Back in Houston!

We arrived back in Houston at about 1pm this afternoon. It appears the return to Central Time is not going smoothly, likely due to our short night last night. It is now 7:45pm and I am up after a 1.5 hour nap - Barb and Sean not so much awake. Thanks to our support crew for taking care of the house and Barley! Keri Carter and Dan, Marge and Joanne (Dziadziu, Grandma and Aunt Joanne.)

After all the rain in June and July it did not rain the whole time we were gone. All the vegetation is wilted and dry, despite a watering by Dziadziu on Wednesday. The sprinkler had been on since 2pm and will keep going until I fall asleep.

The plan for pictures? I plan to post incrementally by updating the posts made during our wonderful vacation. The first picture post is here: 1211a-and-we-are-on-plane

Thoughts on vacation Part-I:

• It is amazing how much spoken English we encountered in all of Scandinavia. Every individual we had occasion to speak to had better English than the employees we encountered at Cafe Adobe on the way back from the Airport in Houston.
• The babies had freedom to breast feed everywhere and in every situation without stigma. This included crowded trains, cafes, restaurants, social occasions, etc.
• It was freakin' expensive! Between it being normally costly Scandinavia and the weak dollar I am afraid to look at my bank and credit card records online! Maybe tomorrow night after being fortified by a few shots of Brennivin! (Also known as Black Death - Finally! An alcoholic beverage encountered abroad that cannot be purchased at Spec's at all, let alone cheaper than in it's own country. We did not get a chance to sample in Iceland, but I did score a bottle at the Duty Free on the way home. Just tried it, not that bad but burns all the way down for several minutes.)
  
• It was surprisingly hard (even after being there in 2002) to use credit cards in Norway - typically because my card does not have my photo on it. Iceland was a different story - we could have spent our entire stay there without ever using cash!
• Special thanks to Eric's family: Jack, Karin, Sara, Michael, Jacob and Leo for hosting us in Norway and Sweden and allowing us to share part of their family time with the USA Wheatley's. Their generosity cannot be appreciated enough!
• I am sorry to report that I did not get to try puffin. A restaurant that served puffin was just 5 doors down from our apartment in Reykjavik but could not seat us on late notice.