Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Go Jump in a Lake/Hyppää järveen!

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After oppressive Florida temperatures being in Maine has been so refreshing. Some days we have had to have fire in the fireplace to stay warm (after I told of the boys to turn off the heater!!!), and we have already gone through a box (or two) of hot chocolate. Mostly we have had simply gorgeous summer days, with plenty of swimming, kayaking and playing outside. Heaven......!!!!!!

(If only we could get our school work wrapped up and really start our summer vacation....)


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Floridan kuumuuden jälkeen Mainen lämpötilat ovat olleet ihanan virkistäviä. Joinain päivinä olemme sytyttäneet tulen takkaan pysyäksemme lämpiminä (sen jälkeen kun komensin poikien kääntämään lämmöt pois päältä), ja olemme jo tyhjentäneet laatikon (jos toisenkin) kaakaota. Mutta enimmäkseen meillä on ollut ihastuttavia kesäpäiviä, täynnä uimista, kajakkireissuja ja ulkona leikkimistä. Niin ihanaa....!!

(Ja kun vaan saamme koulutyöt alta pois, niin voisimme kunnolla aloittaa kesäloman...)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Last Miles/Viimeiset kilometrit

Before we head on our next trip, I am trying to quickly put together some collages to wrap up the blog posts of our last trip. This is probably it, although we took some neat pics of (some of) the kids in Pennsylvania I am hoping still to post, plus a couple of collages of Maine pictures. We'll see... I am also trying to wrap up our school year, and pack for this next trip, so can't spend too long here - even if this is our online scrapbook, especially designed to record our adventures.

Anyways... Once we crossed into the state of Maine:

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We decided to leave our beloved Mothership in the Captain's parents' barn, instead of driving it all the way up to our camp in northern Maine. That meant we spent Father's day scrubbing the RV, scrubbing a boat our friends gave us (thank you, B&P!!), washing our car, getting an oil change, organizing, cleaning, washing laundry and packing our belongings. Probably not the way Captain had envisioned Father's day happening, although he did get coffee in bed:)

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So sad to leave the Mothership behind, although look at her pad - pretty nice lodgings, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa!!!

That evening we made it up north, completely wiped, but happy. Happy to be back in our camp, thankful we had had such a fantastic trip to Florida and back!

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Yritän täällä äkkiä rustata näitä reissun blogipostauksia, ennen kuin lähdemme uudelle matkalle. Floridan reissumme vipat kilometrit ajoimme täällä Mainen osavaltiossa. Päätimme jättää asuntoauton Kapteenin vanhempien autotalliin, joten vietimme amerikkalaisen isänpäivän siivotessa ja organisoidessa ajoneuvoja ja kamojamme. Huh, mikä päivä! Ja illalla vielä ajoimme mökillemme pohjoiseen.

Ihana olla täällä mökillämme, etenkin kun takana on oikein onnistunut Floridan reissu!

Monday, June 25, 2012

To Pennsylvania

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From my sister's house we started driving through Virginia and Delaware into Pennsylvania.We had two important stops to make: to dump our gray & black water, and to make a stop at a customer's office. So we stayed one night at an RV campground in Lancaster, and had an interesting detour in our 35+ foot RV to inner city of Wilkes-Barre.

I really find Pennsylvania to be a beautiful state. All that farmland, and even the cities have beautiful old buildings. Unfortunately I was coming down with a nasty summer cold, and couldn't really enjoy this part of our trip.

There is something I would not say no to, though, even with a cold. Any ideas what that could be???

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Yup, chocolate. We had the opportunity to tour Hershey Chocolate World, so I took ibuprofen, grabbed the camera, and called this a homeschool field trip to a chocolate factory.

To be honest, this tour was a huge disappointment. But, at least it was free, so we didn't feel like it was waste of money. Plus, the factory store had some great deals on chocolate, so this stop didn't end up being a total waste of our time {smile}.

I had toured the Fazer chocolate (best chocolate in the world) factory in Finland, and I think my expectations were too high. At Fazer we actually walked through the factory, learning how chocolate was made, and could sample goodies along the tour. At Hershey, we sat in a moving ride, and listened to singing cows... The making of chocolate process was explained, but we all thought it was very poorly done (or maybe my fever was spiking again), as we got out and felt it the ride was over too fast, and we couldn't process the information that quickly. There was no one to ask questions from, either.

If you are at Hershey, Pennsylvania, you might want to go through the tour as it is free, but don't set your expectations very high. If anyone has been to the actual museum at a different location, I'd love to hear if that was worth while. The amusement park looked bigger than we expected, so we might want to return at some point to explore Hershey some more.

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Yksi itärannikon asuntoautoreissumme pysäkeistä oli Pennsylvanian osavaltio. Ensin pysähdyimme leirintäalueelle yhdeksi yöksi, sillä meidän piti tyhjätä asuntoauton likavesisäiliöt. Toinen syy oli vierailu asiakkaan luona Wilkes-Barren kaupungissa. Minä olin kuumeessa ja kipeänä tämän osan reissustamme, mutta siitä huolimatta päätimme tehdä myös kolmannen pysäkin - Hersheyn suklaatehtaalle. Lääkkeiden avulla vaan kamera mukaan, ja kotikoululuokkaretkelle!


Pennsylvania on kaunis osavaltio, mutta Hersheyn suklaatehtaan kiertue oli pettymys. Ei vetänyt vertaa Fazerin vierailulle.. Onneksi oli sentään ilmainen kiertue, ja sen päässä oli luonnollisesti iso suklaapuoti, josta löytyi edullisia herkkuja. Hersheyn suklaa on tosin pahvia Fazeriin verrattuna, mutta toki se hädässä kelpaa, etenkin suklaalla kuorrutetut puolukat ja mustikat, nam:)


Muuten Hersheyn kaupungissa olisi kyllä ollut tekemistä ja katsomista, ensi kerralla valitsemme viisaammin!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Our New Hampshire Stop/NH:n pysäkki

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Before I post about our Pennsylvania stop(s), I'll skip ahead to New Hampshire. Our one hour stop in New Hampshire turned into a two day stay when we decided to park at our friends' driveway for the night, and go swimming with them the next day.

The first day, however, we stopped at our favorite New Hampshire stop: Beech Hill Farm near Concord, and just had to drive down Memory Lane past our old house. So many memories...


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Yllä kuvia New Hampshirestä. Meidän oli tarkoitus pysähtyä noin tunniksi ennen kuin jatkaisimme matkaa Maineen, mutta jäimmekin yöksi ystävien pihatielle. Ekana päivänä vierailimme tutulla jätskifarmilla, ja ajoimme entisen kotimme ohi, tokana päivänä menimme ystävien kanssa uimaan.

Virginia Stop/Virginian pysäkki

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It is so convenient my sister and her family live half way between Florida and Maine! On our way back north we were able to spend a couple of days washing laundry visiting. As you can tell we all just had a miserable time:)

Thanks, Sis and crew - we miss you!!!

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Siskoni perheensä kanssa asuu kätevästi puolessa välin Floridaa ja Maineä. Matkalla takaisin pohjoiseen pysähdyimme pesemään pyykkiä vierailulle. Kuten kollaasista näkee, meillä kaikilla oli kovin tylsää yhdessä:)

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Our Disney Stop/Disney-pysäkki

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Our last stop in Florida was Orlando. We sort of did Disney the cheap way: plenty of fun on a shoe string budget. Which, believe it or not, is possible "where dreams come true" :-)

This is what we did:

- We stayed at Fort Wilderness Campground in our RV {the Mothership}

- We stocked up on food, and some special things we normally don't buy at Publix

- We ate all meals (except one) in our RV, utilizing our grill and crockpot

- Instead of amusement parks we played in the campground pool complex

- and could have watched the Chip and Dale sing-a-long show and outdoor movie, but decided to skip those because of rain (we had seen the show last time we were there, and had plenty of our own movies in the Mothership). Fort Wilderness Campground has all kinds of other activities, too, if you want to pay, so we skipped archery, boat/kayak rentals etc, but you could stay very busy and not leave the campground at all

- We had campfire s'mores (brought our own, naturally), plenty of popsicles, ice cream and slushy drinks, thanks to the freezer we brought with us ;-)

- and we spent half a day at Downtown Disney, mainly looking at things, although some of the kids spent their own money at the huge Lego store


Also, our friends from New Hampshire came down to do Disney parks for a few days, so we planned a little get-together at Downtown Disney. We all had dinner at T-Rex, which was a fun and yummy place to hang out with our friends (thanks, B family!!!).

All in all, a great way to do Disney! Especially on a super rainy week...

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Floridassa viimeinen pysäkkimme oli Disney, mutta ilman huvipuistoja, eli teimme köyhän perheen Disney-reissun. Olimme muutaman yön Disneyn leirintäalueella, mikä on yksi meidän lempipaikoistamme. Heillä on kiva uima-allasalue, Tiku ja Taku-show, ulkoilmaelokuva ja nuotiot, joissa voi paistaa vaahtokarkkeja. Söimme kaikki ateriat asuntoautossa, paitsi yhden, jolloin treffasimme New Hampshiren ystäviämme T-Rex-ravintolassa. Vietimme myös puolipäivää Downtown Disneyn 'ostoskylässä', jonne sentään pääsee ilmaiseksi, heh. Osa lapsista osti omilla rahoillaan legoja isosta Lego-kaupasta. Joka päivä oli sateista, mutta silti oli hauska pysäkki!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Happy Father's Day!!!



We have so loved our Mothership Adventures, which would not be happening, without you.

And...




Grandpa, we wish you were here :) :) :) Thanks for letting us crash at your house (Grandma, too!). We love you! See you soon!

(And love to Vaari in Finland, too, even though it is not Father's Day in Finland, yet:)



Love,

From the Mothership Crew

Thursday, June 14, 2012

June Twitter Travels (so far)/Tien päällä

Since June first, we have been on the road again. And I haven't blogged. This is a travel (/homeschooling/family blog). Lame. Once we get to Maine I will try to post some pics of our travels. Until then, you can follow our travels via Twitter (I can tweet from my phone, but haven't mastered blogging from my phone yet).

To catch up on June tweets, I copied and pasted them here. At the moment we are in Pennsylvania Amish country, and I will tweet along as we travel. You can see the tweets on the sidebar of our blog, or click here to follow along. I occasionally post photos and maps, too.

(Olemme olleet tien päällä koko kesäkuun, valitettavasti en ole saanut laitettua tänne meidän reissusta.. Mutta twitterin kautta voi seurata reissuamme, klikkaa täältä.)


So, in a list of odd things I've ever done, last night is one: we slept in our in the service bay of Camping World service dept..