Day 9 - Thursday June 19th

Today, July 20th, we returned from camping at House Creek Campground which is only about 30 minutes away from home.  It was our annual camp out with Four Corners Regional Campout group.  It was our first outing with our new camper and it worked great.   (We traded our RV for 24' pull behind trailer.)  So the blog was on hiatus for a couple of days.   



Funny story about our camping outing, well not really funny, kind of sad in a way.  I took day off last Thur. and loaded camper and headed to camp site.  Robert came up after work.  On Fri. I went back and met him at the house so we would only have one car at the camp site. We had our dog, Jenny with us and we were going to leave our cats, Shadow and Midnight alone for a couple days.

However, on Sat. we decided to go back to house to shower as we were running low on water in the camper.  This being our first outing, we were figuring out how it was going to work and now we know we need to carry more water for a 3 night outing.  Anyway, we go home Sat. afternoon, take naps, and shower.  While Robert was showering I let our cats out on the deck and put up the gate to the stairs to keep them on the deck.  After Robert got out of the shower, Shadow was ready to come back in but Midnight wanted to chill on the deck.  So I thought, I will put her back in before we leave.  We left the house about 4:30 to make it back to camp for cocktails and BBQ for the group.  When we came back home on Sun. and backed up to our house, I could hear a cat crying and realized I had left Midnight out when we left on Sat.  She had no water or food or cat box.  She was OK but I was distressed that I did not remember to put her back in the house.   

Day 9 - Thur. 6/19/14 - Back to our cruise:
This morning we sailed in through Trondheimsfjord, to our next port (Trondheim, Norway) arriving at the dock about 8am.   Trondheim is Norway's third largest city and at one time was the capital of Norway.  It is the most northerly cruise port in the fjord region.  Unlike the more southerly fjords we had seen, the Trondheim fjord does not have towering cliffs. Rather, it is an area of rolling hills covered in forests.  The city can trace its origins back to 997 when it was founded by Viking King Olav Tryggvason. In 1070, construction of the Nidaros Cathedral began on the site of the grave of Norway's patron saint St. Olaf and it is the world's most northernmost cathedral.

When we got into port, we did not pull up and dock but instead anchored in the harbor.  This meant that if we were going to depart we would be taking the tenders to shore.  The day was overcast and misting rain and lots of churn in harbor water. 

The fjord is an inlet of the Norwegian Sea and 81 mi. long. It is located in the west central part of the country. The main part of Trondheimsfjord is ice free all year.  Several of the best salmon rivers in Norway empty into Trondheimsfjord. 


We had not purchased a shore excursion for this port so since the weather was so yucky,  we decided to just hang out on ship today.  However, later in the morning,  Chuck decided he would be brave and took the tender to shore to shop for gift trinkets.  We read and worked on a puzzle in the library.  Chuck returned in time for lunch and said he did find an interesting old church.  Chuck and Michael played cribbage in the afternoon and Robert and I read some more and visited with other folks who had decided to stay on board today which was a fair number of folks.  

After dinner, we all went to the theater for the evening performance, “Rock Legends" which was the cruise ship dancers and four very good singers, two guys and two girls.   The pairings when they did duo numbers was excellent. 

When we return to our rooms each evening, our room stewards have turned down our beds.  They leave chocolate and towel art.  The elephant was one of the best ones.  

Tomorrow we cross the Arctic Circle when the sun will not set on us for 5 days as we are at peak of summer solstice.  The midnight sun lasts longer for people above the Arctic Circle, May 14 to July 27.  Sunrise today was at 3:13 AM and sunset was at 11:56 PM.