Walking around the city

So yesterday Nic headed to the office again and the kids and I went down town for some errands, walking around, and window shopping. We successfully returned movies to the library which again was self service and involved a complicated machine that we managed to negotiate. Ethan was also a bit tired still from yesterday's excursion and I had the pleasure of carrying him for most of the day. Next stop was the post office and this time the postal worker was a little more friendly. We coughed up the money for 10 more post card stamps and she gave us some extra stickers to put on the postcards that should make them arrive faster. We will see!

After the post office it was off to find a craft store that Siri had pointed out to me. The photo shows Gwyneth in front of the store with Ethan not wanted to participate. Of course soon after he wanted to me to take his photo and so I have one of him smiling in front of the store. The hobby store had a large selection of beads (yeah) but since I was carrying Ethan it was hard to look around - I will need to go back. Gwyneth found some thread for making friendship bracelets and she surprised me with her independence as she took them to the counter and asked how much they were and then bought them! She is definitely enjoying her weekly shopping allowance. She hit us up last night for her 100 Kroner for next week.

After the hobby store it was noontime and we were close to the harbor so we stopped for a lunch snack. Here are the kids mugging for the camera. The stop reminded me of a funny story that had happened earlier in the trip. You can see that had on top of the statue in the picture below. The NTNU bookstore was selling a similar type of rain hat with a Norwegian flag on the back where the larger brim is, if you can tell in the photo. So Nic and I were trying on the hats with the flag in the front - it seemed natural that the large brim would be in the front. After a while the woman in store came over and politely told us that the flag (larger brim) goes in the back! Ha ha on us.

We continued out walking/shopping tour. We stopped at the kids clothing store "Name It" that and the kids got to watch part of a cartoon while I shopped - again those Norwegians know how to take care of kids. The didn't have the right sizes so we moved on back towards the center. We saw some people doing some Folk Dancing - I'm guessing in preparation for the May 17th celebration. Then Gwyneth did some souvenir shopping for Andrea at the outdoor shopping stalls. She was going to spend her own money, but I told her that I would buy the gift and she was able to get something for herself too. I won't spoil the surprise ....... Andrea you'll have to wait for the surprise!

Last stop was the indoor mall. Gwyneth wanted to go to a Yarn store that we saw - I still can't figure out why and I knew that there was another outlet of the Name It store inside. So we had one more stop at the kids' store and I was successful in finding the right sizes. The kids got to watch more cartoons so they were happy. We moved onto the yarn store, but by this point Ethan had had enough and we cut the visit short. Back on the bus and home by 2:30PM or so. We were resting up because we had plans to go to our first Norwegian restaurant at night. I will save that experience for the next blog as my breakfast is ready!