Lapland Fever

On Saturday (Sept. 15) we checked out of our hotel and after stopping at a visitor's center, 

went on a hike to Isokuru (Big Gorge). 

It is the deepest gorge in Finland at 220 meters deep. We loved how the forest floor was so colorful.

 Colorful mushrooms and moss 

There were a couple of buildings just before the stairs down to the bottom of the gorge.
We found this building quite attractive, but a bit odd.
If you look closely, you can see that it is the WC.
The doors are short, you have to duck to get inside and the diamond shape is a window. 😲

We probably should have counted the stairs. You can only see one section of the stairs in the pictures.

 They had this boardwalk all through the bottom of the gorge.
It was a restricted area and we had to stay on the boardwalk.
Here you can see an old section of boardwalk that has been replaced.

 Elder Shurtz found a different kind of berry. We decided that he better not eat them since we weren't sure what they were. That was a good decision since we later learned that they are poisonous.

 Beautiful pond area.

 The water was extremely clear!

You can see that even though there are many leaves that have fallen, that there is still plenty of green around as well.

 There was what looked like a massive rock slide. The rocks all seem very stable now and not moving anywhere, but this is probably part of the reason that you have to stay on the boardwalk.

 Some of the rocks had these interesting ripple marks. 

The rocks were covered with lichen, but if I zoomed in, I could see they were covered with lots of other interesting things as well.

As we drove into Rovaniemi, we saw signs for the Arctic Circle and Santa Claus. 

We got our picture taken at the arctic circle line. It was fun to hear Christmas music playing.

 Vanhin Shurtz was excited to jump over the line.

 We also found the office of Joulupukki (Santa Claus).
Apparently he had stepped out for a little bit and we didn't wait around for his return.

 We did find an old sleigh that perhaps Joulupukki used to use.

It started raining about the time we got to the Arctic Circle. 

We went over to the Arktikum Museum. It rained the entire time we were in the museum. 

I was interested to see some of the wildlife found in Finland. 

You could press the screen to hear the sound that each one makes.

 There were also many pieces of artwork relating to the revontulet. I especially liked this one with the more subtle lights.

That night we stayed with the Kervinens. Brother Kervinen is a counselor in the mission presidency. 

This is the first time that we had actually met him. 

The Evans knew them because they had spent a month in the summer working at the temple. 

They were so kind to feed us and give us a place to sleep. 

Elder Shurtz brought in his collection of berry plants and they helped him to identify them.

Sunday morning we went to the Rovaniemi Branch. The meet in a rented space in a building.

These are the good missionaries who are currently serving in Rovaniemi.

Vanhimet Jordan ja Smith. Vanhin Jordan knows my cousin, Keith. In fact, Keith was his scout leader.

 While heading back to the Kervinen's house, we passed this truck full of logs, 

. . . and then these seemingly endless piles of logs!

Amazing!

The Kervinens fed us another wonderful meal, and then it was time to say goodbye and head to the airport. 

Such wonderful people! We hated to say goodbye.

So long to Lapland. What an enjoyable trip!

Elder Lehtinen warned us before we went to be careful not to catch the disease that is known as Lapland fever. 

Unfortunately, I think that all of us caught it, and the symptoms began to show up.

Now that we have Lapland fever, we just can't get enough of it. We want to go back. 

We would love to see it in each of the different seasons.