Wonderful Weather and the Midnight Sun

Picture 1 Mats's boat docked across the street from his house
Picture 2 Austin after his dunk in the water for his sauna
Picture 3 Mats and Brit at Valhalla
Picture 4 Lunch!

Since we have arrived in Finland, the weather has been wonderful. Though a little cool on Friday and Saturday, today, Sunday has been hot! Around 22 to 25 degrees Celsius...see if you can figure out Fahrenheit for that!

Yesterday and today we have been in my cousin, Mats's, new 31 foot cabin cruiser in the bays of the Baltic Sea. Yesterday we went to his company's bay retreat area they call Valhalla (heaven of the gods in Norse mythology). It has a large 2 bedroom cabin which looks like it was made of Lincoln logs, a large grilling area, an outhouse(!), and a sauna (bastu). We grilled barbeque chicken on a stick and two types of sausages with salad, potato salad, and bread and fruit. All was delicious. Then we took a sauna which almost every home and summer villa has. It has a wood burning fireplace with large rocks on top which get very hot. There are 3levels of benches (bottom is hot, top is HOT) and you sit there and get very hot and sweaty then run out to the bay and jump in 55 F water to freeze off, then run back into the sauna again. All the kids did the water dunk, but I cooled off by running back and forth in the cool breezy air to take pictures of everyone else jumping in! Then you bathe out of a dishpan of water and get dressed. When you come out, you feel very refreshed and clean!

Then we took a ride out in the Gulf which had some good swells and waves, made a few tourist stops along the way home and got home about 9 p.m. As we were pulling into the inlet where Mats lives, Mom said 'How many times have you had to wear sunglasses at 9 p.m. at night?' The sky was still bright blue, not even evening grey, and the sun was about as high as 4 p.m. in the afternoon. We went to bed at 11 p.m. and they sky was just beginning to grey, but by 2 p.m. it was beginning to get bright again. When we get up in the mornings around 8 or 9 a.m., it looks like it is noon! After not being able to go back to sleep on Friday morning at 4 a.m. when Davis, Austin, and I woke up because it was already very bright, Mats found some dark cloth to hang over the window to help darken it. The wonderful 'Land of the Midnight Sun'.

Today, we went again for a boatride at lunch time to a bayside boatclub because when the weather is so beautiful as it is today, you must be out in it! It was very nice with a buffet lunch of salads and salmon and potatoes. Davis, Austin and Jessica are doing very well in trying new things. We did have a little shock when Austin's napkin floated over the votive candles on the table and caught on fire which I panicked over, but Mats had to come beat it out with his hands, thank goodness, because it had begun to catch the table cover on fire as well. (Can't take these Americans anywhere!) The next shock came when I bought cold Cokes for everyone on the ride back--8 cokes at 2.50 Euros each come out to about $4 per coke, but like Davis said, it felt good going down! (Just don't tell David!)