Check out our world traveler!! The first picture is Alan with his first Finnish friend, Robert. No, I don't think Alan was actually punching him. The second picture is Al wearing a hat with the Finland flag on it! (You have to look real close.) We had a such a fun and amazing trip.

Some highlights included walking throughout the city of Helsinki (the capital of Finland) and seeing the old buildings, brand new shopping malls, and cobblestone streets. Alan's little umbrella stroller proved an interesting ride with all those cobblestones! It would be sort of like riding your bike down a set of stairs . . .

We also met some very cool Finnish people. Dan was there on business, and the people he worked with were kind enough to invite us to their homes for dinner on several occasions. Mats lived in a high rise apartment from which you could see a lot of the city, and Niklas had just finished building his own house, so he and Dan could talk about house-building. Both families served us delicious Finnish cuisine such as salmon, goat cheese, herring, and new wines for each course.

Alan and I got to hang out with Niklas's wife, Tanja, during the day while Dan and Niklas were at work. Tanja's son, Robert, was Alan's Finnish buddy. Now Al's got connections all over the world.

In the evenings, Dan, Alan, and I toured the coolest restaurants of Helsinki. My favorite was Serata, an Italian eatery where we were given a romantic candlelit table for two, along with the very first high chair that Alan has ever sat in! The waiter had to shove a pillow behind him, my sweatshirt around him, and tie him in with an apron so he wouldn't flop over.

Let me tell you something you should be aware of if you travel to Finland. They will accept MANY, MANY more people into an elevator than we do here in the US. You know what I mean. There are certain unwritten rules about how many people can comfortably fit in an elevator. If the elevator is about 5 feet by 4 feet, there should be MAYBE 4-5 people in there. If it arrives, and there are already this many people, an American will wait till it comes back or take the stairs. Not the Fins. They will pile on in, luggage, babies, and all! And there are no unwritten rules about not facing each other, either. Don't pretend you don't know what I am talking about. You are not supposed to face someone in an elevator! Especially when you are so close that you are touching!!

There is one last adventure that Alan and I had together in Finland, in which we had a brush with death. It could have been the death of me (at the hands of an old lady) or of the old lady's husband. But thank God, neither one took place. Here's the story. I was walking around the shopping mall while Dan was at work. There were plenty of moms taking their strollers up and down the escalators, so I had been doing the same. I got on an escalator going up. I noticed that the man in front of me seemed to get onto the escalator quite slowly, but I didn't think much of it. Up we went, and when the man got to the top, he ooohhhhhhh sooooo sllllowllly reached out his hands to grab the sides. He then proceeded to maneuver his cane and get ready to take his small steps off the top platform of the escalator. Meanwhile, seemingly at lightning speed, the escalator stairs are thrusting me toward him. I had to think quickly - he was blocking the top, and here I was coming fast with a stroller and a baby, ready to knock him off like a bowling pin. I calculated that there was just enough room under his arm, and I pushed the stroller right through! I ducked and followed. The man, his wife, and I all looked at each other for a moment, pondering what might have just happened. Then the woman began to ream me out in Finnish (or was in Swedish, the other official language? I may never know.) I couldn't understand a word she said, but she kept pointing to my stroller and her husband's cane. I got the picture. I think there were probably a few swear words in there - "What the BEEP were you doing getting on an escalator behind a man who OBVIOUSLY has a cane and walks REAL slow when you have a stroller??? Can't you see you almost killed him???" This is my best guess as to what she said, but probably with more swear words. So I ever-so-gracefully answered, " I'm sorry. I only understand English." She looked at me with more disdain than I have ever seen on a person's face, shook her head, and turned away. I scrammed out of there. I felt terrible! Of course, I thought of a million replies later, including, "What was a man who obviously has a cane and walks real slow doing on an escalator in the first place? Why doesn't he take the elevator? Can you really expect everyone else to notice and watch out for him on the escalators? I mean most shoppers are not paying attention and don't notice who's in front of them, right?" But considering I don't know Finnish, such a reply would have done about the the same amount of good as her lecture did for me. I think it goes without saying that I always looked at who was ahead of me on the escalator from then on, and kept a safe distance.

If you want to read more about the Finland trip, go to http://www.haglinsinfinland.blogspot.com