Birthdays in foreign lands

It is thirty years to the day that I celebrated my sixteenth birthday in four states. In 1984, we drove from California to Chicago to celebrate my then great grandmother's birthday. The seven of us -- my mom and dad along with my four siblings -- Katie, Megan, Peter, and Tommy piled into our brand new Dodge Ram van tripped out with a sofa bed couch, removable table, and individual lighting and traveled the southern route on Route 66 stopping to see sights like the Grand Canyon and the St. Louis Arch. We spent a month in Elkart, Indiana swimming in the lake, heading to Summerfest ( I hung out with the Violent Femmes) and trying to spy Paul Newman at the race track. Our drive home took us on the Northern route through the Black Hills, the Mitchell Corn Palace, Wall Drug and to the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. The trip was incredible but most memorable was arriving in our motel in Utah with a sign that read Happy Sweet 16 Beth! My dad called ahead to be sure the milestone event was properly recorded.

 So here I am three decades later away from home celebrating this gift called life only now I am taking my children on a trip of a lifetime. They have made a bunch of Norwegian friends on our fjord and they are riding bikes to buy chocolate and movies, they are swimming in the chilly waters of the North Sea and they are helping me celebrate another year on this Earth.

( As a kid you don't want a summer birthday because everyone is on vacation and there is no one around to celebrate. But as an adult summer birthdays are the best because when the days are long and the weeks are filled with adventure it's like a 24 hour present.)

So we celebrated the day by drinking espresso at the Hotel Thor while doing our laundry at the boathouse. We cooked fresh prawns caught from the North Sea for dinner and I was serenaded by ten Norwegian kids singing happy birthday in their native tongue. A perfect way to celebrate -- thirty years later.