Downtown!

19 June 2013

We were all up and out the door earlier than normal this morning to work again at the Miracle House.  The sun was shining and that’s all the motivation we needed.  I had cleaning to do on the second floor and Kory wanted to finish putting up siding on the wall he built.  He was also able to start on the second floor terrace which will be a nice outside eating area when the café is open and the sun is shining like it was today!

I actually didn’t work the first hour we were in town.  I took a long walk around as I haven’t spent much time downtown this year and I wanted one last nostalgic walk through my old path to school, down by the dock and over by the bus station and library.  It was a sweet time, remembering the year we lived here.  I also stopped in at Vestina’s office to greet her, since she told me where she worked and I found it. 

Today was a record number of tourists in town because the Queen Mary 2 was here along with 3 other large cruise ships, so the town was packed solid with people.  I took a few photos and just felt thankful for so many things.  I stopped at a few thrift stores on my way back to the Miracle House, as my initial goal was to get some lunch food for Kaleb and I, which I almost forgot to do, I was so distracted.  I found a few small treasures to take home and once I got food, I headed back.  Kory and Kaleb were hard at work sawing and hammering  and making a nice mess for me to clean up.

Several times today people stopped by to see the house.  The neighbors are all curious how the progress is coming, so some of them peeked their head in the door for a quick look.  But the best deal was when the tourists stopped by. 

I was upstairs cleaning when I heard someone hollering downstairs.  It was a Norwegian taxi driver asking if his passengers could take a look around.  They were British, so I was able to give them my first complete tour!  It was so exciting.  I made them take their shoes off though, since I’d just cleaned the floors upstairs, but I took them to the room where the angel had appeared and one of the old crotchety guys said, “And you believe that happened?”  He wasn’t nice when he said it and I just responded with “I’m just telling you the history of this house,” and on I went.  When I showed them the photo of the house amidst the rubble taken the next day, he wanted a photo of it and then he piped down a bit.  It’s hard to argue with a genuine miracle.

I encouraged them all to go back to their ship and read Psalm 91 and think about the man sitting in that room watching the city burn around him as he read the words in the Bible.  They said they would do it, too, and I prayed for them after they left.  It was pretty cool and they felt rather honored to have a private tour.  I told them they had bragging rights at dinner tonight, telling everyone what they saw and heard, and they agreed.  Shortly thereafter, another couple stopped by as they had a walking tour guide book and they asked if they could look around so I did the same with them.  It was pretty fun.

Later this afternoon The Good Teacher Inga and her husband came by, too, as they are very curious how the house looks inside since they’d heard about it all their lives but never been inside.  I’m so glad the church will have it open free to the public when it’s ready, but many people can’t wait that long as it’s big news around here that the house is being fixed up and open to the public, so woo hoo for that.  I’m so going to love being back in Norway and volunteering there. 

Kory and Kaleb took their lunch break down at the docks in the middle of town, at my insistence.  One of Kaleb’s favorite memories of Norway is sitting with Kory on the dock, eating fresh shrimp right off the boat and throwing the heads to the seagulls.  He was lamenting that they couldn’t do that now that Kory was a vegan, but I told them they needed to do that today since I saw the shrimp boat was in the harbor.  Kory went easy on the shrimp, but Kaleb sure enjoyed himself.  I love that they share moments like that, just the two of them.  Personally, I hate cleaning the shrimp, so it’s not something I’d like to do anyway.

Kaleb was anxious to go spend a few hours with Daniel tonight, so he rode his bike over there and Kory went visiting in our old neighborhood.  I was beat and needed to get a few things done so I had a wonderful night in, all by myself, until Kaleb came home.  He’d just gotten back the score for his final test in Algebra II and he wasn’t pleased.  He was spit-fire mad and there wasn’t a thing that could console him.  I just decided it best we all go to bed and talk about it in the morning after a good night’s sleep.