Where in the world are Kate and Justin?

Hello dear readers. And welcome to another episode of “Where in the World are Justin and Kate this Week?”

Any guesses yet?
Still nothing?
Yes, for those of you who can read English, this Labor Day weekend, J&K went to Stockholm, Sweden, to discover the tall, skinny, blond/blue Viking within them. Unfortunate for Kate, her Viking spirit was Tomtar, the haggard-looking Norse Troll drunk on lingonberry schnapps.
Tomtar aside, we found Stockholm to be a peaceful city that had a perfect mix of water, city, and green. Stockholm is actually protected mini-archipelago off of the Baltic Sea, comprised of 14 islands. Because there’s been very little industry here, the water all around the islands looks pristine and, gosh darnit, if it would have been….ooh, I don’t know….30 degrees warmer, I probably would have shown those Stockholmians my skivvies and dived right in.

Fortunately for them, it was downright chilly over the weekend and so our holiday consisted of window shopping down the old pedestrian streets, taking every single walking tour in our guide book (and then some), and eating the funny foods, like these oversized crackers they call knackerbrod or this spread made from Uncle Bob’s entrails. Other neat foods included "Maryland" cookies, “salmon” paste, and all these funny “Amerikansk” burger dressings. One of the stores I was excited to go into was the Baby Björn store. For those unfamiliar with Baby Björn, it’s a baby merchandise store that caters to the same sensible people who buy Volvos …. health-and-safety conscious planners who like functional goods and are willing to pay more for quality. We’re talking strollers that moonlight as cribs, bassinettes, and car seats. We’re talking chairs that can adapt to fit a six month old, a two year old, or a 27 year old with not a lot of rumpus fat. (Sorry, no picture of that). Yes, Baby Björn had Kate’s type of products. (Here's Kate looking guiltily and perhaps ashamedly oogling these products).
One thing we didn’t understand, though, was the idea of having ghosts safeguard your babies from bad dreams. Seriously, Swedes? Ghosts? Next it’ll be skeletons. And then vampires that look like Borat but with actual blood that squirts out of their mouths. Anyway, craziness aside, we really liked Sweden. In reality, it probably could have been anywhere outside of our living room and we would have enjoyed it. But the peaceful water, the pleasingly symmetric and colorful buildings, and the quiet, crime-free old town certainly didn’t hurt.

Actually, speaking of the old town AND speaking of ghosts, I tried a couple "ghost" shots of Kate. What do you think? Here's Kate slowly disappearing.

And here's here walking away after disappearing.

OK, and again on the babies thing: There were kids everywhere we went: the park, the harbors, the pawnshops. Babies, babies, babies. I took a couple pictures of kids playing in the park, but like the below picture the best. Much like the Hubbard Telescope a couple years ago, I decided to just pick a direction I felt had the LEAST amount of baby density, zoom in, and wonder what, if anything, would come up. Well, lucky me. Here’s a close up shot of four strollers. FOUR.
This shot was taken in Skansen, an open air museum/zoo on the island Djurgården created to show the way of life in Sweden before the industrial era. We spent almost one full day, watching how life once was in the land of the midnight sun. Here’s two improvised (read: very poorly done) “news” blips of me saying the same thing…plus another video of some friendly heiffers we saw.

When we weren’t walking around the 14 islands of the city, we managed to sit down and enjoy a couple meals, including a Chinese buffet, a Pakistani joint, a coffee shop serving HUGE mugs of cocoa, and a traditional Swedish place where we got the traditional meatballs and lingonberries.
So, to recap: Babies. Tomtar. Lingonberries. Here’s some other pictures I drew blanks on.