My little weekend on the mainland.

Up here Norway is referred to as the mainland. We are an island, we're governed by Norway, so yes, Norway is our mainland. However it was brought to my attention by my friend Shannon that I make it sound as though it is a ferry ride away when in actuality it is "an ocean away." Some other people shared the same opinion Shannon, so you're not alone.

I was lucky enough to get to spend a weekend away from Longyearbyen and see some trees, pavement, people I didn't recognize, and I got to ride public transit, drink coffee from a cafe I had never been to before, and sit in a car for more than ten minutes of driving. It was exhilarating!

I spent the weekend at Oskar's family's summer cabin in Kjerringvik and we had such an amazing weekend to open the place up for the season. We had blue skies and sunshine and nearly 11 degrees. I couldn't have asked for more. I got to spend time sitting in the hot tub under the stars (we don't have those anymore up here), and sitting in the sunshine with my sleeves rolled up (we can't do that up here yet). I ate good food, and I had fantastic company,  I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Oskar and I bought a new camera, so we're hoping to have some really great quality photos from Svalbard for you soon. I was able to play around with it for a little bit while in Norway so here are the first shots from our new camera.

The camera has some really cool functions, I was just playing around with them. This is neat though eh?

Family nap time and this was Ollie's choice of bed.