Anticipation

All talk and no action frustrates my husband. That's why he paired me up with his father's cousins to make a trip to Norway.

I'd longed to make a trip back to my adopted home. These women dreamed of visiting their immigrant (great) grandmother's roots.

At a cafe meeting last July, we began to plan for a 10-12 day trip in August 2008. Their main goal was to travel north of Trondheim to the small community of Verdal – where Grandma Lena's life started – a place and people that Dan and I had visited years ago. Dan's cousins hoped to see mountains and fjords, tour a big city or two and travel to the Swedish border where I'd spent a year living as a high-school exchange student. Our mutual enthusiasm was catchy.

With that consensus and my husband's promise for me to lead the group, we were Norway Bound.