Fall / Höst

The leaves have started to turn colors and fall, making crunching noises under our tires as we ride to and from school and work. The first few weeks of fall gave us beautiful sunny weather, reminiscent of Northern California autumns, and inspired us to do some exploring.

We took a mini road trip across Southern Sweden to the east coast town of Kivik (pronounced Shee-vik), home of the annual apple festival in the fall, and to many beach-goers in the summer. The weather was beautiful as we snacked at the beach and then made our way to the giant apple mural.  The mural is only up for a few weeks, or as long as the apples last, so I was really glad to be able to see it.

Afterwards we visited the Kiviks Musteri where they make apple juice, cider, jams, etc. At the end of the self-guided tour we were able to taste apple juice in a garden of apple trees. It reminded me of going wine tasting in the wine country, but instead we were juice tasting in the apple country! The Swedish apples are just becoming ripe now, and they're delicious. Fall is officially here.

Balloon Chasers

Recently Lucas had a friend's birthday party on a late Saturday afternoon. Mats left to get a pizza for dinner, which left Henrik and I home alone. We had a mission: to make a gluten-free, yeast-free pizza. But before we could get started, Mats called and told us to look outside- a hot air balloon was going by.

Henrik and I rushed out to our back yard in time to see a rainbow-colored balloon floating peacefully over the tree tops. We could hear the whoosh of the fire as the balloon was refilled. As it continued its journey past our house, Henrik had the idea to follow it to see where it lands. In a few seconds we were on our bikes - we were balloon chasing!

We went to the main bike path and followed it towards the balloon. To our right, a second balloon floated over an open field. It had an "M" on it.

We continued on the path, trying to keep up with the balloons. At times they looked like they were going to land, only to rise up again and continue on.

Finally, we had to bid farewell to the balloons.

We returned home to our pizza project, but Henrik and I had to fuel up on a bit of cereal first, after our big adventure.