My sister, Susan Vorland Hanson, has returned from a two-week trip to Norway and after spending the night with us departed this morning to her home near Turtle Lake, N.D.

Also in Bloomington were Sue’s daughter, Ondrea Miller, and granddaughter, Allison, who moved in to an apartment near the University of Minnesota campus where she will begin her sophomore year. Allison’s dad, Scott, was in town, too, on business but we weren’t able to hook up this time.

Dorette and I had GREAT fun hosting and interacting with these wonderful people.

And not only that: Sue brought me a gift from Norway: a bottle of 41.5 proof “Linie Aqua Vit,” since 1805 for all practical purposes, Norway’s national liquor.

Produced from potatoes, it is flavored with caraway, dill, aniseed, sweet fennel and coriander, then matured in sherry casks. The casks are stored on the deck of a ship to be thoroughly mixed by the motion of the waves as it travels around the world. I couldn’t bring myself to ask how much Sue paid for the bottle.

I’m saving it for October, when we will be hooking up with our brother, Dan, in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The three of us are not getting any younger, so we’ll offer toasts to the good fortune we’ve had in our lives and to the adventures still ahead.

For example, I’m thinking that I, too, should walk in the home country of our grandparents, Hans and Anna Vorland. A few years ago, Dan sprang for airline tickets so the two of us could visit Paris together. Perhaps I should do the same for us to see Norway.

As the saying goes, there are no pockets in a shroud.