Miss me? I have been out of wifi range and for a portion of the trip out of indoor plumbing range. As far as creature comforts go, I have discovered that I really enjoy those two things as well as coffee and have learned that I can live without them for a time, but not without coffee.
I have also discovered that when I go to a place with a lot of people that are all taking photos, I have complete confidence that they will capture and post a photo good enough for me so I don’t take too many. My photos were few and very specific. This big rock is the one that used to sit in front of the house where my great-grandmother was born and raised. The house is gone, but this rock remains. There are a lot of rocks in the region of the west coast of Finland where we were staying and were we are from. I picture my great-grandmother playing on this rock as a child and it being one of the last things she saw when she left for American and one of the first things she saw when she returned for a visit.
We visited a lot of houses and churches. I think we are drawn to the idea of being somewhere that someone we are related to once was. Their feet touched these stair treads, their hands used these handrails, their bodies crossed these thresholds. Connection.
I fell in love with the small town of Jakobstad/Pietasaari on this trip. It has nearly the same current population of the town where I grew up, but has 300 years more history. It has a vibrant downtown core and a beautiful old neighborhood called Skata full of old homes, architecturally protected, and anchored by a large old building that used to be a tobacco factory. We are lucky enough to be related to a family that lives in Skata and got a great tour of their neighborhood and of their house and gardens. I found these photos from the internet. This is one area I with I would have taken more photos of.
No one is great at flying long distances. Some, maybe better than others. Flying there took me several days to recover. Flying home, I feel pretty good this morning taking into account the standard soreness from sitting on a plane for 20+ hours and a sleep-deprived state. I have high hopes of making it through the day with enough coffee, coming home, having another great night’s sleep and getting up tomorrow morning early enough to go to the gym. Back to the routine.
Back to the routine…
Waldina 