Family visit in Gothenburg - or Göteborg... Swedish style!

It has taken awhile to get to anywhere the Internet is reliable enough to post anything. Will see how it goes. We arrived in Göteborg on Saturday but my checked bag didn't make it until Sunday. Fortunately, I planned for that possibility and we just continued on with only minor worries about the luggage. Cousin Örjan met us at the airport and led us to our hotel, saving us the worry of finding our way while jet lagged!

For this post, I'll just include a few family photos and leave the tourist report until another day. Our cousin Örjan is doubly related to us through his great-grandfather and our grandfather who were brothers and his great-grandmother and our grandmother who were half-sisters, making him our second cousin, once removed. (his father Sture is our second cousin; we will be visiting him later on our journey)

Our first evening in Göteborg was spent dining with Örjan and his wife Lisa and planning our next day while keeping in mind that it might be a rainy day. No pictures from our first night in town...

A few family photos are included below from our second day and evening when we were squired around town by Örjan and Lisa and then treated to a marvelous meal at their home where we met the rest of their immediate family.

Left to right: sister Valerie, cousin Lisa, cousin Örjan, brother-in-law Tom, brother Lukas and yours truly...

Cousin Örjan.

Örjan and Lisa's son Ludwig.

Örjan and Lisa's daughter Matilda putting the finishing touches on dessert.

Left to right: Ludwig, Örjan, Lisa, Svante, Matilda and Sixten at their home on the evening of June 19, 2011. We were wined and dined and treated to a marvelous meal of traditional Swedish dishes including moose that was absolutely delicious! I wish that I hadn't been so jet-lagged or I'd give you more details about the meal. In addition to delicious food and lovely wines, we had wonderful conversations and learned more about our Swedish family.

Catching up... again... this time from our Montana trip in June, 2010

I'm more behind than ever and before memory fails me completely... thought I'd try to catch up a bit and post some images and experiences from our June trip to Red Lodge, Montana where (as some of you may recall) we have a lovely home that is available for a vacation rental when we are not using it.

One of the best experiences from our visit this year was when I got together with a high school classmate for an adventure in the nearby Pryor Mountains where a herd of wild mustangs has roamed freely for many years. The Pryor Mountains span the southern Montana - northern Wyoming border not far from Red Lodge so making a day trip to search out the horses was easily arranged.

Cathy picked me up around 9 AM and we packed our lunch (provided by me) and my camera gear into her car and headed for Lovell, Wyoming where the Wild Mustang Center is located. After a quick stop at the Wild Mustang Center to pick up a detailed map of the area and to find out where the horses could be seen, off we went in search of horses. We found five (four adults and a young foal) right where the ranger at the Mustang Center told us they would be. All the images I posted from our adventure are viewable as a slide show... I've also included a few of my favorites below to whet your appetite for additional viewing.

Typical, wild, wonderful Wyoming scenery in the area around the Pryor Mountains. The red color is a result of iron in the soil.

The horses were some distance away when we first spotted them and we'd been advised not to approach too closely as they can be unpredictable. Here, they appear to be having a conference about something and the foal is almost completely hidden from view (look on the left side behind the front horse).

This was taken after the horses had moved from where we first saw them to a much more accessible location... and they seemed totally bored with our being there! This is the mother of the young foal that was with this group (see the next image for the foal).

The young foal was never far from its mother's side.

Although we never really tired of taking pictures of the horses, we did decide to go to the Canyon Overlook of the Bighorn River where this image was taken. There are a few more as well as a map of the Canyon Overlook area in the slide show which only has 16 images so it takes less than a minute to view it.