True winter

On our return to Finland, we were met with frigid temperatures and steady snows that have left over two feet of snow on the ground that I bet are here to stay until spring. There hasn't been this much cold, snow, or ice in the sea in 7 to 10 years - I see a variety of figures bandied about in the press.

A passenger ferry to Tallinn got stuck yesterday and it took hours to free it since all the icebreakers were already busy with other ships. Another ferry shown here is the one we took with Chris & Jo this summer and it seems to be getting through to Tallinn each day. So I thought I would share a few pictures of our true Nordic winter in contrast to the previous two Southwest US posts, so you can also have a sense of the adaptation we've had to endure along with our jet lag. It was quite the challenge. It seems this has been a more intense winter throughout Europe, too. It is that time of year, after all, and (apart from the icy walkways) it is very beautiful, particularly the frosted forests that look straight out of a fairy tale. I'll try to catch some of pictures of those soon.

Big Bend

I had no idea that the borderlands of Texas were so beautiful, not to mention the sheer cliffs and peaks of Mexico just on the other side of the Rio Grande. It was quite an eye-opener for me. We stayed in the Chisos Mountains Lodge which is beautifully set in the high basin of the mountains. The Big Bend National Park is enormous and we saw just a small portion in the two days there but it was very awe-inspiring. Here are pictures of the lodge setting and from our drives and our hike to the Boquillas Canyon, where Gerald proved he was "just a stone's throw" away from Mexico, by actually throwing a stone across to the opposite shore; of Mexican horsemen across the river; of Gerald at Cathy's Cosmic Cowgirl Cafe; 'tuff' white rock which is solidified volcanic ash - geological processes are very obvious everywhere there. Also,a great spot we found on the drive there is the Food Shark food truck and school bus/dining room in Marfa, Texas. We highly recommend the marfalafels.

New Mexico

After a month of travel in the US, I'm now catching up here and would mostly like to share pictures with you of our trip to New Mexico with the detour to Big Bend park in southwest Texas. We had a great time and somehow avoided a lot of potential travel problems that made the news, starting with arriving on the East Coast along with the big blizzard out of DC, and ending with flying out of JFK the day before the whole terminal was shut down due to a security breach. And the best news is that an offer we made on a house in Las Cruces (Talavera) was accepted so we'll share more on that later! Our hotel holiday worked out great with Claire and Kaliecia in the room next door. Here are New Mexico pictures: caroling at the Mesilla Plaza, Christmas morning horseback riding & goat visiting, White Sands visit, Silver City vintage hat shopping and lunching - all in just the first week. Two more posts will follow this one.







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