The Last Day

We were up and about at 3:00 a.m. to catch our plane out of Rovaniemi. As we were pulling into the airport, we were greeted with this wonderful memory.

Once we were in Helsinki, a group of us had to remain there since the connection was too tight. After checking into the Hilton, Susan, Elaine, Brianna, and I headed downtown to see what we could see. We learned how to use the train from the airport to the rail station and back (and we made sure not to sit next to anyone if we could avoid it, as we were told to do), we went into Stockman's and saw the most amazing display of chairs, and we found a Robert's Coffee so I could have one more chai. The others agreed it was pretty good, too. Then we returned to the hotel, had dinner, and the next morning we left for the airport.

Our flight was very smooth, but between slow baggage claim, clogged security, and a close connection, we had to stay in Dallas until the next flight. We ran into Elaine who had a long layover and we had a drink and some chips. Each beer was $16 - wow - so drinks and dip was nearly $100 - and I just had water! Then we were off for home. It was a wonderful trip, and I would love to go back. Maybe sometime!

Final Dinner

Our final dinner was held at Mokka Tupa at a city with a name so long I can't even pretend to spell it. Nevertheless, the dinner was amazing. The chef took us through Finland to some of their most famous dishes - Karelian bread that is certified by the government and only allowed to be named Karelian if certain procedures are followed, trout spread for the bread, several dishes with reindeer, blueberry cheesecake, several salads, and all very good. We heard a nice history of Finland, along with the dishes that are traditional and how they came to be. It was a delightful and delicious evening.

Sunny Days = Good Dogsledding

On Sunday, we awakened to beautiful blue skies. There is nothing as beautiful as a snowy landscape with blue skies in the background. And with the sun came a little warmth - a perfect day for dogsledding. Upon arriving at the dogsled farm, we had a small talk with the man who owned the kennel, and then we were off. Don "drove" the first half of the ride, though we didn't drive with reins . . . the dogs just followed each other. All the driver had to do was put on the brake to hold the dogs back, while the passenger took pictures.

At the halfway point, we switched drivers. The dogs knew they had time off, and they took the time to roll in the snow, eat it, and play a bit. Our dogs went off the trail a bit and got wrapped around a sapling. No problem - they just pulled themselves over the little tree.

Then I got to drive. Both Don and I found it pretty easy to daydream, and the next thing we knew the dogs were too close to the sled ahead. We managed to slow down in time, but we learned one has to pay attention the whole time.

Cloudy Skies = Few Northern Lights

Unfortunately, while we were in Lapland, the skies were very cloudy. Every. Single. Day. It snowed a bit most days (and a bit more one day), and at night, there was no chance to see the lights. On Saturday night, however, the skies cleared a bit and we were hopeful we would see something. Sure enough, an alert came through about 4 a.m. It was a rather weak showing with little movement, but it was definitely there for about 10 minutes. And then it was gone.

We got a picture or two, and one of the people on the tour went outside and got a better one (we didn't leave the cabin). And then a brother of one of the women, did a little AI work to enhance the pictures. Some people are just too clever!

Jaalloka Reindeer Farm

We were pretty excited to go to the reindeer farm. We learned that all of the reindeer in Finland are domesticated and belong to someone. During most of the year, they are let out to run, but in mid-summer and in October they are rounded up and brought to the farms. Each reindeer is "branded" by nicks in their ears, much like cattle is branded in the US. Every family knows their brand, and although some reindeer have GPS trackers, they don't all have them. With over 200,000 reindeer in Lapland, it takes a long time to round up the animals, but apparently, all reindeer are accounted for by the families. The biggest surprise to us was how small the reindeer are in Finland. They are larger in other countries, but with these reindeer, their torso was no taller than my waist. Some of them have very large antlers that make them appear larger, but overall, they are not as big as a white tail deer. Our first adventure at the farm was to ride in a sleigh. We were tucked into a wooden sleigh, and the 9 sleighs were drawn through the snowy Finland forest. Each sleigh is tied to the one ahead, and in order to keep from stepping on the runners, the reindeer from behind walks next to the passenger in the sleigh ahead. Don and his friend had quite the conversation.

At one point, the group stopped, and when it re-started, the deer ahead of us jerked us, which jerked the sleigh behind us. CRACK! Our sleigh was totally broken. The man who accompanied us on the ride had to come back and tie the sleigh up so we could continue the journey. One of the sleighs was pulled by this gorgeous boy with his rack still intact. Don't you wonder what he was thinking?

After the ride, we fed the reindeer and then fed ourselves. We had a meal of reindeer soup, bread, and a slightly sweet, bear claw style cookie. I was particularly touched that the chef took the time to cook her own broth rather than use a beef base so that I could eat it. That has never happened to me before, so I was thrilled to be able to eat it! We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to th reindeer farm and would do it again!

KSU

Two other KSU alums joined us on the trip, and they were sent a flag for us all to have in a picture. We decided after our snowshoe adventure to take a picture with three of us holding the flag and three of us doing the KSU. We were all excited to take the picture - which was taken by the professional photographer who was leading our snowshoe expedition - and we didn't notice until the next day that the K and the S were backwards. Not sure that KSU will want to use that one.

So at the Reindeer farm we took another picture. In two of them Susan, one of our hilarious tour mates, decided to photobomb us, but we did get one good picture. It is fun to at least have one picture of the six of us!

Snowshoeing

I was a little dubious about my ability to snowshoe, since our mantra is "Don't fall down," and I was afraid I might. After putting our snowshoes on, we discovered it wasn't too hard to walk. Some people didn't use poles, but since we always skied with poles, we decided to use them. The night was cloudy, but it was still quite bright, so we didn't need our lights on our hats. We were hoping for some auroras, but they were not to be had, unfortunately. We walked on a path and then through some deep powder snow until we reached a tepee with a fire that had been built by those who didn't want to walk through the powder.

Inside the tepee, we heard stories about Finland, reindeer, and snowshoeing, and we drank more hot blueberry juice and ate more cookies.

By the time we returned, we were a bit tired and my shoulder hurt, but other than that, we felt really good. The only thing that could have made it better was seeing an aurora, but that was not to be.