Moonlight Midnight

Most probably thought I was crazy, and I frankly had to wonder myself, when I decided that for a vacation over the new year that I would go to the Arctic Circle.  I dislike being cold and I wear sweaters in the heat of summer.  So why would I want to go to Finland, where there's snow, temperatures at a high of zero, and daylight only for about four hours?  Because it involved dog sledding of course!!

A group of 6.5 of us (Jack is still the 0.5) flew way up to northern Finland, well within the confines of the Arctic Circle for some outdoor fun and lots of animal butts. 


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Yep,  way up there.  

We stayed at a place that had only cabins and igloos (both the ice and the glass types).  We stayed in the cabins, which were great and warm.  You couldn't have bribed me to stay in the ice igloos.  We arrived on the 30th and on the 31st, our first outing was a reindeer sleigh ride.  It was very low key and sort of comical, since we were staring at a reindeer's butt during the entire ride.

Yeah, like that.

And when they had to pee (which was amazingly often), like this. 

 

 

After the sleigh ride, we had lunch.  And if staring at a reindeer's butt for a couple hours didn't make you hungry for one, you got to try some anyway.  That's right, reindeer stew was lunch.  Ironic, I know.  But up there, where there is lots of snow, think of them as cows that do more than chew cud all day long.  They pull stupid tourists on a sled. 

New Year's Eve was relaxing in the cabin playing cards, watching episodes of Modern Family and movies on the laptop, and drinking wine.  We're quite the party animals.

Kim, Brian, Maurice, Jen, Mike, and Cynthia

The next day we had the majority of the day to explore the grounds of the place we were staying, because our next adventure wasn't until 8:30 that night.  So after breakfast we geared up and out we went, into the winter wonderland....

...where we saw snow.....

...and igloos....

...and the insides of igloos...

 ...and more igloos....

  ...and hilarity ensued....

....in the snow...

...and then it got dark...

...at 2pm.

That night there was snowmobiling to see the Northern Lights.  However, since it was cloudy and there wasn't a hint of the Northern Lights, it wasn't enjoyable.  Jen and I had never been on snowmobiles, motorcycles, jet skis or anything of the kind, so driving them was stressful.  And Jack hated it because it was past his bedtime and he was being flung around in a cart behind the snowmobile while he was trying to sleep.

At the break for snacks around the fire, Brian hated it more, because Jack was asleep and there was no position comfortable to hold Jack.

The next and last excursion was by far one of the most awesome things I've ever experienced and the very reason I took the trip. 

 I got to "drive" the sled, which just meant slowing the dogs down around turns and from getting too close to the sled in front of us.  Almost every single time I hit the break, the white dog would turn around in stride and look at me as if to ask, "What the hell are you doing?  Don't you realize that it's really boring to go slow?"

 My dogs (above) before we headed out.  They all didn't look like the "typical" husky you're used to--notice the darkest dog in the bunch.  And one of the guides told us that since their husky farm is so big (140 dogs), they don't have the time to train all of the puppies.  So, when they're old enough to pull a sled with a team, they're leashed up and learn by running with the dogs they're running with.

They were all so sweet and loved for you to pet them.

I think these dogs were more excited to go than any of us.  This was after our lunch break, but they did the same thing in the morning before we headed off.  They just wanted to run.  This is one of the videos I took.




I'm going to link Kim's photos here, because she already posted them and that means I don't have to :)  They are a compilation of all of our photos, so enjoy!

Baby It's Cold Outside

On Sunday the 23rd we had our first snowfall. I walked down into town for dinner and I had to use an umbrella because it was so wet and coming at me with velocity. The pictures aren't very good, but here are a few shots--the first two at the park in down the hill from my place and the second two are my street.

For Thanksgiving I walked about 40 yards, two buildings down my street to Kim and John's house. They hosted 10 people and did a wonderful job. They fixed the turkey, the sweet potatoes, and John's famous sauerkraut, then everyone else brought a dish to share. They even had a table large for everyone to sit together. We talked a lot, played a few games of darts, and I believe there was even a game of Euchre! (I'll play next time.) The game came on a little later and John apparently subscribes to some NFL package online, where you can watch all the games up until Tuesday after those games are played. So we watched the Titans spank the Lions, who I might add, have a worse record than the Bengals. At least one team does!

Friday after Thanksgiving we were able to leave work early--well, those of us who were actually at work. Since I got home with lots of light still left, I put on some extra layers and headed down the street to the Christmas market. I just intended to grab a cup of Glühwein and walk around, then come home. As I was walking around, however, I ran into a girl I knew, then more people I knew showed up, so I ended up staying for a while and added a Käsewurst to my tummy. I stayed until my feet were so cold I couldn't stand it.

I think I'm going to try for a wurst and a Glühwein every night for the next month until the market closes. I'm not sure I can actually obtain that goal, but I'll probably do a good job trying. Saturday night I met up with my boss, her family, and their guests somewhere for a beer, but I really wanted to go walk around the Christmas market. I saw a crepe stand the night before and told myself that was going to be my dinner. Luckily, when I was about finished with my beer three people showed up who wanted to walk around, so I went with them.

It was really crowded, but we pushed through to the crepe stand I had seen the night before. I think we all had a banana and Nutella crepe. Oh man was it good.

After that, we all had a cup of Glühwein, which Mike and his wife Lisa had never tried. Lisa wasn't a fan.

Then, it was wurst time! This time I had a bratwurst and tried out the hilarious mustard teet!!