A Trip to the Family Village

Crystal took us on another road trip today. This time we met her husband’s grandparents who live in a village called Andvik, named after their family-what the heck? The family owns a huge chunk of land in the village. The land includes hundreds of acres of breathtaking mountains surrounded by a valley that best resembles a mini Yosemite, complete with its own waterfall, creeks, and trout filled lakes that drain into the fjord, also on their land. Oh, and there is an airstrip that some uncles use to operate their micro light airplanes (single man airplanes). The house sits yards away from an arm of the fjord and looks out to a large stream fed by another huge waterfall. Amazing! The more time we spend in this area of the world the more I am taken back by the creativity of our Creator. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, knocking off the South Island of New Zealand, which holds a close second place. Bergen and the surrounding area is an amazing blend of human infrastructure and rugged nature. After a day of exploring we get mentally and physically exhausted from trying to take in the grandeur of this land. On our way to the Andvik village we fished a fresh water lake, but caught nothing. No fish were even seen in the water, so we moved on and fished part of the fjord. I was able to land one mackerel from the shore. We will add the fish to our evening dinner for tomorrow. Grandpa and Grandma Andvik shared awesome, strong coffee, cake, lefse (a thin, sweet bread with butter and brown sugar inside), and conversation with us (Crystal did a great job translating). I asked Grandpa how long his family had lived in the area. It was so long ago that he didn’t even know when the land was first settled. Grandpa figured it was hundreds of years ago, more than he could count. It will be difficult to leave this beautiful setting in the coming days.