After we left Anne and Eric's wonderful home, it was time to stretch our wings again and head north.  This move marked the start of the second half of our time in Norway; it was hard to grasp how quickly the first half had passed!  While our goal of the first half was to travel and hike in Norway, the goal of our second half was to stop, regroup, explore and experience Norwegian culture in a single location.  We rented a house on the island of Husøy, a small fishing village of 150 people near the larger island of Senja above the Arctic Circle.  We flew from Trondheim to Tromsø and then rented a car to drive and ferry our way to our new home. 

When we landed in Tromsø, it was early in the morning and we had some time to explore.  We first made our way to the essential local (and truly amazing) information center. I always feel like a kid in a free candy shop when I walk into these Norwegian centers; they have the nicest people to help you plan your visit with suggested itineraries, maps and advice and they can translate any website you are stuck on. We had a delightful breakfast in a downtown cafe and then headed to the library for hours.  The kids had really been missing the feel of real paper and real books, so when they spotted the town library, it was all they wanted to do. Little One learned to read via the "Piggy and Gerald" books when she was young. We found the same books in Norwegian and it was a blast trying to read those books and another favorite, The Giving Tree. Then we went off to a Walmart-sized grocery store to stock up on food for the month before we drove down to our new island home. 

There is definitely a different feel to the North.  It is a lot cooler, older, the roads with pot holes felt more like home. Small villages dot the arctic wilderness.  It took us two hours to arrive at the bridge to our small town. We found our cute little new home and settled in contentedly for this next phase of our journey.