Day 18 - Leaving Slogviks and Norway - Flight Home - BONUS SLOGVIK PHOTOS - New Year's Eve., Mon., Dec. 31, 2001

    To catch our flight home we had to leave the Slogvik home in the wee hours of the morning.  No time for breakfast, it is too early. Einar and Rotraud will take us on a 2 hour trip to the Stavanger/Sola Airport and see us off.  Einar skillfully drives us over the dark, icy back roads to meet the main highway and then the ferry across the fjord and then on to the airport.  It was a beautiful drive as the full moon was fazing in and out of the clouds.  The temperature was well below freezing and the car headlights caused the snow to sparkle like diamonds.

    We are including here 6 photos taken and sent to us by the Slogviks after we returned.  Life goes on on both sides of the world.

We have often been on the huge ferry that carries this major lane of traffic across Boknafjord. There were only 3 other cars aboard at this early hour. Here on the ferry, we enjoy our last Norwegian breakfast for a while. (Photo by Rotraud.)

We made good time and are just a little early to check our bags in.  Rotraud has to tease us again for being "Americans with too many suitcases." We had planned to travel lighter, but there were just too many nice things to bring back.

The 4 of us go upstairs to the coffee shop to spend the last few minutes together.  We are greeted here with another spectacular sunrise over the airstrip.

The theme of the Sola coffee shop had to do with bicycles. Here Keith gets a photo of an antique Norwegian Tempo motorcycle for his sons who have had a long interest in motorcycles.

We are soon parted with our dear friends and are taking off in our comfortable Braathens plane. We very shortly are in the clouds so there could be no more photos of Norway.  Goodbye, dear friends - and dear country...

Soon we come to Holland and see that the countryside here has been dusted with snow.

As we near the Amsterdam airport the land below us here on the coast gets more populated and industrial. Due to an overbooked flight and increased security, our layover here this time was much less pleasant.  Sorry, NorthWest, no compliments here.

Our flight home is with the midday sun, but takes us far north over Greenland & the north part of Hudson Bay. Somewhere up there we take this photo of the sun just on the horizon. We would soon fly over the vast snow covered plains of north central Canada, then Calgary and the Canadian Rockies.

Just west of the Canadian Rockies, British Columbia, and shortly before we land in Seattle, Keith checks his watch and takes this photo from our plane. It is Monday, Dec. 31, 3 PM Pacific time, but midnight back in Norway. We silently wish our many dear friends back there a very  --- Happy New Year! -

BONUS PHOTO 1: Rotraud & Einar stayed the day in Stavanger after seeing us off. Here Einar stands by the Gazellen monument in the center of town that commemorates emigration to America. This was where the July 4, 2000, parade began.

BONUS PHOTO 2: On Dec. 31, Einar, here in the Stavanger library, searches the microfilms of the Skjold church records from 1811 to 1825 for Jacob Anderson Slogvik's  confirmation. Conclusion: Keith great great grandfather Slogvik was NOT confirmed! This fits with other indications that he was an early religious dissident. 

BONUS PHOTO 3: The Christmas puzzle is finally completed!  Here Terje and Einar relax on January 5th after a fun job well done.

BONUS PHOTO 4:  A few days after we left, much of the snow had disappeared, but the weather remained very cold. Here is a view of the very icy driveway on the Slogvik farm.

BONUS PHOTO 5:  Later in January, the snow returned - this time dropping a much heavier coating than we experienced.  Here Einar uses the rear blade on the farm tractor to plow out the driveway.

BONUS PHOTO 6: Einar captures this dramatic sunset from the Slogvik farm.

A wondrous place!!

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