THIS IS A L - O - N - G ONE!!!

SORRY....SIT BACK, RELAX!!

P-DAY AND WAYNE'S BELATED BIRTHDAY TRIP TO

SUOMENLINNA ISLAND

Because the weather on Friday, Wayne's birthday....February 19th, was so miserable, we decided to postpone the trip until today and let the weather clear a bit. And it did indeed get better......only snowed today.....no terrible winds and blizzard conditions like Friday. Still very, very cold but overall a nice day! Typical Finnish winter day.

On the walk up to the bus stop we passed some boys trying out their snowboards on the bank. They were kind enough to let us get a picture or two. School is 'off' this week for 'skiing week' or something like that!

It took 4 different modes of transportation to get to the Island......Bus (#35) to Sello where we........

caught an 'A' train to downtown Helsinki Train Station, where we got a........

'3T' trolley to the torri, where we got a........

ferry boat over to Suomenlinna! And guess what.....we did all of that transferring on ONE pass! Sweet!!! Worked slick as a whistle!!

And, guess what again!!! We got on the boat and there were two of the missionaries, Veli Stewart from St. George and Veli Bryant from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We saw them in Marjaniemi Ward yesterday. They are the AP's for the Mission President. They were the ones to actually translate into English those in the ward that needed that service yesterday when we spoke there (we spoke in Finnish). What a FUN surprise to find them there. We ended up spending the day pretty much with them!!

The ICE was just incredible going over on the Ferry Boat.

We are entering onto the Island.

Just a small little snow bank along our walking path.

Headed down to the 'King's Gate' where the King would dock and enter the Island.......back in the 1800's. The King only used this entrance ONCE!!

This nice lady let us take a picture of her beautiful Husky dogs as we were walking around.

Standing at the PIER before boarding the Ferry Boat and heading back to Helsinki (off in the distance)

The 'path' we were to follow was quite evident. The Ferry Boat travels back and forth a number of times a day. There are about 1,000 residents who live on the Island. That is their mode of transportation, so the Ferry's run quite often!

Getting close to the dock on the Helsinki side of the Gulf. Once we got back to Helsinki, we and the missionaries walked up to FAZER for a bowl of soup for lunch. We found out it was Veli Stewart's birthday!! What a pleasant surprise for us. And we could celebrate Wayne's birthday and his birthday all at the same time. How fun.

What a GREAT p-day.........

This week at the temple......TAMPERE WEEK. These weeks are going by way too fast!