These photos were captured using the Sony Mavica MVC-FD91 Digital Camera. All images are © TomSettle.Communications.

Sunday August 1, 1999
Jorma, Jaana, Juuli and Leena stopped by for some afternoon coffee. While he was here, Jorma installed a drain filter under our sauna.

I walked over to Leena’s later and we all watched the Formula 1 race from Germany. Finland’s Mika Hakkinen and Mika Salo were running 1-2 for a short time, but then Hakkinen spun out of control and was out of the race. Salo wound up finishing 2nd.

After a short visit to see Teuvo and Meeri, Liisa and I walked back to Leena’s. She dropped us off at our friends’ house near Kotka. We had a late dinner with Raija, Raimo and their granddaughter Saara, who’s visiting from Helsinki.

Monday August 2, 1999
While Liisa and Raija went shopping, Raimo took me on a short tour of Kotka, including the fishing docks and some of the older sections of town. We also stopped at Sapokanlahti park, where we walked by the waterfall and Raimo stopped to feed the birds.

After returning home for lunch, we went to visit their summer place, which is only about 20 minutes away. Raimo and Saara drove to pick up Saara’s friend/classmate Matilda at the train station in Kouvola. The girls, pictured here with Raija, are spending the night here at the summer cottage.

When we returned to their house, Raimo took me to their wine cellar, where we had a beer and sampled some of Raija’s wine. After dinner, we all sat out on the deck for a short time before calling it a night.

Tuesday August 3, 1999
Liisa, Raimo, Raija and I went shopping in Kotka this afternoon. I picked up some souvenirs, while Liisa bought some supplies for the cottage. After lunch, we stopped by their summer house to check on the girls. Raija and Raimo then drove us back to Ala-Pihlaja.

Wednesday August 4, 1999
Today was Laundry Day. Liisa ran the clothes through the washing machine, then we carted them down to the bay to rinse them out.

This afternoon, we took the rowboat and went to visit Liisa’s cousin Anja. Her house is right across the bay from our cottage. Anja sure enjoys collecting knick knacks, as evidenced by her living room!

After returning from Anja’s, we had dinner and did some chores. Liisa went to water neighbor Leena’s garden while I walked the trash to the dumpster. We then stopped at Teuvo’s to pick up an old kitchen cabinet for our cottage.

Thursday August 5, 1999
Liisa painted her “new” cabinet this morning. Later, our friend Terhikki picked us up in her cab and took us to visit her new place in Virojoki. On the way, we stopped at her parents’ cottage and ran some errands.

Terhikki served us some sandwiches, cake and coffee and showed us her wedding pictures and video. She met husband Jarmo at her sister Ulpu’s wedding last year and they were married just a few weeks ago.

En route back to our cottage, we stopped at an old granite quarry. This particular quarry has been abandoned and its now a great place for swimming.

Friday August 6, 1999
It has really been a hot and dry summer in Finland. We finally had some rain today, a few brief showers during the day and again in the evening. Teuvo stopped by in the afternoon and invited us to his house to watch a Finnish movie tonight.

Saturday August 7, 1999
Although he lives closer to Ala-Pihlaja than his 4 siblings, today was the first time this summer I saw my cousin Jouni. He stopped by with his daughter Marjut, seen here with Liisa and Marjut’s doll Mia. We had some coffee and then Jouni took us for groceries in Ravijoki.

Today is Leena’s birthday, and she invited us to her house for sauna and coffee. It’s a Finnish custom to invite people to your home on your birthday.

Sunday August 8, 1999
We had the opportunity to attend church services in Virojoki today. Leena gave us a ride to church, and there we met up with Liisa’s cousin Pentti and his wife Sirkka.

After church, it was off to Lypsyniemi for the Paatio Juhla. This is a bi-annual reunion of the former residents/descendents of the nearby islands of Paatio, Laitsalmi and Pajusaari. These islands, seen here in the distance, were captured by Russia during World War II. While there is now limited access to the latter two islands, Paatio remains off-limits to foreign visitors.

Before the reunion festivities began, Pentti helped raise the Finnish flag while Liisa met up with some childhood friends, including Elli. They hadn’t seen each other in over 40 years.

The reunion itself consisted of lunch, music and a few speeches before a packed house. Teuvo gave a very nice speech, reminiscing about his childhood memories of Paatio. Afterwards, I caught a ride back to Ala-Pihlaja with Teuvo and Tapio, seen here with Liisa.

Monday August 9, 1999
Liisa went with cousin Pentti and Sirkka to their home in Kouvola last night, while I stayed at the cottage. Jouni was back in Ala-Pihlaja today, helping his father Teuvo with some chores. Afterwards, Jouni and wife Teija took me to their home in Hamina, stopping on the way to pick up their daughter Marjut.

Jouni and his family moved from Helsinki to Hamina last year. This was the first time I’d visited their place, which is actually located on a small island. There’s a boat dock at their development, and Jouni hopes to move his boat here next year.

This evening we enjoyed a nice cookout on the grill, prepared by grillmaster Jouni. Funny thing is Jouni thought he was cooking chicken, but it turned out to be pork! And he calls himself a grillmaster 🙂

Tuesday August 10, 1999
Jouni and Teija were back in Ala-Pihlaja again today, this time to take his mother Meeri to the doctor in Hamina. She’s still having problems with her foot, which she broke back in May.

Harri came here this afternoon to take me to his family’s home in Lappeenranta. He’s a sea captain for the Finnish Maritime Administration and I’m allowed to go with him when he pilots ships through Lake Saimaa.

At 10 o’clock tonight we boarded a Russian freighter, which Harri will pilot as far as Puumala. It will then be taken over by another sea captain. Our journey should last about 5 hours, which is longer than usual because a) this is an older ship and b) its carrying quite a large load of timber.

Wednesday August 11, 1999
Our journey on the Russian freighter took a bit longer than we expected. There was a tugboat pulling a load of timber through a narrow section of Lake Saimaa and we had to drop anchor until they passed. This added another 90 minutes to our trip time. We eventually returned home and got to sleep around 6:30AM.

Harri woke me about 11 asking if I wanted to make another trip to Puumala…I thought he was joking! We wound up boarding another Russian ship, also hauling timber. While Harri piloted the ship, I enjoyed a Russian beer courtesy of the ship’s captain.

Before we left the ship, Harri took a picture of me, the captain and first mate. Since there is no lock in Puumala, we had to exit the ship in a small boat. This boat is based at the Puumala pilot station and is used for changing pilots.

It was almost six o’clock when we arrived in Puumala, so we decided to have dinner before heading back home. One of Harri’s co-workers joined us and we went to Tiikerihai, a popular local bar/restaurant. On the way back to Lappeenranta, we stopped to pick up another co-worker who had just piloted a freighter hauling a large cargo of salt.

We returned to Harri’s house around 8:30. Liisa called earlier today to say she was coming here by bus from Mikkeli. Mirja went to pick her up at the bus station and Harri prepared to go back to work: he had another ship arriving around 10 o’clock. I decided to skip this one and get some sleep.

Thursday August 12, 1999
Today we had the chance to go to downtown Lappeenranta. Mirja dropped us off in mid morning, then Harri picked us up in early afternoon. We went back to their house for lunch.

Later in the day, we decided to pay another visit to Harri and Mirja’s summer cottage. Harri and I were going on another ship around 10PM, so we drove separately and stopped for groceries along the way. Mirja, Liisa and the boys caught a ride with some family friends who were coming to see the cottage for the first time.

After our cottage visit, Harri and I drove back to Lappeenranta and boarded a German freighter. I had the opportunity to visit the engine room with the second engineer. This was a much newer and faster ship than the Russian vessels I had been on the past few days. Our journey to Puumala (sans cargo) took a mere 3.5 hours.

Friday August 13, 1999
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what about a cat? Harri and Mirja have taught their cat Tipsu how to shake paws, sit and lay down. Now if they can just get Tipsu to fetch the morning paper, they’d have it made!

After lunch and a quick trip to the grocery store, Harri and Mirja drove Liisa and I back to our cottage in Ala-Pihlaja. We had some afternoon coffee, then went to visit Meeri and Teuvo. Meeri had gone to the foot doctor on Tuesday, after which she was scheduled for some in-home therapy. Today was her first of 10 sessions and it seemed to help…her foot looked a little better.

Saturday August 14, 1999
Today was another laundry day at the cottage. This being my final weekend in Ala-Pihlaja, there were quite a few things to wash and pack away for the winter.

In the afternoon, my godmother Mailis’ sister Anneli picked us up and brought us to her house in Ravijoki. Anneli lives there with her daughter Kati, who works as a horse trainer at nearby Harju Agricultural College. She also boards horses on their property.

While Mailis started preparing dinner, Anneli, Liisa and I went to visit Kati at work. She gave us a tour of Harju, then we drove back to Anneli’s to eat. Although Kati works with horses, she also likes cows…as evidenced by her growing stash of cow collectibles (this being only a small fraction of her cow-llection)!

Later, Kati drove Liisa, Mailis and I back to our cottage. Before calling it a night, I went back outside and snapped some pictures of the gorgeous sunset.

Sunday August 15, 1999
This was my last full day in Ala-Pihlaja and I spent a good portion of it packing and cleaning. Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet day. Our neighbor Leena joined us for lunch, and later we walked Mailis to the bus stop. She had to catch a bus back to her sister’s place in Ravijoki.

Monday August 16, 1999
My last day in Ala-Pihlaja…where has the summer gone? After I finished packing, I walked down to the beach for a final look. I then went to say my goodbyes to Teuvo and Meeri. Teuvo had just finished tearing down his old grill and was preparing to construct a new one. The old one was built back in 1969.

Leena came to pick us up at the cottage around 3 and took us to the bus station in Hamina. Our bus arrived in Helsinki shortly after 6 and Antti picked us up. We dropped our luggage off at his parents’ house, then went to visit with his wife Minna and their kids.

Tuesday August 17, 1999
Liisa and I went shopping in downtown Helsinki today. We caught the bus, then walked to the harbor marketplace. I bought some souvenirs, and Liisa picked up some flowers.

After having lunch at the marketplace, we went to visit one of Liisa’s old co-workers. On the way, we got a call from Antti and arranged to take an evening cruise around the harbor. Following our visit, we did some more shopping and headed back for the harbor. During our walk, we passed Helsinki’s famous Lutheran Church, overlooking Senate Square.

We met up with Antti and his family just before 6, then bought our cruise tickets. When we first boarded, we decided to sit outside on the top deck (Antti and the kids seen here). Although we enjoyed a beautiful view of the harbor, it was a bit chilly so we headed inside. Here Liisa and I strike a pose for the camera.

There were a number of interesting sites we passed during our cruise, including the famous Helsinki zoo, Korkeasaari, which is located on an island. We also saw some of the huge icebreakers that see plenty of action during Finland’s long winters.

Wednesday August 18, 1999
This was it…my last full day in Finland. Liisa and I walked to Malmi’s shopping district, then came back to have lunch. Later, Liisa decided to go visit one of her cousins and I caught a bus downtown to Antti’s office. We hung out there for a few hours, then went on a little downtown bar tour. Four bars and a number of adult beverages later, we caught the train back home. I got in around 1:30AM.

Thursday August 19, 1999
Woke up early today, early considering I got in rather late! I finished packing and made a few phone calls to say goodbye. By late morning, it was time to head for the airport. Another summer vacation is over, but the memories will live on…in my mind and here in cyberspace!