Day 5 & 6 in Finland

Today I'm posting about day 5 & 6 of our trip.  To read the first two posts click here & here.

I made myself get up this morning and climb to the top of the boat to get a picture.  I only saw 3 people up and moving and none of them were outside.  It was still pretty dark, cold and very windy.  As I'm standing on the top of the ship, bracing myself against the wind, I was thinking that maybe I should have made Dan come up top with me.  I might be almost 33, but I have watched enough shows, to freak myself out.  I did end up capturing this picture, so I think it was well worth it.  Good morning, Finland!

After we all got off the ship, we loaded onto a bus and set out on the rest of our trip.  After stopping for lunch and a small presentation on "butt reducers", (Not for us, for the trees.  Haha!)  We stopped at this logging site and yours truly got to ride in the Ponsse harvester.   It was sooo much fun.  I told Dan, that I want one.  Unfortunately they cost as much as a house, so I think I'm out of luck.  ;)  But seriously, it was fun.  I can now say that I've logged in Finland.  Glad to know that's off my bucket list.  Phew!  ;)

After we left there, we checked into our hotel room.  We had just a couple of minutes to get situated and then it was time to head out to Mama's Pocket.  This place was one of everybody's favorites from the trip.  It's this neat spot right on the Baltic Sea where they have the old authentic smoke sauna's.   Thankfully everyone was on board with wearing swimsuits.  Swimsuits are not usually worn into the saunas in Sweden or Finland.  So let me repeat, thankfully everyone was on board with wearing swimsuits.  Amen!

We started off with hot drinks in these fun wooden mugs.  

The man who runs the place brought out salmon and hot dogs to cook over the campfire as a snack before we went in the sauna's.  We were having so much fun hanging out and cooking salmon by the campfire.  Kippis!  (That means cheers in Finnish, and we said that a lot on this trip.)

It was rainy and cold out, so we all put on our swimsuits and headed to the hot sauna.  So the tradition is that after you sit in the sauna for awhile, you then run down to the ice cold water and jump in...

Oh, yes we did!

 This is the Baltic Sea and it was around 40 degrees.  And I only jumped in for 3 reasons.  

1. To shock Dan, because he didn't think I would.  He knows I HATE being cold.

2.  For bragging rights.  I mean, it's the Baltic Sea!

 3.  Because like someone on the trip said, "If not now, then when?"

But mostly to shock Dan.  :)

Day 6

We checked out of our room and moved our way up through Finland.  The guys dropped us ladies off at a museum, while they went on another sawmill tour.   After exploring the museum, we decided to walk around outside for a bit.  I loved all the fall colors.  

We took a walk across the bridge over to a little island that had a nice walking path.  After so much traveling, it felt good to get some walking in.

 While waiting for the bus to pick us up, we entertained ourselves with taking pictures.

 We checked into a lodge this night.  It was such a pretty place, but this is what the rooms looked like.  This was the second night of having twin beds.  We asked our host about it, and she explained that people either sleep in separate beds or if they share a bed, they have their own set of covers, like you'd see in my last post when we were on the boat.

After checking in, we headed down stairs to get ready to play a game.  They put us on 4 different teams.  Gave us each a compass and a phone that had the game installed on it.  Our phones would tell each of us how to get to different flags, a treasure and you also had the option of trapping people.  I did okay on the practice round and did awful in the actual game.  

We had so much fun though, and this was another favorite stop on our trip.

 We had another sauna night, but I opted for the hot tub.  A big glass of wine and a hot tub, and I was set.  It's probably a good thing we don't have one at our house.  I would never get anything done.  ;)

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my What's Up Wednesday post, and then I'll be back to finish sharing the last couple days of our trip.