Stavanger, Norway

---

After 8 weeks of amazing adventure covering both hemispheres, 5 countries, and 60,000+ miles, we arrived in our final destination for the summer, Stavanger, Norway. This is the third time Barb and I have spent the summer with our extended family, Jeff & Traci Skinner, but the first visit for Lisa and Larry. Stavanger is the "oil capitol" of Norway which is what brought the Skinners here nearly 4 years ago to work in the industry. Now that we'd been in the country almost a week, we'd finally adjusted to the cost of things here. Basically most everything is nearly twice the cost of comparable goods and services in the U.S. Norway is a model example of what happens when you mix a vibrant economy with a Socialistic government. Since our last visit in 2013 the impact of the global oil glut has impacted Norway with massive job loss in the oil industry but so far we hadn't seen much trickle down effect....yet.

Jeff & Traci have moved from their apartment in the central harbor district to a more "suburban" and very nice apartment near the airport in Sola. While it doesn't afford the ease of simply walking out the front door and being in the center of the action, the golf course views and green pastures are very tranquil and relaxing. Barb and I mastered the bus system long ago so we can always travel to the fun anytime we desire. Again, the crappy weather has dogged us here and Larry & Lisa probably felt they had arrived at the North Pole! All that was missing was Santa Claus....haha. In between the rain and blowing cold winds, we managed a trip into old town Stavanger to hook up with other Arizona friends, Steve Blomquist & Sharyl Cummings. They are other Tucsonans with a shared wanderlust that have traveled Europe extensively and we were lucky enough to get our schedules to coordinate and have them visit Stavanger. The 8 of us had a great day visiting all the sights and sharing stories of our adventures.

The highlight of our tour day was the boat ride up the Lysenfjord to view Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). This stunning sheer granite cliff rises nearly 2000 feet from the waters of the fjord and has a very unique flat top where sometimes hundreds of hikers gather for the spectacular view. Jeff has made this trip and it's on Barb's bucket list this trip but Traci and I will gladly remain at the base camp and pet the mountain goats! We were glad to share this trip with our guests and give them a small glimpse of what attracts us to this beautiful country year after year.

All 4 of our Arizona friends departed back to the summer heat of Arizona (we still haven't figured out why) leaving us as the sole house guests of the Skinners and starting to plan our 10 weeks of summer rest and relaxation. We depart in mid August, and after a few day stopover in NYC to visit Heidi, Justin and new grandson Finn, we too will return home to Tucson and determine if we want to stay there in the late summer heat or hop off somewhere else cooler for a bit....so stay tuned as I will add any other trips worthy of mention while we're here in Norway as well as our return home.

---