Leavin' on a jet plane (for Denmark)

Two days before I left for Denmark, Lodge 126 of the Danish Sisterhood had it's annual Chicken BBQ in Penngrove, CA.  My daughter was here from Indiana but she was in Mendocino for her step-mother's 70th birthday party that day. Can you believe this is the only pic I took of her in 7 days. Shame on me.

About 3 weeks before the BBQ, I received an email from Catherine in Petaluma CA.  She and I have the same family name, even though my grandfather americanized it. I invited her to come so we could meet.

I am looking forward to seeing more of Catherine and her husband.  Catherine has already met Cousin Bruce.  I was able to bring to her the verification of her great grandfathers naturalization paper numbers and instructions on how to get the copies. We could actually be related but it is too soon to tell.

I am in Helsinki. I just got off this FINNAIR plane.  I had seen on the internet that Helsinki had smoking lounges, so I set off to investigate. It took me about 50 feel to find one.

Yes. It is mod. It is comfortable. It is huge. 20 comfortable seats. Huge mirrored art work.  Incredible HVAC that lets no smoke into the main corridor even though there is no door! Hey! Americans, we can do this. We do not need to castrate and vilify smokers anymore. We can give them a great place to smoke. Go for it. Oh. And did I mention that there are about 5 of them in the Helsinki airport?

Helsinki Finiish Toilet. There is a drain in the floor. And there is a shower nozzle attached to the sink. Everything you need to take a mini shower. I loved it.

This is not the greatest pic in the world. There was a children's play area between 2 restaurants. There was about 10 different things to do. It was awesome. I had never seen anything like it before. Children are very important in Scandinavia.