Category: travel

Flying To Prague

The last time I flew business class across the Atlantic was when I worked at Pepsi Americas and had that long business trip to several European countries. Interestingly, it was also American Airlines—lots of very nice food and an option to sleep horizontally for several hours.

O’Hare Terminal 3
O’Hare Terminal 3
BA lounge in Heathrow
The Clarion congress Hotel is integrated with the shopping mall, so I am not sure whether this part is still considered a hotel lobby or not 🙂
The most common business trip story: the only time you see the city if after dusk!

Camping

I spent a weekend in a very non-typical way for me: camping with Anna, the girls, and Anna’s friends in the Harrington Beach National Park. camping is not my kind of activity, but since this weekend was supposed to be girls’ weekend, and since I already cleared it out, and since after twelve days of complete and partial isolations, I was eager to do something outside the house and my comfort zone in general, I went for it.

It was great, although the heavy rain on Saturday night made it challenging, and at some point, we all were unsure whether it was a good idea. Then the rain stopped, and we had a great time by the campfire (and we had a really nice walk before the rain started). there was more rain during the night, but at about 8-30 AM, the sun went out, and life was beautiful again:).

I enjoyed the nature walk and being close to Lake Michigan at yet another point. 🙂

It was close to impossible to pass this apple tree and not to pick even one apple, not even the ones lying on the ground!
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More From Greenfield Village

I still wanted to post more photos from our last weekend’s visit to Greenfield Village. We saw more houses than we had seen last year with Lena. Boris said he didn’t care that much about famous people’s houses, but as for me, 1) I do if I know something about this person, 2) there were a lot of houses which showed in great detail how people had lived two hundred years ago, and unlike many other museums of that kind, they had not just “some artifacts,” but a very detailed reconstruction of how people actually lived. For example, not just a washing pitch, but a complete set of teeth hygiene pieces, chamber pots under each bed, and so on.

Dugget Farmhouse

Henry Fords’ house, Wright’s house or boarding house – does not really matter 🙂

Amtrak Travels

The thing that I always forget when I take Amtrak to Ann Arbor is that there is one big reason for delays – a single track for a very long stretch. Because of that, if a train traveling in the opposite direction is delayed, your train will have to wait for a very long time. This time, on our onward journey, we waited for a record one hour and forty minutes and then were delayed a little bit more for the crew switch. In addition, the air conditioning was brutal, and Boris and I were completely frozen. The only thing that saved us was the dining car, which was open.

This announcement came as a pleasant surprise because it was the first time after the pandemic that I encountered an operating dining car. On the way back, I already planned on that and then had to listen to announcements about how they were quickly running out of things.

Stayin in the line in the dining car, I heard that they were out of burgers and then – out of breakfast sandwiches, and then they said they are “out of food,” although I overheard that they mentioned “veggie boxes.” When my turn came, I asked whether they still had veggie boxes with hummus. They said – yes, and they also had fruit cups, but “they were out of food.” 😀

Forest Ranger Camp

The reconstruction of a forest ranger camp from the 1900s was one of the things Lena and I missed last year. The staff member (whom I didn’t photograph) was dressed as on of these very first forest rangers, and he talked about their jobs and how they had to be away from home on horseback for months. I immediately started to estimate how much they would have to carry with them. Even if we assume they didn’t take s change of clothes with them (which is possible!), he still had just this one saddle bag with two compartments. And he had to hack his tent, a blanket, some tools, his pan and a coffee pot, and a mug, and supplies like coffee, sugar and salt for several months!

Greenfield Village

Last year, when I visited Lena in Ann Arbor, she took me to Greenfield Village. We spent the whole day there but didn’t get enough, and I wanted to do it again, see more things, and show Boris what we saw last year.

Still, it was not enough :). Your mind gets overloaded with information, and you want to take in more but can’t 🙂

See the moving train on the third card!
Old diesel train ride
Wright brothers bike shop
Somebody thought of aesthetics!

I tried not to repeat the pictures I took last year… and still took them again, and still it is not enough!

To be continued 🙂

In Ann Arbor

We went to Ann Arbor to visit my friend Lena. We took the Wolverine train, which was supported to arrive in Ann Arbor t 11-04 PM local time but was significantly delayed, and ended up arriving at 12-50 AM! Lena had to go to bed and then wake up to pick us up at the train station, and we were completely frozen on the train because the air conditioner was running very low! Fortunately, the dining car was open, and we went to grab some hot tea.

Today, we went kayaking, which I wanted to do for Boris – he enjoyed it a lot last summer when I booked the Field Museum kayaking experience.

It started very dramatically because, if you remember, I’ve done kayaking only once in my life – last summer, and I already forgot everything they taught us. The first thing I did when my kayak was pushed into the river I almost hit Boris in the head with my ore. While he was trying to avoid this encounter, I hit his core, and his kayak turned upside down, and he was completely under the water!

I do not know why, but he didn’t get mad at me, and he was given a new kayak, and we continued our journey. I was struggling with pretty much everything, running into the shore every three minutes. It didn’t help that for the first half of our journey, we went against the current. Lena took a lot of pictures and videos of me losing the hold of the kayak, but she didn’t send them to me yet, so I only have pictures of beautiful water lilies and of a swan. While I was busy taking pictures of him, I drifted too close to him and could not correct my course fast enough, so I was afraid he would bite me.

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Helsinki Day 8

That was the last full day in Helsinki, and it was impossible to fit in “everything we haven’t done yet.” The weather was expected to be exceptional, and Anna really wanted to go back to Soumenlinna, so she convinced the rest of her family that it’s the best way to spend the last day.

And you know what – I agree with her!

It was very warm but also very windy, and when we were on the top of the fortress walls, it almost felt like the wind could blow you away. We walked in the water and just set on the stones looking at the Finnish Gulf. This is one of few places in the world where I can sit and do nothing, and think nothing, just taking the world in.

Later in the day, since in was still very warm, Anna & Family went to the beach. I didn’t stay there; the water was cold (although Anna and Nadia went in later). I decided to wait for my Lyola beach :). It’s worth mentioning though that this beach is so much better equipped with all the necessities, like toilets, changing rooms, lockers and even showers! I am jealous!

Helsinki Day 7

On Sunday, we met with my friend Natasha and her family, had a nature walk, and visited the Technical Museum. It was a relatively long hike, mostly on a boardwalk over the salty water marshes. We stopped at a couple of observation stations, but it was difficult to see the birds without special equipment.

The waterfalls in this park are amazing!
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Helsinki Day 6

On Saturday morning, Anna biked to our place, and we had a two-and-a-half-hours bike ride all over Helsinki. Both Anna and I were tired, but Boris wanted to show us all the best places, so it took a while 🙂

Anna was filming the whole route with her 360 camera, but for now, I only have a couple of pictures:

By the time we were done with this ride, and Boris and I parked our bikes, it was almost eleven, which meant that the ice cream place by the Sibelius monument was about to open!

In the afternoon, Nadia and I went clothes shopping; that was the birthday activity I promised to her many months ago. We also picked up several outfits for Kira and some Moomin toys for both of them. And in the evening, the four of us went to the concert at the Church in the Rock. We sat in the very front row, as close to the musicians as none of us ever sat, and listened to this truly amazing concert!