August i Nordland

August 10, 2008

I should start by saying a little about my hosts. Anne and Johan are some of the kindest, friendliest, most generous people I know. Our families met in 1994, the first time the Hambergs hosted guests from Norway for Seattle's annual gathering of Norwegian folk dancers. Anne and Johan stayed at our house with their two younger children (they have four) who are about the same ages as me and my sister. Since those fabulous weeks in July, we have visited them in Bodø at least six times. Now, they are part of our extended family.

Back to the story - I finally got to go fishing today! Johan caught two mackrel as soon as we dropped the line in the water. It was a good sign. Of course, three hours later when we still only had two mackrel on board it seemed like less of a good sign and more like a lucky break.

I'm sure that I won't be the first or the last to tell you that a fishing trip is only partly about catching fish. This summer has been full of wonderful things to do on a sunny afternoon, but few of them beat sitting in a boat fishing with beautiful mountains and islands on all sides and good friends for company. We fed the seagulls Ritz crackers and had a pretty good group (I'm guessing around 20 birds) following us from one spot to the next.

We had some excitement upon our return to the marina. First, the fish bucket escaped Johan's grasp as he was cleaning it out (don't worry, the fish were in the boat). Anne did some fancy maneuvering and we got it back. Then, there was some difficulty navigating the boat back into it's space, but it was nothing some good laughter couldn't fix.

Back on land, Anne prepared a feast, including the fresh mackrel on the grill. Besides the fish, the most notable part of dinner was the new potatoes (from the garden) and carrots, cooked on the barbecue with salt, pepper, onion, and olive oil in a foil boat. I adore that method of cooking potatoes and wish I did it more often. I also made a salad and was quite pleased with the results.

We had dessert by the fire, looking up at Sandhornfjell. Johan cooked the coffee over the fire and we rounded out the evening with some chocolate. Of course, in order to sit outside by the fire, we had to dress appropriately. I had been wearing jeans, a tank top, a t-shirt, a jacket, socks, and slip on shoes. It had been a little chilly at dinner, so when Anne handed me a ski suit, I swapped it for the jacket without too much protest. At the fire, Johan thought I needed something a little more substantial on my feet and ran back to the house; he returned with a pair of red ski boots. The complete costume was hilarious. I hope you enjoy the picture half as much as we enjoyed our evening.