New Years Celebration in Finland

After coming home for Christmas to see all our family, we had to get back to Germany, as Matt had to fly the week after Christmas. Since we were back in Europe, we decided to spend our New Year's Eve in Finland. We flew from Frankfurt up to Helsinki and then caught another plane up to Oulu, a city that sits on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea. From Oulu, we caught a train up to Kemi, a city at the top of the Baltic Sea. We chose to go so far north because we wanted to venture up to the Arctic Circle and stay in an ice castle.

As advertised, the castle was built of solid ice and packed snow and sat on the Baltic Sea. The castle, located west of Kemi, is only open from January until the beginning of March due to the weather and is one of the most phenomenal sights the two of us have ever seen. Since the construction of the castle is solid ice, we had to bring 'special' cold weather clothing and accessories to sleep in at night. The castle supplied us with sub zero sleeping bags, reindeer skins, and sheepskins for warmth, but we were only allowed to sleep in thermals, socks, gloves, and a hat so that we wouldn't overheat inside the sleeping bag and start to sweat (which would cause us to get hypothermic and freeze). I have NEVER been as cold as I was after getting undressed into just my thermals and jumping into the cold sleeping bag! Did I mention that our beds were made of ice too? Since I can be 'special' at times, Matt sealed me up into the sleeping bag nice and tight and then undressed and sealed himself up into his bag on his bed. Here's a picture of me all sealed up--Matt thought it was funny. The only problem with being sealed up in the bag is that if you had to go to the bathroom during the middle of the night, you would have to un-seal yourself, put on your cold clothes (we were instructed to put our clothes under our sleeping bag on top of the reindeer skins so that our body would keep them warm-ish), tie up your boots, and head outside in the cold to the bathroom. Luckily, I had dehydrated myself enough so that I didn't have to go through any of that 'trauma!' Anyhow, as we fell asleep that night, we were nicely comforted by the thought that if there happened to be a fire while we were there, we wouldn't be burned to death--because there was a fire extinguisher in the hall to fend off the flames...or was it the fact that we were surrounded by ice and snow that gave us the peace of mind?

For dinner that night, the castle provided us with a traditional Finnish dinner. As you can see, the dining room and our table were made of ice as well, so that's why we're fully clothed, gloves and all. Matt thought it was cool that his beer actually got colder as dinner progressed--something that wouldn't happen anywhere else. In honor of Matt's sister, Casey, we had to take this picture of the milk sitting on the dinner table (it's to the right of the wine glasses). It was there when we arrived and remained there throughout dinner and stayed there after we left. We deemed it an exception to the 'milk violation' rule because the temperature inside the dining room was colder than a fridge and the table it sat on was a 6" slab of ice. See, K, we found one place on earth where leaving milk out on the table is semi-okay! The dinner that we were served was REINDEER. Seriously. I had an incredibly hard time trying to eat Rudolph, but Matt had no problems, so he eventually ate mine too. I did take ONE bite for the photo op, so that's why this photo is posted-the bite wasn't in vain after all.

Sleeping in the ice castle was one of the coolest things we have ever and probably will ever do. It was a one in a lifetime experience and we had a blast.

The following morning after our night in the ice castle, we headed to the Baltic Sea to go ice diving. We boarded an ice-breaker ship called, 'The Sampo,' that took us out to the deep waters of the sea. Once there, we had to undress yet again and jump into ice diving suits. Looking like astronauts, we disembarked from the boat and took the plunge into the Baltic. The crew tried to find a 'smaller' suit for me but couldn't find one...so it took me about 20 minutes to go from the bottom of the boat (up a ton of stairs) to the ramp that we had to go down to get to the water in a suit that felt like it was custom made for Goliath. The suit weighed about 15 pounds and was made like footed pajamas, so I kept tripping on the front ends of the feet and ended up waddling like a penguin (each time I picked up my foot to take a step, the footie part would go flying in front of me and my real foot would land on about the calf section of the suit). Matt said watching me was like watching a horrible train wreck...he didn't want to look but just had to stare in amazement. Of course this process was really easy for him because he had a diving suit that fit! Since the water is so cold, the human body becomes buoyant. We could feel the coldness of the water through our suits but it felt cool, not freezing, like the water truly was. We thought the ice castle was cool, but the ice diving was exhilarating! There's nothing else like it in the world.

After our day of ice diving, we headed back to the ice castle to pack our bags and head back to Oulu. We stayed a night in Oulu before venturing back to Helsinki to catch our flight back home. While in Oulu, we found an amazing Indian restaurant (who woulda thought?) and enjoyed the sauna our hotel offered. The Finnish are HUGE sauna (pronounce saow-nah!) fans and sit in them every day. The only thing that we can figure is that it's because it's so cold! Initially, we weren't going to try them out, but the hotel kept nagging us about it--so we gave in. Needless to say, it was a warm and sweaty Finnish experience.

This trip was one of the coldest yet best trips we've ever taken and one that we'll always remember.

Home for the Holidays

Well, we were really fortunate to get to come home for Christmas in 2005. Last Christmas we stayed here in Europe and went to St. Anton, Austria to go snowboarding in the Alps--so the last time we were home for Christmas was after we got married in 2003. On our way home to Texas and then Tennessee for Christmas, we stopped in New York City for a few days.

Matt had never been to NYC, so it was a great opportunity for us to explore the city together. My parents, Chuck and Sherran, flew up to NYC to meet us for a few days as well. We all had a great time in Manhattan visiting China Town, Little Italy, the Upper East and West sides, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and of course, Central Park. The food was amazing (as always) and we even managed to find a new favorite Vietnamese restaurant. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see Spamalot on Broadway and also the Radio City Rockettes show. And, of course we didn't leave New York without doing a little shopping too. Here we are in front of the famous Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. The random people around us waiting in line to ice skate kinda mess up the shot, but you can get the gist of the look we were going for!

Grape Picking 2005

Well, it was that time of year again...the Columbus Day squadron pilgrimage to Ernie's to go grape picking. This year, Matt was deployed to Lithuania--but he was there picking grapes in spirit. You'll notice in the photo that we look a little wet and dirty. That's because it happened to rain that weekend and all the fields were muddy and wet. Regardless of the weather, grape picking is pretty messy since the grapes are 'organic' (a.k.a. dusty/dirty) and the juice gets all over your hands when you cut them from the vine. You can't really tell, but the field that we picked for 2005 was incredibly steep. I think everyone had only one sore butt cheek the next day due to the slope! The other two guys in the picture are 'Boose' and 'Stab.' Boose (on the left) is in Matt's flight and Stab (on the right) is in the flight we used to be in before Matt became A-flight commander. Both guys are tons of fun, and in the time we have been here, have been great travel companions.

Siauliai, Lithuania

At the end of September 2005, Matt was tasked as the project officer for a last minute deployment to Siauliai, Lithuania (pronounced like Chalet). The squadron was deployed to Lithuania for 3 months for NATO's Baltic Air Patrol, where they flew each day 'patrolling' the Baltic skies. Although the conditions weren't the most optimal (the runway was a disaster, as seen in the picture), everyone seemed to make the best of the deployment.

The most favorable part of the deployment was the great exchange rate (at the time it was about 4 Litas to the US Dollar), the surprisingly delicious food, and the Lithuanian vodka, Gera. The worst part was the water. Since the water in Lithuania is toxic to us Americans who haven't grown up (and immune to) drinking it, everyone had to use bottled water. From drinking and cooking to washing your hands and brushing your teeth, you had to use bottled water. Even boiling the water didn't sterilize it, as there was petroleum and other toxic agents that couldn't be removed regardless the sterilization/filtration process. We are both big bottled water fans, but the 'approved water supply' happened to be a mineral water that tasted like wet vitamins. It was gross. Here's a picture of the signs that were posted everywhere there happened to be a sink.

I was able to fly up to Siauliai one weekend to see Matt, which was really nice. He showed me around the town (which wasn't very big) on the day he was off, and I got to hang out with the other pilots there while he was sitting alert. They sat alert for 24 on- 24 off, so they didn't have too much time to entertain themselves. The single guys were in heaven, as the women in Lithuania and Latvia were some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life. When I went shopping (remember the great exchange rate!), I was pretty much in the 'short fat kid' section because the main sizes there were 24x36! 24" waist with a 36" inseam...seriously now, that's ridiculous! At night, the Lithuanian MTV station would air commercials with a Green card Lottery for girls to enter--that's how badly they all want to get out of Lithuania/eastern Europe. Needless to say, all the beautiful girls were crazy about all the single American pilots and the other military guys!

On the day that Matt showed me around town, we were able to go to the 'Hill of Crosses,' an incredible hill on the outskirts of Siauliai covered with crosses. People come from all over the world (even Pope John Paul II has been there) to this hill to pray and leave a cross. Apparently the story behind the hill is that it was created several hundred years ago to represent the Catholic Lithuanian's resistance to oppression. After several take overs by the Soviets and the Germans, Lithuania was finally independent in 1991. During the times of Soviet rule, the Lithuanians would visit the hill and bring crosses as a symbol of Lithuanian nationalism. Because of this dedication by the Lithuanians, the Soviets repeatedly removed the crosses, burned them or turned them into scrap metal, and even leveled the hill several times to turn it into a garbage dump. Despite the Soviet's efforts, the Lithuanians continued to visit the area and bring crosses. In 1985, the Hill of Crosses was left in peace and has grown to house hundreds of thousands of crosses. In true tradition, I had to buy a cross, write our name on it, and leave it there.


On Saturday night, a group of us drove up to Riga, Latvia for dinner. Riga is a completely different place than anywhere in Lithuania. It is a booming city full of beautiful architecture, great restaurants, and of course, beautiful women. The only down side to Latvia is that they have pegged their Lita to the British Pound (they are trying to show the EU that their currency is strong so they can join the EU), so everything was twice as expensive than in America...and 8 times more expensive than Lithuania. Here we are on one of the bridges in Riga...with our $4 'to-go' coffee in hand.