The comforts of a home!

Hello from Pitea, Sweden. We arrived to meet Aubree's relatives this afternoon, Maija and Lars Ruisniemi. They were kind enough to pick us up from the train station. We were driven around the town of Pitea and had an excellent dinner. Sure was great to have a home cooked meal. Hazen also got to try caviar for the first time. We have been doing a lot of talking about the family history and will drive to Finland tomorrow to visit Anna Kaisa who is also Aubree's, Grandmother's cousin. She is located right on the arctic circle line. I think we were able to locate the original Kalliokoski family homestead as there is a small village bearing its name. On our way back to Helsinki in a couple days we will try to get there. Will have to take a train, bus, and probably quite a bit of walking. It should be interesting walking the neighborhood banging on doors trying to find where the Kallioskoski farm was located.

We spent three days in Stockholm and had a great time. The weather was amazing in the mid-20's every day. We took a tour of the parliament building. It was fascinating to see how their government worked. Any country that has a 82% voter turnout is probably doing something right. Hazen thought Stockholm was the most beautiful city we have visited so far. It spans fourteen islands with 50+ bridges. Unfortunately the prices are quite high so we have been roughing it a bit. Spent the last couple nights sleeping in a grade school classroom with 14 other bunkmates. Last night we spent on a 14 hr night train with probably the rudest people in all of Europe. We survived and are now enoying the beauty of Northern Sweden.