The Yates: Cabin in Randøy

Beautiful, beautiful Norway! I feel so blessed to have lived in such a gorgeous country. I pestered Barrett the whole year to request time with his work cabin and we were finally able to get there on Mother's Day weekend.

To really get a sense of our adventures in Norway I always have to tell the funny stories of living/traveling without a car + 2 children. So there were two routes to get to the cabin, both of which involved considerable walking for carrying luggage. We could take our normal 20 minutes bus ride down to the pier and then either take a couple ferries and get off with a 10 minute walk to the cabin, or take a ferry then a bus and have a 20 minute walk to the cabin. Due to the timing of when we wanted to leave/feeding times/nap times we decided to take the bus option on the way there. The drive was amazing! You just drive on everyday roads in Norway and it's breathtaking. There is water everywhere and greenery and mountains and valleys, plus all the tunnels you drive through (which sounds boring but they have some pretty sweet tunnels here through mountains and under fjords). Anyway, after a couple hours of travel we pushed the button when we saw the name of our stop on the screen and the bus dropped us off. Here. In the middle of nowhere. The bus drove away and complete silence. We started laughing so hard. I mean you look at the map of where the stop is and where the cabin is in advance, but you have no idea what it will be like to actually push a stroller full of our luggage and two children while the other person drags a roller suitcase. We had to take a picture. Behind where this picture was taken is just forest.

A not-so-great backend view of me pushing through the canyon road. Notice the lack of sidewalks on this narrow, mountainous road:)

A huge bridge we crossed.

And the spectacular view of the fjord while on the bridge.

I love grass-covered roofs.

At our turn-off to the cabin there was a field of sheep.

It felt like we were in a movie. I had to post this video of the jingling bells to give the full effect.

2 busses, 1 ferry, another bus and a trek through the mountains and we made it to our cabin.

The view from the back deck of the cabin. We found out that they were just finishing a major remodel of the cabin, where they added this open deck with a glass railing. There was also a huge window in the living room so you could just sit on the couch and look out to this all the time. Amazing.

We invited some friends, but sadly no one could join us. So we enjoyed our usual weekend movie night. But first the DVD player was broken (because who watches movies at a getaway cabin, ha ha) and Barrett was determined to fix it. Which he did. I love my engineer husband!

The next morning Oliver woke me up really early to eat and let's be honest, I was pretty annoyed. But I came out to this amazing sunset (picture taken through that big window I mentioned) and my frustration and sleepiness diminished (a little anyway:) ).

The wind picked up that morning and it rained and rained and rained that Saturday. Oliver and I didn't even step outside. But it was still a very relaxing day with games, naps, Doc McStuffins, etc. etc.

Luckily, Sunday made up for the rainy Saturday. Barrett's company also owns a boat that you have access to while staying in the cabin.

Getting ready for the boat ride. Doesn't this picture make her look so old?

From the dock looking up to the back of our cabin.

View of the dock.

Seven-week-old Oliver in his infant life vest, ha ha!

I took a ton of pictures from the boat ride because of the beautiful scenery.

Can you spot the little white sheep on the hill?

We rode until we were too cold to ride anymore.

And too fast our weekend at the cabin came to a close. On our way home I told Barrett that if we had gone to the cabin sooner maybe it would have changed our minds about staying in Norway ;).

And as is Barrett's way, writing in the guest book became a creativity project. So if you'd like a recap of what we did you can just look at this picture. I didn't even need to blog, I should have just posted this.