SYNTYMÄPÄIVÄNÄNI

(on my birthday!....all in ONE word!)

Wayne is the BEST husband! For my birthday, which is actually on October 12th.....but we celebrated it on October 11th....our P-Day). He got ferry tickets and took me over to Tallinn, Estonia for the day. He knew I wanted to do a little shopping there! How sweet is that of him! VERY, VERY SWEET!!!

At the O'DARK HOUR of 6:30 a.m. we went down to the Saatama (south harbor) to catch our ferry. You can tell it is still dark outside! You can see the darkness behind him on the ship! He is trying to wake up!

It turned out to be a beautiful day in Tallinn.....a bit on the chilly side and windy as well. At least it was not raining or snowing! Count my blessings for that!

I had absolutely NO trouble with finding the 'things' I wanted to buy. We just LOVE being in Tallinn and all of it's wonderful 'spots'. Love the history of that country as well.

This was a fun shop where I actually 'found' our Estonia nativity set. They are very, very hard to find. And if you find one, count your lucky stars! We did and we did!

This is the overlook right next to the above store. You can see the 'reflector' on my purse. It is that time of the year where we put reflectors on our coats, bags, purses, etc. Really helps with the darkness!

This is our most favorite local artist. She does beautiful work. We have purchased handpainted pictures from her before and purchased several more today. We have asked her to make an Estonia Christmas picture for us. We will be back there in December.

There are so many wonderful restaurants to eat in while in Estonia. We seem to always end up in McDonalds....because we don't like taking the extra time it would take to eat a nice meal. We are limited in our time because the ferry leaves to head back to Helsinki at 5:00 p.m. and we have to head back to the dock by about 4:00 p.m. And we don't arrive until 11:00 a.m......that does not leave much time to shop! Loved this view out the window where we were seated! Where can you go eat at a McDonald's and have a view of a castle like this!! And it is really, really old (dating back to about 1100's).....this is NOT a replica!

The sunset going back was just gorgeous as well......a wonderful day in Tallinn!

We wondered how we would pass our time on the 3 1/2 hour ferry ride back to Helsinki. We didn't have to wonder very long. This friendly Finn asked if he could sit by us. Absolutely, he can sit by us. He spoke not a lick of English. He and Wayne hit it off well. Turns out Reijo is a retired professor and loves to talk! I think he actually 'adopted' us....even when we walked to the ship store he wanted to go with us! He was just so cute. The discussion turned into a 'gospel discussion' and Wayne actually ended up giving Reijo a bit of several missionary discussions. I didn't get to participate much because I can't speak the Finnish like Wayne can! The missionaries have been contacted and will be paying Reijo a visit and give him his copy of the Book of Morning.....maybe as early as today!

Great trip.....Great birthday!