Ending the trip --
Traveling to Helsinki on Saturday and Monday

The last few days of Mom's trip to Finland was wonderful summer weather with plenty of sun and temperatures in the mid-70s. It made for good tanning and touring weather, with the last 4 days alternating being a tourist and sitting by the water enjoying the sun and sea. Marianne's sister, Anita, and 2 of her grandchildren also had a chance to meet Loretta on Monday.

Here are some pictures to give a taste of what we did during Loretta's last 4 days in the country. Many more are on the Flickr website.

Loretta's picture of wild flowers she found on Tallholm

Watching Anna go out sailing

Mothers using a computer map to share where various loved ones live

Inside Helsinki's Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Posing with Helsinki's Lutheran Cathedral in the background

Kayaking class in front of Barbro's house during dinner

Time to say good-bye!

It was nice seeing that everyone had a good time during Mom's 9 day stay. She really relaxed and enjoyed herself while seeing both the best and stormiest that Finland's weather could offer. Everyone is wanting her to come back again soon.

Loretta Adventures Around the Baltic Sea

A mostly cloudy day on Friday saw us take a small trip around the local islands via tour boat.

The Aurora tour ship, ridden today by Loretta, Jim, and Marianne

Because it was cool and the last Friday in June (most Finns were still working that day), we had the boat to ourselves most of the trip. We saw all kinds of islands and boats along the way. It was a nice trip.

Mom on-board riding the Aurora


The sailing club on Pentala Island

The wind blew down their mast!

Jim and Loretta on-board Aurora

Marianne and Jim onboard the Aurora

About halfway through our boat tour we landed near Helsinki, on the mainland. We found some roses that Mom recognized as similar to those she has at home.

Loretta and the roses

On Saturday we are traveling into downtown Helsinki to meet up with Marianne's uncle to see some of the sights there. More pictures of the trip are available at the Flickr site link in the upper right corner of this blog.

Using strong wind to help Mom feel at home

Today was a rainy day, showers to full rain off and on throughout the day. The wind grew steadily until by the late evening, we had a strong breeze with wind gusting up to 25-30mph. The view below is the before the storm moved in. Notice the sailboats getting ready to race in the background at the sail club.


We took a tour of the island by foot around noon our time walking by each of the 6 houses with the various saunas, outhouses, boathouses, wood storage buildings, play houses and underground cellars. There were lots of flowers and birds to look at as well.

We have had 2 more dinners and Mom is getting to know more about life on the island and Marianne's family members. Here are some photos of us together:

Marianne and Barbro's Family with Ayssa and Loretta

Barbro and Alex

Jim and Zhenya

Masha, Sasha, and Anna

Loretta and Ayssa

Marianne and Masha

More pictures can be found on the Flickr website at the right of this blog.

Mothers (finally) meet
My Mom, Loretta, arrived this morning around 9:15am local time and was through immigration and customs by 10 where Marianne and I met her at the arrival hall. It was clear and relatively warm today for her arrival. We stopped and got various breakfast pastries, including a Finnish cinnamon roll, and shopped for some food supplies while we had Inger's car.







Then it was off to stop at "PO's", a small. local food/hardware store that is located right on the mainland shore near our boat pier. We arrived with suitcases and several bags of food at our house's (Nanella's) pier at around 12:15 and my Mom was very happy to be here.

We were met at the pier by Zhenya while Anna waved from the motorboat where she and Sasha were installing the sailing hardware on the yellow sailboat for the summer.





After a short walk up the hill, Ayssa and Loretta met, a historic moment! This was followed by a brief tour of the house and grounds until when we thought it would be safe to call the U.S. to announce Mom's arrival.

At around 1pm our time (6am EDT) Mom called Cathi, shared all the news about the flight and checked on her dog (something about lots of barking early in the morning). After looking at some pictures on this computer, Mom retired to her bedroom for a well-deserved jet-lag nap.

Stayed tuned for more pictures and Loretta adventures over the next week or so!

Mid-sommar was a success!

Friends, neighbors, family, new children and a puppy all helped keep the tradition alive. Ayssa who was 96 this year, teamed with Masa and Mona's son, Pietari, who is still less than a year old to celebrate at Inger's house.

Here are a couple of pictures of the occasion.

A 5 kilo salmon provides the main course

Masa and son, Pietari, are welcomed by Jim

Anna and 4 month old, Tindra, become friends

Ayssa (96), Marianne and Pietari (under 1) celebrate

Ayssa and Marianne watching bonfire around 11pm

Summer 2007

Preparing for our guests - Ayssa and Loretta

We are excited about having both Marianne's and my mother visiting us at our place on Tallholm Island during our summer vacation this year. Stay tuned for news and pictures of these events! Here's where they will be staying:



Here's the Google Map Link: Tallholm Island

August is really here
Back from business in Indianapolis on Friday morning. Just as hot there as it gets here, up in the 90s. Was a tough week at work in more ways than one.

It's a bit quiet at the house. My ladies aren't home for 2 more weeks yet, and no dogs looking for attention. I don't miss having to be tied down to a particular time of day in waking up though. I actually can sleep until after 7 when the canine alarms are not around!

Over in Finland - Marianne's mother, Ayssa, is back out at our house on the island for a few days. She does much better there than at her flat in town. She came to visit us for overnight earlier this summer and stayed with us for 2 weeks. She improved almost everyday she was out there.

This past weekend Marianne and Zhenya were invited by Zhenya's godmother, Ann Marie, to travel to Lapland (above the Arctic circle) for the weekend. They took the train up and back and had a great time. Anna stayed home with Ayssa (Marianne's two sisters are also still there) and I bet she felt so grown up without anyone to tell her when to go to bed. I'm hoping Marianne got some pictures while she was way up North.

I hope to try and post one or two pictures a week here showing some highlights from the summer, once I solve the technical problem I am currently having. This week's pciture theme will Tour de Eiffel. (insert pix here)

Our Hilton hotel was so close, it seemed like we could reach out and touch that beautiful monument. Who says that all those frequent stay points that I have been saving for years aren't worth anything?? We had two rooms for 3 nights for a total of $200. Combine that with $100 roundtrip/airline ticket cost from Helsinki and we really got to see the city "on the cheap". Only real shock was that the French love their food and they price it accordingly!!!

More in future posts on the 4 nights we spent in a different hotel near Nortre Dame and the other places we visited.

Movies I watched this weekend: War of the Worlds (pretty good) and Big Fish (very good and surprisingly touching).

Back from Finland
I arrived back from Finland this past Wednesday. My trip home went well, except I didn't get my luggage until Friday pm. Heat and rain here, so I haven't been out much.

Marianne and the girls have spent this weekend with her some of her family in Noormark(ku), Finland. When I talked to them they were enjoying crayfish and peas with butter, biking, tennis and go carts with the cousins.

One of the most famous houses in modern architecture is located where they stayed. Villa Marea was design in the 193os by Alvar Aalto, a famous Finnish architect. A picture of the house is shown above.

Talked to Mom for about a half an hour today. She was canning beans and telling me how she and Chessie are baby sitting puppies while Cathi, Lisa and Stephen are away this weekend.

I haven't been able to talk or see Allison this weekend, I hope I can catch her tomorrow.

Personally, I have done very little but goof off today, I guess tomorrow I will need to get back to a regular schedule.

Movies I watched this weekend: The Island (nah), Spanglish (OK to Good).