Day 310, 327, 328 Cookie Molds

Day 310
11/06/2010
Becca found this cute mould in Hong Kong and bought it for her Mom!

Day 327
11/23/2010
Another cute set of moulds that Becca found in Hong Kong.

Day 328
11/24/2010
Becca also found this cute chocolate/ice cube/jello mold in Hong Kong. I love the smiling frog!

Day 303 - Hong Kong Airport

10/30/2010
On our marathon trip home we started the day in Hong Kong airport around 1 am. This biplane is hanging in the main terminal.

Day 302 - Filipino Breakfast

Day 302

10/29/2010

Our last breakfast in the Philippines included this lovely papaya

which must be eaten with the cute little calamanci (also called lemoncito). Delicious!

Day 295 -

Day 295
10/22/2010

Close up details of the kampilan or kris knife owned by my "family" in Davao. It has been passed down from father to oldest son for generations and is now owned by my "brother" Jojo. Notice the hash marks on the edge of the blade (think tally marks on the butt of a gunfighter's pistol). It is part of a whole outfit that he has.

Jojo's great-grandfather was a datu of the Bogobo tribe that is native to the area. They are known for their brass and bead work.

Day 294 - Manila International Airport

Day 294

10/21/2010

Waiting for a plane in Manila - this was our dinner at the airport.

Day 291- 293 Up in the Air Again

We are headed to the Philippines to meet up with our daughter Becca on her round the world odyssey and to visit old friends from when we were Peace Corps Volunteers there. Of course, since I work for an airline we are flying stand-by. There are two reasons for this: I am a low paid gate agent and it is cheap to go stand-by. So we first tried to fly from Los Angeles to Japan but that didn't work so we flew to San Francisco and ended up going to Korea on the way to the RP. We luckily were able to stay with a friend near SFO but ended up sleeping on uncomfortable airport benches in ICN. Those blips aside, we did get to Manila, just 36 hours later that we had hoped.

Day 291
10/18/2010
California coast from LAX-SFO flight.

Day 292
10/19/2010
Business class from SFO-ICN. Upstairs in a 747!

Day 293
10/20/2010
Toys in Incheon,Korea

airport store.

Bergan Farm - My family history!

I recently was on a trip to Norway. I met Becca who is on her odessy trip after Peace Corps. Becca had a friend from Denver who was living in Oslo, so she wanted to visit her there. I have always wanted to visit Norway, especially after Aunt Doris visited there and told me about our Great-Great-Grandmother's house being in a museum in the little town of Prestfoss (priest falls). I had a copy of a letter she wrote to me in 1972 about their visit there. So, I googled Prestfoss and found this link (translated version).

We took two buses from Oslo to get to Prestfoss. The Sigdal and Eggedal Museum indeed has a collection of buildings from the area and one is a "cottage" from Bergan farm. It took my breath away to walk into the house where my great-grandmother was probably born. The interior is mostly not original to the house but has a collection of furniture and clothing from a collector in the area. Several of the doors have wonderful painted designs. The museum is also part of a folk music center and has a collection of folk instruments in the main museum. The museum curator, Sigrid Kvisle spent several wonderful hours with us, telling us about the buildings, the collections and then making some waffle cakes for us to have with our tea. She shared a book that has a history of the area. Then she called the current resident of Bergan farm, a distant cousin. His brother-in-law came to take us to the farm.

This is a copy of a page from the book shared by the museum curator. They tell the story about Bergan farm, which is in the Sigdal valley near Prestfoss, Norway. Highlighted is the name of Kari Kristensdatter fra Neggen who is the mother of Marte Evendatter who is the mother of my grandfather Almer A. Berg.

My grandparents Almer & Blanche Berg

Kari's mother Marte Olsd. (Marte Olsdatter fra. Neggen) was the 2nd wife of Kristen Andersen fra Ovestad. As explained to me, Bergan, Neggen and Ovestad are the names of farms in the Sigdal area. The people would have their own given name followed by the name of their father (in the form of son, sen or datter) then the name of the farm. Kristen Andersen moved to the Bergan farm probably around the time of his 2nd marriage in 1823. His 1st wife was Kari Tovsd. (Tovsdatter) and they had 4 children. He had 3 children with Marte.

It says that Kari was born in 1824 and married Even Gulliksen Rolstadeie in 1850. Then they came to Amerika (sic) in 1857. Several of her siblings also came to America: Tron and Oline in 1852 and Mentz. This is probably where the Neggen cousins came from.

On the next page is Gerd (b.1944) who I met with her husband, Knut Tore Larsen Eidal. Knut is a retired school teacher who was the mayor of Prestfoss for 13 years. He came to pick us up from the museum and took us to Bergan farm. There we met Gerd's brother Anders Kristensen Bergan (b.1939) who is a bachelor. We also met one of Gerd's daughters and two of her granddaughters.

I took lots of photos that day. I have posted them to a Facebook album.

Day 239 - Leaving on a Jet Plane

8/27/2010

"Leaving on a Jet Plane"
Becca waiting at gate B88 just before boarding her first flight, Denver to Kansas City, on her way to Washington and then on to Moscow.

Day 222 - Postcards

8/10/2010

Some of the postcards I recently got (OKI so I sent 3 of them to myself from overseas!)

From top clockwise: Oslo, Vigeland park; Iceland; Ukraine from Becca; and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

Day 210 - Bergan Farm

7/28/2010

House from Bergan farm at the Sigdal and Eggedal Museum. This house was the one where my great-great grandmother's family lived before she immigrated to Minnesota in 1857.

We took two buses from Oslo to get to Prestfoss. The Sigdal and Eggedal Museum indeed has a collection of buildings from the area and one is a "cottage" from Bergan farm. It took my breath away to walk into the house where my great-grandmother was probably born. The interior is mostly not original to the house but has a collection of furniture and clothing from a collector in the area.

The museum curator, Sigrid Kvisle spent several wonderful hours with us, telling us about the buildings, the collections and then making some waffle cakes for us to have with our tea.

She shared a book that has a history of the area. Then she called the current resident of Bergan farm, a distant cousin. His brother-in-law came to take us to the farm.

Going to Norway

July 25, 2010

When my daughter Becca was finishing her Peace Corps service in Albania she decided to see some more of the world and sent out a challenge to friends and family to join her on part of her trip. Then I found out that she was planning to visit a Denver friend currently living in Norway. I was hooked. I would love to join her there! Would Tara welcome an extra person? I work for an airline, could I schedule the trip using my non-revenue status? Could I afford it? Why did I want to go to Norway? - my Grandpa Berg was Norwegian. Both of his parents had been born there and then came to America as children. They had met in Minnesota but had come from nearby places in the old country. My Aunt Doris had visited there years ago and had sent me a letter describing a town I must visit if I ever got there. She said that our Great-Grandmother's house had been moved to become part of a folk museum there. I "Googled" Prestfoss, Norway and found that, indeed there is a museum in that town that has some farm buildings from the area. Emails went back and forth between Becca, Tara and I and an itinary was planned. We would take a bus out to Prestfoss on one day and take a trip called "Norway in a Nutshell" and do the tourist thing in Oslo. Following photos in my "365 Challenge" are from that trip.

packing my bags - kan ikke vente til neste uke i Norge - god dag til Norge
(yeah Google translate!)

Day 173 - Packing my Bags

6/22/2010
Packing my bags for my trip to the Cookie Cutter Collector's Club Convention! Hoping to get the first flight to SFO.

Day 165 - Arriving Home

6/14/2010
David returned from his trip to Albania. Technically, this photo was taken on the 15th because he arrived in Denver after midnight. After flying back to the US to Dulles, he had to take a connecting flight to LAX to get home to Denver. He brought home two bags of Becca's "stuff".

Day 152 - "Leaving on a Jet Plane"

6/1/2010

David getting on leg one of his vacation to hike the "Forbidden Mountains" of Albania with Becca before she leaves on her "epic" journey home.