Birthday!

Karl celebrated his birthday this past weekend. He continues to get better with age!

We started the celebration at midnight with our friends down the dock. Wine, champagne, coffee, strawberry daiquiris, wine, coffee...We were up until 5am ringing in Karl's 36th year.  After a couple of hours of sleep we had a nice breakfast, possibly still a little tipsy, and planned for a hike.

We took the train and bus about one hour outside of Oslo to Apeny (but the "A" should have a little circle over it making it sound like an "O"). The trees and grasses were laden with water drops from the fog and rain. It felt like we were entering a magical place of fairies and elves. Soft moss covered the ground and the trail followed a path of stones.

Perhaps the veil between the real and magical worlds was a little thinner that day, as I was able to capture an image of the lovely aura that surrounds Karl.

We followed the winding path up and over hillocks, through glades and meadows, seeing heather still in bloom while the ferns were already senescing from the frost. We were headed to a mountain hut at the highest point of these hills, looking forward to a warm up in the lodge with a hot cocoa. We had already happened upon a couple of such lodges in hikes on previous weekends, and were fond of having little indulgences in the midst of a hike. Granted these lodges do take away the feeling of remoteness, but they provide a welcome respite to Norwegians who are adamant to get outside no mind the weather or darkness.

By the time we reached the hut, our feet were soaked from brushing the wet grasses and not-so-elegantly navigating the mushy wet sections of trail. It was cloaked in heavy fog, and nary a traveler was visible. To our surprise, we found it vacant, and locked!

We could see the nice little tables, wood burning stove, and candles, but it seems this hut is only open in winter.  We still managed to have some fun, sitting on the porch enjoying our lunch and the peek-a-boo view through the fog of the farms in the valley below. We descended a steep hillside (that is a ski slope in winter) to the valley floor where we caught the bus and train back home.

On our way home, Karl received several calls from family wishing him a "happy birthday!" Even a robotic-skype rendition of "Happy Birthday" sung by our nephews and niece :-)

Hungry, wet, and tired. We opted for an easy and protein-rich dinner of hamburgers. Too tired to make a birthday dessert, Karl agreed to have a candle in his cake instead. We fell asleep easily, having had a nice day celebrating Karl.