went for loop 2.

The last leg, was up to Keith !  thank god for that... He left with a smile, and i went and stood and waited at the finish line for him. And as usual he arrived with a smile.  We were done! I felt relieved, but I was so pissed off about the swim, it took me days to get over that. 

Nordic Girl Adventures Part 1 - February

Well we are at December of 2019, this year has flown by so fast ! As I sit here and think about the year, I have embarked on so many adventures in my life.

Not only has my life been filled with athletic training, it was filled with travel, meeting new people and exploring new aspects of my life, i never thought would be possible.

I started out the beginning of the year, signing up for a race in California ! I figured driving to California not so far away, winter months, should be nice weather.. right ?   ah no... farther from the truth of what my naive thoughts would be.

February's journey took me through a 2 day trip through Washington, Oregon and finally landing in Crescent City. This was the start of the Redwood forest. Spent one night there, and one morning, cruising around the city on the bike.  Nice place, too cold, but we weren't staying, so it didn't matter all that much...

The next day took us to Fort Bragg. Small town, not sure what it had to offer, but we cruised around by the ocean side, where i was able to smell the salt air take some photographs of the beautiful rock cliffs of the shore. This is truly a  place I would like to revisit again.  When we got back on the road, we took the coast down and finally headed inland towards Orville and final destination was Gridley.

Well, Gridley was a iconic little american town, with big historic homes, orange groves in front yards and wild turkey's. Surrounded by the Buttes.  A beautiful rolling hillside covered in Almond farms, orange groves and grazing cows, horses and others

The town was originally discovered by Spanish & Mexican's in the 18th century, until a grain farmer named George Gridley, who owned a 960 acre farm moved in town became the largest landowner, so the town was named after him.

We rode the 100 km ride and it was a cool day, high of 12 C and wind gusts up to 100 km per hour. the wind was so bad, cyclist needed to tandem to break the wind. For the most part I was on my own, as there were fewer people in the 100 km ride.

We explored down in to San Francisco for a day. Met my cousin and his wife, and Olive. Olive the dachshund who gets to travel around ! She completely stole my heart.
The day in San Fran was interesting as i reflected on where my Great Aunt would have traveled and what she would have seen there in the early 1900's.

We saw the ' Little boxes on the hill side' after that famous song,  Lands End park, the Golden gate bridge and other interesting hilly neighbourhoods. Lunch at the pier, where Olive was able to join us, but had to sit in the carrier. She was good with that.

Going home back to Canada, was done in one day through the Shasta Mountains, back to Grants Pass, Oregon, Washington. Once we hit Redmond... SNOW.... that's a dirty word for something so pure and white !  Driving most of the night through Seattle and Bellingham was the worst snow, i had seen in a few years, and i was glad, i still had snow tires on.

It was a long haul, but after 18 hours on the road, we finally reached home.

to be continued.....

The struggle is real..

Guess it is time to get back to my writings here... Lots has happened since I had last made an entry here.
I have managed to complete a number of events between March 2018 until August 2019.
Stykeproven in Norway, 140km race.  Tour de Victoria in Victoria BC in August 2018

After that, i started in with some strength training and in November 2018 started working with a  Triathlon coach, to work through to my next journey.

My goal for 2019 was to complete a Half Iron.. or some variation of one.. so I chose Aqua bike.  Aqua bike was a 2 km swim, and a 89km bike ride.. no run. Great event for me, as I suffer with IT issues, and have for a very long time now. 
It went as good as could be expected, it was tough.. and I didn't feel all that well prepared for it.
I had lots of anxiety going into the race, but I had my best friend on my side through out the whole event, and that really helped alot. I totally appreciated that support.

After the Half, I moved on to swimming events.. 2 endurance swimming events. The first one was July in Kelowna, and that was 2.1km swim. I was accompanied by paddleboard with my friend Kelly. It was good, and i did very well time wise on that event. 
and being who i am ... i decided... heck ya.. lets do an aqua bike the next day !!!

This was the peach classic triathlon and aqua bike.  I struggled with the swim, it was choppy and shallow, and it was like competing with a bunch of salmon spawning up a river. 
The bike was good, hilly ....  and i really went through with no expectations.. i just figured... ah... what ever happens, happens... and what happened ?  Well I took 3rd in my age class... got to love
that !

August, i had signed up for another endurance swim 7 km, but after all my practicing on the lake, i realized my body was having a hard time getting through to 4 km ... so i cut it back to the 3.1 km version... and because of the wind, i ended up swimming about 4.3km... so that's over 1000 meters more, then i should have gone.
Again I had my best friend beside me in a solo canoe.. and it was pretty calming event for me.

This past week, i took another crack at Tour de Victoria... i had a record time... i cut back to the 60 km distance, and did not stop through out the whole ride.. and managed to come in under 3 hrs... i was pleased !

Well that's my recap for 2018-2019

I would like to explore more on swimming for next year.. and little less focus on aqua bikes...

Run Ramp-up

This year I was asked to join the 2018 Run the Year challenge.  You can either run 2018 miles in 1 year yourself, team of 2, team of 3 or team of 4.  I am on a team of 4, best thing to keep me moving.

We offer support to each other almost daily, recording our miles online, using Facebook chat and our Facebook private page. My team started on January 1st, and 1 month later we are at 945 miles !
It is very exciting once we meet that goal, and most of us will continue on.

As of March 18, 2018 we finished our 2018, but we decided to keep working towards 2018 per team member.. will we do it... HELL YES !   

We keep moving forward, only 6054 miles to go or 9687 KM ....

Until next time, run happy, run strong, and don't forget to keep moving !

Hello..... Torq Products anyone ?

Hello Torq !
Have you heard of Torq products yet ? Well I was lucky enough to be chosen to try out their products, and I am really enjoying them.

Torq comes out of the UK . you can check out their page ! for more information of nutrition information.
I came across Torq when I was working at the Whistler Gran Fondo in Vancouver. I met John and Maria from Swim Bike Run distributors from Kelowna, BC
Please check out their page, they have lots of great training items available, and if you want to try a sample selection of Torq, you can order it direct from them.  SWIM BIKE RUN Website

Today I tried the Torq recovery drink.
I have a friend who every time we would exercise he would say to me.. Do you have any recovery drink ? and I was like.. what ?  you mean water ??,,, well now I get it. 

Torq carries a recovery drink that can be used
post -exercise. It has been formulated to
re-hydrate, refuel, repair and recharge your fatigued body after a heavy exercise session.

The recovery drink comes in a powder form which you mix with water. Depending on your body weight will depend on how much you use. See chart below.

For me, I am on the heavier side, so I went with the 500 ml of water to 125 g package.
It mixed up very easily in blender bottle, and has a very smooth and silky texture.
I did find that once i drank it, i was totally re-hydrated and it totally quenched my thirst immediately.
.
The flavours are interesting, tonight I tried strawberries & cream. I quite like the taste of it.. There are some unique flavours available  such as banana & mango, mandarin yogurt, chocolate mint, cookies & cream ...

Check out our Canadian distributor at  SWIM BIKE RUN 
If you like more information, or want a discount code, to try any of their product, drop me a note in the comments.

Hello January 2018

Happy New Year !  What does 2018 bring for you ? Hopefully something fun !

I am glad that 2017 is over ! It was the last year we owned our business, and it has been a challenge to run it to the end but now it is over and we are moving forward !

From a fitness standpoint !  Well as you may know I starting working with a Coach from Forerunners, Jerry Ziak. (featured right)
Greatest guy I have ever met and very patient.  Most of my training with him, has been spent in recovery and now we are starting to move forward from a injury I sustained 9 months ago. Even though he is my run coach, we still work on the bike too. As long as your moving, that's all that matters at this point for me.

This is the year, I will turn 50, and with that, my goal for this year is to run a 5 km and set my personal best.  In the spring I am scheduled to run a 10km  and then I will aim for a half marathon next November (Vancouver Fall Classic).   Big Goals so I'm told ! I hope to  accomplished  it in 50 year of life !

January 1st started out with the Running Room's Resolution Run.
This is one that I ran with a few friends of mine. I did alright, 36 mins for 5 km. I was hurting that day, not feeling that well. As I started to run, i eased into it and it became a lot better. Pleased with my time, 30% improvement for time from 2016.

This was also the day I started with Team 'Medal Heads'  and Run the Year 2018. Myself, my friend Amy and 2 new FB friends, log our miles together to reach 2018 miles in one year. At the rate we are going, we will be done in 8 months !  Its a awesome challenge. Maybe this will become a tradition !

Besides my running goals, I have a Cycling race all set up for June 2018. This year I will be flying to Norway to see my family and race the midsummer event. The event is called the Strykeprøven which means
'Strength Test'. I will ride in the 136 km distance this year.  Should be interesting and fun.  I am fortunate that I will make the trip this year.

Signing out.... More on ambassadorships I am involved in for 2018 !

Vancouver Fall Classic Run

Time to sit down and recap the weekend. This past Sunday, I did the Vancouver Fall Classic Run at UBC. These past few months have been a bit brutal. I've had a IT band injury, which I have recovered fairly well from, and now I am seeking physio who has diagnosed a completely different problem with my ligaments in my knee, which stems back from a dance injury a few years ago. However we keep working at it, and little by little things do get better.

This would be the last chance for my cousin and I to get out and spend the day together and run a little a race.
After discussion with my coach, he had said to just treat it like a everyday training session.  Basically take it easy, and don't push on it, as we don't want to go back and repeat the last 6 months of injury.

The race itself was not too packed, offering up distance of,  Half marathon, 10 km or 5 km.
 We opted for the 5 km. The day was pretty wet, and pretty cold, but once we got moving it was ok.
With in the first 10 mins, the rain let up quite a bit, and at that point, i had to get rid of my jacket as I was warmed nicely.

I completed the 5 km using 5 min run / 1 min walk. This seemed to be the perfect formula for me to sustain.  I had thought I could get through the race in 35 mins, i would be happy, but overall, i cane in just at 37 mins.   Average pace 7:25 /km . That is a 30% increase in time since I started to run in 2016. It can only get faster !

My coach was there on the side lines, as was my good friend, who pretty much  has motivated me to keep moving. I remind he is responsible for kicking my butt ! and I am thankful for that.

  I pushed at the very end to get through it, as  I was just coming up around the corner and my cousin  was gone...... no sight of her !
but she only beat me by 13 seconds... so that' s OK                  Pictured Above: Me and Coach Jerry 

What's up next.. well, we are hoping for 2018, I will get to a Half Marathon.. that's the goal, but I will have to run a few 10 km before that happens.  !
Stay tuned !

Update..... Where is your health check ?

Its been quite a while, since I sat down and wrote an update.  2017 has been a year of up's and down's. Starting with achieving great progression with health. Along the way, there has been disappointments with knee bio-mechanics, but overall, I am moving forward.

In May I started with a Run Coach. When people hear that, they think.. WOW... you must be a real athlete. Um..... sure.   Well getting there in my own good time. :)  However it was the best decision I had made to keep me moving forward. A literally had 1 good month with my coach, and then my knee started to act up. frustrating. With encouragement and positive thoughts, I kept moving.

Working with coach, has allowed me to keep my cardio going, but also to achieve other goals within cycling and swimming.  When I decided to use a run coach, my decision was based on what my downfall was. Last year I had done a triathlon, and I totally fell behind running.  I struggled with it, I struggled with IT band syndrome, due to not running with proper form. It was harsh ! So to fix that, you concentrate on that discipline. Made my decision a lot easier.

Running for me has encompassed a full cardio development for me, but it has helped with Mental health. My best friend started to run a million years ago, due to mental health, and yes it works !
As I have gone through many changes in my past couple years, anxiety is the main one that creeps in once in a while.

Now a few months later, I feel great and I keep it moving !

Run for Mental Health .. .and bring your family...

A few weeks after the Vancouver Sun run, I needed to keep moving forward. I talked my cousin into doing the Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Woman. http://www.runforwomen.ca/
This run raises money for Woman's mental health for the Vancouver Woman's Hospital.

My cousin, started doing her training using an app on her phone, and I continued to follow the sunrun training, that i would consistently have 3 run days a week.  This is how I kept moving forward.

This was kind of new territory for my cousin, but not really, she has done other events over the years, and she is active, and goes to the gym everyday... so for her, i didn't worry about her being able to do it. I was just glad, i had someone to run with, who could appreciate the charity that we were supporting.

To Run or not Run, that is the question....

After almost 1 year of iliotibial band friction syndrome, I decided to get back in the game and try to work on my run discipline.  The triathlon was a success for me, not so much the time it took to complete.. but rather, that I did completed it !   If you want a challenge, the Triathlon is the a huge one, practicing 3 disciplines for a one event. 

That was a huge undertaking, and my training was effected by so many things the previous year and mostly for not being consistent in training with running. Running was my downfall, in fact, i think my running took longer then the quadruple distance of cycling did.

In January 2017, I was diagnosed with GAD ( generalized anxiety disorder)  I had realized that I needed to get back into exercise, and try and up my game. The true way to manage the symptoms is through exercise, eating right, and getting enough sleep. 

On a suggestion from by my friend, he had said, I should try the Sun Training program. Even though he suggested it last year, it fell on deaf ears, and i carried on trying to struggle through my injuries.

The Vancouver Sun run is a 10 km run that happens ever April, and has been a run I had participated in before in the early 90's with my company team. 

The training program was only 13 weeks, i learned enough to stay injury free and be able to meet the goal of completing the 10 km run. I met some great people in the group, the serious runners, i have stayed in touch with, and the rest, well maybe i will see them again next year.  
Overall it was great group of people and i took away a lot to learn more about running.

The training was tough, as we had one of worst winters this year. I had to learn to run in the snow and ice with cleats. However I stuck it through and make it to the end, did not miss one any training runs. 



Above: Waiting to move to the start line 
Right: Me & Coach Tina, she's such a inspiration and motivator to keep us going ! 


My story doesn't end here...... this was just the start !

First Triathlon Sprint.... Completed !

August 14th came and went pretty fast, so I am now getting around to updating my blog.

I am hoping that some of my followers will take that journey with me, as I am embark on the next training over the next few months.

When I set out on this venture.. it was really more like a 'dare' I didn't really believe I could do a triathlon, but as the date came closer and closer, I was able to reassure myself and say "HELL YAY"
I can do this.

Training was a struggle from everything... finding time, weather, motivation. All three factor's affected everything thing, every day. Motivation was the worst, and when you have a brain like mine, turning things off, is pretty easy. Discouragement is my worst enemy.

Keep in mind, this was a small triathlon. A sprint to be exact. What entails for a sprint, well you need to be able to swim 750 metres, ride 20 km and run 5 km. Piece of cake.. Right ?!

The first part of my training in swimming was pretty easy, Or at least I had thought so, however I did not have the speed. It had been 10 years since I had last swam. I was a competitive swimmer in the 1980's and early 90's, but interest changes, work gets in the way, and I found that I didn't really enjoy the sport anymore.

First time I jumped in the pool, I swam 1 km and it took me 40 mins. I had my 2 bosses with me. No pressure there !
And all I could think, what have I gotten myself into... I can barely keep up. I had to stop at the end of every 50 metres. I was totally out of breath. Plus I was still getting over a strained ACL from skiing so, i was having to wear support gear on my knee. Perseverance did prevail.

I continued to work at swimming for the next 7 months, slowing increasing my time.
Swimming was hardest thing to fit into training schedule, as time is so limited to pool schedules. However I did find the right pool, with the right hours.

Most of my training was at the Canada Games Pool in New Westminster, BC,  They had a nice section permanently laid out for lanes.   It is ironic though, this is the pool I learned to swim in, in 1971 and had many competitions there over the years. Familiar environment to me, but yet swimming not so familiar anymore.

The easy easy easy part of the training, was bicycling !  So many opportunities to get on a bike. Ride to work, ride in the evening, ride with a club... you name it,, you can ride. and Find lots of people to ride with ! Well sort of...
First Challenge was to get a bike. I had my trusty Electric bike for a number of years, but obviously if I was going to go through a challenge like this, i need to find something a little more challenging.
I looked at bikes, tried some out, but I didn't really know what I needed or wanted.

Until I got a text message from my friend Keith, who had figured it out. The next day, i went over to the neighbourhood bike store, and looked a couple bikes. I ended up with a Specialize Dolce, woman's version. Its a nice bike with easy gearing to get started on a triathlon.

For 2 months, I rode a bit back and forth from Port Moody to Vancouver, and on the weekends I would ride out towards Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.
Keith had said... Join the Cap's club... so I hesitated for quite sometime, because every-time I asked about the club, I was told that I needed to be able to ride a minimum of 30kph.   When I took my first ride with the club, it averaged at 22kph.. so needless to say, I should have just listened to Keith... and joined the club.

Running, shutter... that's the worst part of the training for me... I am not a runner.. yet I have run plenty of races in my younger years, and did quite well. Running

Triathlete ... to be or not to be... That is the question

I mentioned in my last post that, that i will be doing a Triathlon sprint this summer. I can't say where the total inception came from  for doing this... how ever I was urged on by my friend, not so much to do the triathlon.. but to be more active in general, maybe a bike race or a running race... But NOOOO...... triathlon is the way to do it...   Atleast that is what my brain says at this time in my life.

Complete the imaginable ! Yup.. its amazing a person like myself, who suffers through depression, anxiety, how i can still manage to pick up and complete the impossible.. well hope to complete the impossible ...

So, where do you start.. well you can be stupid like me and just go out and start doing all the things in fast motion... and then end up having IT band problems with your leg... like i do ! However this is nothing new... . and very typical of my personality. Full on... or Full off.

Yay... don't recommend that... so  I started a running program a couple weeks ago,  Pretty simple, run and walk, alternate between 1 and 2 minutes.    Now up to 30 mins of alternating.. not going a very fast pace, but that's ok, slow and steady completes the race. The only thing that is really missing, is the lack of energy that my dog has... he would run along side with me... and now.. well at at 15 years old... he runs for the first km, and then he's done.. .and when we are finished, he starting heading back to the house... sometimes even before i am done...

  Its been almost 10 years since i seriously ran a race. I kept thinking ah.. that was 5 years ago.. until I looked it up.. and realized ,,, well nope it is actually 10 years... and things are not like they were 10 years ago.. many factors, weight, age... motivation is still there... but sometimes when it is raining out there.... i don't feel like going !

As my friend Keith says..... it doesn't matter if the weather is crappy, or don't feel like doing it.. you just have to do it !

So I just keep my tag line in my head...  #KickmybuttK

Where the time has gone, and the new road i am travelling ...

Its been almost a year since I have update my blog. So many things have happened in my life, that i guess it time to bring you up to speed.

Last year, i started a new job, doing something that actually like, and working with the best company and people i could ever find. What a blessing ...

Last summer, i received a kayak, i spent quite a few days in the summer out on it, and really enjoyed it, but my physical health was not there. In 1 year, i have managed to drop 25 pounds and I am on a new path of recovery.

Lucky for me, i have always been surrounded with fun and caring friends, but unfortunately my friends were more enablers when it comes to food. Food is dangerous for a person like me, it has lead to deep episodes of depression, Severe over weight, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

However I lucked out when one friend of mine, has pushed me enough to keep going. Finding the right food to eat, making the comments when i shouldn't eat that, and basically keep track of what heck i am doing.  It was the kick in the butt that I needed. I no longer have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Depression comes and goes, but less and less these days. and my weight, well that is coming down.

January 2016, I started to cross country ski. I have always wanted to learn, i did once while i was a kid and in 2014, the same friend took me out and gave me a quick lesson. I wasn't totally hooked as I am now. but buy a pair of half decent skis and it gives you incentive to get out there.

Only 7 weeks in, and I am afraid the season is running out. However each week I physically can do more then before.













A typical Norwegian is born on skis, well unfortunately  I wasn't, however i am glad to embrace my heritage.


To set the bar high, I have embarked on training for a triathlon sprint.   That's right, gone from being totally inactive to working up to do this next step.

Stay tuned for more progress !
Canadian Nordic Girl

What's fun to a Norwegian ..

Last week, a friend of mine,  sent me a message... HEY VEGGIE GIRL, weather is getting warm, time to hike !  I said... ok.. I'm in.
Well a few days passed by and the weather wasn't looking so great, but that was ok with me.
 We had hiked before in a very muddy place not far from here last year.. how would this be any different.

The night before, we decided, we will head to Buntzen Lake. this is a lake not too far from where I live. Very popular for hikers and many runners.

Running Water on the trail March 2014

Buntzen lake March 2014

Well on Sunday, there was a few runners on the trail, not too many hikers though. It is a pretty place in the summer months. The pictures i have posted are from March 2014, as I walked out the house and totally forgot my camera .... WHAT kind of photographer forgets their camera ?!    LOL....

March 2014

The weather forecast was pretty much rain all day. The actual precipitation was 39.1 mm, at least it wasn't 43.7mm (record set in 1913)

This day, we hiked approximately 16 km.
The lower trail around the lake had areas that were washed out, so parts of the trail were closed.  We pretty much stayed to the upper trails. At one point, we were hiking up a trail, and the water was running down zig zag through the switch back. Now that is something i have never seen.

We ran into some hikers that waded through the water up there their hips to get through.. but in the end, they climbed up another elevation to avoid getting too wet.

At that point, we decided, we were probably pretty safe, so we would try and finish off at the lower trail. OH BOY.... nope, not out of the water shall we say. We only had 3 areas we had to scale off the side of the trail to get around it.
Not bad.. but interesting.

If you read this interesting link, http://afroginthefjord.com  it will tell you what Norwegian's think is fun !

Well I couldn't agree more.  Over all, even though I was soaking wet,,, we still had FUN !

Tip toe through the tulips... Fraser Valley Tulip Festival

Tip Toe through the Tulips ...

A Couple weekends ago, I spent the morning tip toeing through the tulips.... My friend and I  had wanted to go down to the Great Tulip festival in Washington, however due to the early warm weather we have had this year, many of the fields were already finished.. however, if you live in the Vancouver area, we have a hidden gem right in our backdoor.  No border wait time too !

   The Agassiz Tulip Festival, its a great little festival. 

Fields and Field of colour

Follow me through the fields....  

Reflections of a tulip

Put it on your list of places to see next spring, you will love it. While you are there, you can pop over to Harrison Hot Spring. Stay tuned for my next post.

A Pretty Little Town......Stavanger, Norway

Back in September of 2013, I was so lucky to be able to travel throughout Norway. The first exciting thing was to meet my family and while we were there we made a good trek around the country and visited many cities.   On our trip, we made a stop Stavanger.

We were visiting the city of Bergen and decided to take a ferry to get to Stavanger.
We boarded a Norled boat early in the morning. The trip was a few hours and made some stops along the way to pick up and drop off passengers. 

The landscape was very indigenous of the coast of British Columbia. Open ocean, rock formations with a odd tree or low scrub. Very similar to the San Juan Islands off the coast of Vancouver island.
 I made that comment  to Dave as we were sitting inside enjoying the scenery and later  once we were docking a couple sitting in front of us, remarked that they thought the same of the scenery, and they were from Seattle.  

When we first arrived, i looked around the town, and didn't really think much of it.
Looked small, and it was very hilly and i was completely disoriented. I couldn't figure which way we were suppose to go.

I had booked a hotel that was a couple km from the main downtown area. Wasn't easy to get too, and was kind of far to walk with all the luggage. We asked for some directions and decided to get catch a city bus.

When we first got onto the city bus, the bus driver didn't speak English and he didn't speak Norwegian, I thought to myself.. GREAT, we are screwed.  However, the word, Hospital is pretty universal.
We took the bus up the road a bit, and then we had to walk the rest of the way to the Hotel.
St. Svithun Hospital Hotel.  That is  right, i said, Hospital !

The hotel was an experience in its self. It was a hotel connected to the local hospital. So if you can kind of wrap your brain around that, it was a great place to stay.  Faily cheap by Canadian standards, only $85 a night and that included breakfast.

The breakfast buffet was to die for ... well if you took me literally, you were at least in the right place if something medically did happen.  Best breakfast buffet in all of Norway !!

You can visit this guys site and read more about the hotel  

When we started to explore the city, we found some interesting places to visit. Down by the water front, we first saw a church. This was the Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger Domekirke) .
This was built in 1100. However it had caught on fire, and was rebuilt and refurbished.  I photographed the outside as I loved everything about the church, and the details and nice curves on the windows. 

I choose to turn this picture into a black and white, as i like the texture of the building. 

"Stavanger Domekirke" photographed by Christina Ostenstad

Another hidden gem is Gamle Stavanger (Old Stavanger).
We stumbled on to that after taking a test drive in an electric car.
The driver dropped us there, and said, Great place, you must see. 

The Gamle Stavanger, is the oldest section of the city. Picturesque white painted homes. 

The main occupation in stavanger was fishing and a canning plant.
Which was situated in the middle of town close to the ocean.


The wood homes were built in the 18th century and they are now protected as a heritage site. 

"Going Home" photographed by Christina Ostenstad 

This is my favourite photo of all times. I love the potted plants in front of the homes, and the cobble stone roads.  Each house was white, and most of them had different coloured front doors.

The woman that I photographed walking down the street, stopped and chatted with me for a few moments.  She had lived in this area for a very long time. She was elated to find out that I was  a Canadian-Norwegian decent and she said, that i looked like a true Norwegian. We exchanged some works in English and a little in Norwegian. 

"Storm coming in" photographed by Christina Ostenstad

"End of the Row" photographed by Christina Ostenstad

When I was walking down admiring the homes.. I was captured by this little guy sitting in his window. He was very quiet and was looking for someone or maybe just watching the people walk by.

"Who's there?" Photographed by Christina Ostenstad 

Next time you are in Stavanger, visit the old city and stay in the hospital hotel !

Happy easter ! God påske

Easter, its hard to believe that it is approaching us in 5 days.  Easter to me , has always been about chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. As a kid, I received a token gift from the "easter bunny" and it usually wasnt too much.  As a kid, I did not receve a ton of chocolate, because clearly, i didnt need  a ton to be happy.  

Easter morning, was pretty much the same from year to year. Not much running around the house and hunting for eggs...  More like, I woke up and found a easter basket parked infront of the fireplace all wrapped up with some nifty new things in it. 

I remember my basket quite well, in fact i still own it after 46 years and have a couple little trickets that came in it. It was usually filled with a plush toy, a chocolate bunny, and a couple little yellow piper cleaner style chicks.  I also do recall, when i was about 6 years old, i told my Mum that I was going to grow up and become the easter bunny..  LOL  well I guess that is true to a degree or atleast the official supplier to the easter bunny. 

Easter was celebrated with family. Usually a family dinner with turkey, stuffing and pie. Sometimes there was hot cross buns loaded with icing.  That's what easter was...  we didn't go to church, unless my Gramma was around and she made me go with her. The family dinner was probably the most important part. Like christmas, easter was a time to be together.

Easter has changed so much, since i grew up and became the easter bunny.  When one owns a chocolate store, its all about the holidays and the commercialisim of the business and less about family dinners. Quite sad really.  

Heres a few pictures from my store. 

Easter Bunny cookie anyone ? 

 Easter bunny marshmallow ....

And so the holiday goes on.... more treats from my shop. 

I do however get a kick out of playing easter bunny to my best friends kids and my Great-nephew. I look forward to getting up at 5 am, taking a short drive to their homes, and scattering egg's around their front door.  Some how i hope that the magic of easter will stay with them a little longer before they realize it is actually me. 

When my Great Nephew was 3, he figured it out that easter bunny had come to the house, he got up looked outside and saw all the bright coloured plastic egg's all over the front yard. He got out the door and began gathering up all the eggs. He's a pretty intellgent kid, and observant too.....

As he was collecting he stopped and noticed that there was a cigarette butt on the ground, so he turned to him Mum and said... Look the easter stopped to have a smoke !   

Have to admit that is pretty funny, considering the easter bunny doesnt smoke. But good observation !

Happy Easter everyone !  God påske to my family in Norway. 

  

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Spring Has Sprung !

Here in Vancouver, British Columbia. We have had the mildest winter this year.
December of 2014, we only received one day of snow, and it melted within 24 hours. I guess, it can be said, we are pretty lucky, don't really have to deal with road plows, wet snow, however we still had our fair share of icy roads.  The only drawback is we never really got to ski or snowshoe. As most vancourites, most of us  thought, we were living the Olympics of 2010 all over again. Warm days and no snow. Good thing we were not the host this year for the winter games.

By mid March, we start seeing the Cherry Blossoms starting to come into bloom.  This is probably my most favourite time of the year. Natures way of making things  "pretty in pink" which should cure the winter blues.  For 2015, the trees received an head start.  

As we head into the end of March, most of the blossoms are starting to drop, and this becomes our "Spring Snow"  Here is a capture from a week ago.. across the street where I live.

I love the signs of spring, it seems to transport me back into time. When Spring had sprung, that was a sign, summer is almost here.. and soon school will be out !  

 Time to get out and enjoy a few more blossoms, before they are gone.


These were taken in the Cemetery in New Westminster, BC