Larsen's European Vacation - Day 8 - Hoikankylä & Keihärinkoski

As we said good-bye to Sirkka and Ake on Friday morning, we drove to Hoikankylä to meet my third cousins and wonderful art exhibits. Then we continued our trip to my cousin's house in Keihärinkoski for a few days of relaxation.


Good-bye to Sirkka, Ake and the dogs.


Hoikankylä


Saara's wonderful art. "Enkelimuuri" Angel Wall.

"Koivut" Birch trees

My third cousins, Erja and Katriina and Katriina's daughters Jutta and Monja. These twins are so creative that very seldom you meet anybody so talented.

My mom and her second cousin, Saara

We took a tour of the whole property with barns full of old items and memorabilia that Ilmo had collected over the years. Saara had displayed her "Piikkana" art and her paintings in other barns. Bus loads of tourists come and see their place every summer.

After a lunch and an afternoon snack we headed through Saarijärvi to my cousin's house in the country.

The huge birch tree by the "takkatupa" at Kauppila.

The old summer sauna

The door closing mechanism at the old summer sauna

Boys and their motorcycles.

Alex riding Kimmo's motorbike through the fields.

The road to Ranta-Marttila. My nanny dug this whole road (about 200 m) with her two hands and a pick in 1967. Now she wants to give up on life. It is incomprehensible.

Uotila's summer sauna and the oat field at night.

Larsen's European Vacation - Day 7 - Savonlinna

Day 7-My cousin, Sirkka's house in Savonlinna.


This is their outdoor sauna in their yard. My mom calls it "karamelli" or candy for the English speakers. We went there later in the evening. It was hot and simply wonderful.


Sirkka and Ake took us to the city church (Lutheran church) where Sirkka is a pastor at.


Beautiful church. The history tells us that the Americans paid for this church to be rebuilt after it was destroyed in the bombings during WW II.

Sirkka took us on a "behind the scenes" tour.

Then it was time for lunch. Here we are walking from the church to downtown area to have lunch at a shore restaurant called "Liekkikota"....yep, fish.

Jake and Alex are ready to eat more fish. By the end of the trip they were so sick of fish that they couldn't even look at it.

Cousins, Sirkka and Marja. Thanks Ake for a wonderful lunch.

The ship has sailed.

Our family at Olavinlinna in Savonlinna. The annual Opera Festival is held inside this castle.

Alex and Jake walking back to the city.

Then we drove to Sirkka's sister's, Helena, house in Kerimäki. There Teikku (Helena's daughter) had baked all of Alex's favorite desserts (yes, requested beforehand by Alex). I can't believe I didn't take any pictures. Oh, I know, the batteries died while the boys were swimming.

Jake and Alex swimming in a nearby lake where they met two lovely blonde girls. They never talked to the girls but the boys would not stop talking about them. Especially Jake. I think he felt like the love of his life disappeared from his grasp and this was his only chance for love. He still talked about them days after. They even were talking about putting an ad in the paper to locate the girls. Teenagers!

Yes, the boys jumped off the bridge after carefully inspecting what's underneath.

After having a fun afternoon at Helena's house, we headed back to Sirkka's house for a sauna and dinner. Ake made smoked salmon in his smoker and the men headed to the sauna first. Then it was the ladies' turn. Thank you Sirkka and Ake for a great time in Savonlinna.

Larsen's European Vacation - Day 6 - Mikkeli

On Wednesday morning we headed to Mikkeli, which is about 1 1/2 hours southeast from Jyväskylä (by car). We went to visit my second cousin Pauliina and her husband Simo and their adorable two boys, Santeri and Oskari.


Alex is having fun with the 5-year of Oskari.


Santeri is a first grader and started school the following day.


Cousins, Sirkka-Liisa (Pauliina's mother) and my mother visiting with each other.

We had a lovely lunch with Pauliina's family but it was time to say good-bye.

Pauliina and Simo. Such wonderful people. We just love them. Until next time.

We drove a short distance to the Sohkanen's house. This is the family that visited us last Christmas.

Jake was ready to put the waterskis on and try waterskiing for the first time. After a few attempts to get up, he did and was skiing like a pro.

Then it was time for dinner (didn't we just eat at Pauliina's? Yes we did.) Jake tried "muikku" fish for the first time and he ended up eating about 20 of these little smoked creatures.

Jaana and Kari around their dinner table. What great people. Wish we lived little closer.

Joonatan, Enni-Riia, Jetro and my mom enjoying a marvelous dinner. Jaana really outdid herself. There was so much food and we couldn't say "no" to any of it. We shall see how much weight I will gain during out trip. I bet, about 7 lbs in a 10 day period.

After dinner, it was time for boys to hit the water again. Here Alex is waterskiing the quiet waters in the evening.

It was Rod's turn to make his mark on the lake.

Because we hadn't eaten for like minutes, Jaana wanted to make some dessert outside. We enjoyed "muurinpohjaletut" (big crepes) with jam and ice-cream. Seriously, I was so full, I thought I would not be able to eat until next week. But, of course I ate. They were so delicious.

My mom deep in thought.

Sohkanen family and us enjoying a lovely evening. Thank you so much for a great time eventhough it was SO short. Next time we are going to stay a week.

After we left Mikkeli, we drove to my cousin's house in Savonlinna. It was only an hour drive but they waited for us with a table full of food. We ate because we hadn't eaten for an hour. Then it was nighty night. What a fun day.

Larsen's European Vacation - Day 5 - Jyväskylä

Our first whole day in Finland was beautiful, sunny and warm. Finland had had a record breaking summer so far with the temperatures in July in the mid 90s. And hardly anyone has air-conditioning so that makes it a hot and humid summer.


I did my mom's hair in the morning.


After a short shopping trip in the city, we went to lunch at Figaro.


Mother and daughter laughing together, probably because my mom never looks in the camera.

Jake, Marja and my mom having a lovely lunch at her favorite place.

After lunch we went to visit my nanny. Here Jake and Alex are playing football in the city's church park.

My nanny of 13 years. She is like my second mother. It was so good to see her. She is not doing very well.

My mom and I walking back home through the church park.

We were invited to Minna's summer cabin to spend the evening with her and her family and her brother's family.

Alex showed Jake how to go back and forth from the sauna to the lake, over and over and over again.

Alex and Jake swimming in Päijänne.

Sebastian, Teemu, Petri (cooking) and Samuli wait for the food and watch Alex and Jake swim.

Ritva and Rod relaxing byt the lake. NO MOSQUITOS!!! A historical moment, for sure. If it had not been such a dry summer, we would have been eaten alive. We didn't see one single mosquito the whole evening.

Petri and Mari. Siblings.

Muurinpohjaletut and various sausages cooking on the bbq.

Alex is eating one of his favorite Finnish foods. Then it was back to the sauna and lake. I think the boys did that 7 times, at least.

Jake playing darts while Alex looks on. Then it was back to the sauna and the lake.

Minna had arranged everything so we would have an enjoyable evening. We sure love them and miss them. We had a great time and enjoyed all the food.

It was time to go home at the end of the evening. Thank you Minna and everyone else for a great time.