Up up and away to Finland - lots of planning and goodbyes

The spreadsheet is pretty much all filled in so it must be departure day! Luckily, it looks like we have dodged a snowstorm which is supposed to hit a few hours after we leave. I've been getting up super early to see if jet lag can be minimized which also means that I am struggling to stay awake to write this blog post.

Goodbyes have been said - some of them over and over again. I'm super excited for this trip, but leaving my crew at home is tough. Nana and Gramps have even called a bunch of times to say bon voyage, but the calls were really about warning me over and over again to be careful.

I love traveling with Dan, so this Mr. Incredible figurine will have to do as his body double for this trip.

Bon voyage kisses from Luca

Backpacks are ready to roll (be carried).

Rae wanted some goodbye pats.

Fundy and Luca were too busy with each other to say goodbye to me 

Yesterday's skate with Juno

Skating the day before with Maya (on her birthday)

The prep for this trip has been fun. There are so many awesome things to do in winter in Finland. Narrowing down what we could actually fit into our time frame was the hard part. However, once I found out about the Finland Ice Marathon happening during my school break, I knew we had to do that! It actually gave me extra motivation to get lots of hours of skating in (both Nordic and hockey) - not that I really needed motivation because they are so fun. It has been awesome getting after ice, especially since this winter has been "meh" for snow.

Sarah said she is game to pack a ton into each day so I've picked a good travel buddy. Appropriately, our trip planning sessions have taken place after hockey at Campion Ice Rink (where we may or may not have shared on old egg roll that Sarah found on the floor of her car - playing hockey works up your appetite!). The ever important spreadsheet has been clutch - it also may give us a false sense of security that things will go smoothly.

Packing for this trip was a new challenge for me. Traveling north of the Arctic Circle in winter meant lots of warm gear. I may have panicked and put a few too many hand and toe warmers in my pile. 

Kara's packing style

Sarah's packing style

Sarah and I met at the New London park and ride where she then drove us to Woburn.  We parked and hopped on the Logan Express, but not before we stopped at a Market Basket to get some dinner snacks for the airport. Getting to Logan Airport was super easy.

The airport wasn't super busy, so checking into our flights was a breeze. Sarah accidentally left her water in her bag, so security did a little search and found Nick's incredible cookies that he made for us. We figured they could be used as bribes if we needed to. At Logan, we found a quiet nook with a big mural of Walden Pond, so we had a peaceful little picnic. Nick's cookies were sublime.

Sarah decided it would be fun to smell the different perfumes - a new experience for me.

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So lucky that we were able to have a picnic dinner on Walden Pond (at Logan Airport) 🤣

Boarding Iceland Air flight 

Sarah got on the plane well before me - she is an on time person.

Goodbye Boston 

Once we landed in Iceland for our layover, we took a little snooze before catching our flight to Helsinki.

Boarding our flight to Helsinki 

Lots signs about renewable energy greeted us as soon as we got off the plane in Helsinki.

Sarah was a little freaked out by the hand towel situation, but it is actually an environmentally friendly option (and they are clean as they come out of the dispenser).

A sign above the water fountain reminding people about the scarcity of good drinking water.

Ahhhh, good European pastries - oh how I have missed you.

Finland takes garbage and recycling seriously - the USA can do so much better than we currently do.

After lots of planning, we finally set foot on Finnish soil - and it was snowing 😃. So far so good in terms of our travels to Finland.