Holiday from Holiday!

The campus on UF is very nice, statues, palm trees, Halle and Peregrine as a visiting feature made it all so lovely one evening we decided to go for a stroll. Little baby makes people talk to us everywhere and passers by smile. It is like taking a funny joke for a walk, brings happiness with and makes people smile.. The name of this piece of art was "Whispering Close" even though it looks like "dancing-in-too-much-clothing-for-the-weather"

 Little Peregrine was for the second time in his life at the shores of the mighty Atlantic ocean at Tybee Island beach, this time the rolling waves didn't scare him too much and he enjoyed playing on the beach. So did I, even though my eyes were scanning the waters for some spearfishing hunting grounds..






 
The sun was just right about 7:30pm for some beach side photo opp. Halle snapped few lovely pictures for us.
Here is Dali'ish photo of father son moment at the beach. Father thinking about how to teach the son how to select the right bottom features for hiding places while waiting for the fish. And what kind of spear gun should I get for him to try first. Son thinking, Oh my gosh! I am going to drown! Those waves are bigger than me!!! Help, my dad has gone off his rails!!

 We all survived although there were some jellies in the water, but little spray on pain medication and 15mile drive and careful care instructions took care of that. All and all the weekend was very special! I had such a relaxing time that I forgot my work and my work at home and all. In short, Sunny, on the way rainstorm, first umbrella, Overcooked tuna steak, Heat and berries, Halle drove home and now we are all ready for work again!

 Here is proof that our little trooper sent a post card for his great, great, great aunt Elli. Let's hope the express mail service does rest of the work.

Savannah is a city plagued by small garden/park places named after important people, here is a grave of one of them.. The Mother of all girl scouts was also from this little town by the sea at the Great state of Georgia.
Happy Juhannus to everybody and May God bless the coming week!

P

Chicken-Evil-Lake and other visits..

Here we are at the heart of the university Dental department with the little dentist to be. Right next to me there is a Dental TV which gives to the waiting patients some dental tips, like please floss and brush and that fluoride is good for you even if you are old.. Well after this short tour of the Medical building we had fathers day weekend ahead of us. Why not visit the local attraction Kanapaha Lake and botanical garden center.. so we did.

Kanapaha is funny in Finnish as it literally means Chickenevil..

Well there were no chickens and nothing evil about the place. At the humming bird garden we spotted a frog that was resting on the gazebo structure. It was so still and looked like it was made of plastic that I had to poke at it just tom make sure it was alive..

 
There were many plants and trees and things like a good botanical garden ought to have.. we walked through the works mostly looking for birds and Halle waiting for the imminent snake attack.. We looked for the infamous Kanapaha alligator, which ate one of the care takers arms once upon a time.. but found only tadpoles.. Better that than nothing huh? Oh and we stumbled upon a wedding that was being held at the botanical gardens with gallons and gallons of icy cold water and shades of unusual sizes I am sure.

Here is a bamboo forest, pretty and penetrable.. some grew in a clump and made impenetrable obstacle.. there was something about the way they sprouted or grew or something.. but anyhow here is some pretty bamboo. 

Here we are in a tropical Floridian botanical garden..

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Soo easy,..soo big

Well, it was all good idea on paper.. take baby swimming in the evening, make him tired and have a nice evening just two of us.... Well things worked out pretty much according to plan.. except baby going to sleep after we arrive home.. We decided to head out for some shopping at the local Publix store and in mid shopping the little Peregrine wakes up and then it  was all over. At the store everything was still fine and dandy, but 300 yards from home he told us that he was not happy and that we should concentrate our efforts in entertaining him..
We learned that the swimming needs to be the last activity on the days schedule, leave a little energy for the trip home and do your shopping during the day. Finally "uni voitti" thanks to Halles special mother powers!

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Florida is cool, so is our baby!

St. Augustine, where they came to look for a youth and found gators!

We found some cool shades for our little  adventurer at the historic center of the town, took a stroll on the beach and dipped out baby into the atlantic ocean. He was not impressed as the waves were so loud and the salty water tasted rather bitter compared to his daily mom's milk..

The Castillo at the port was really cool and unbeaten in it's history! the design was so good and placement so great that it could take care itself against the ships or troops on land.. it was even owned by the British and not ruined like the baths in Bath.. so it really is a tough piece of history..:) four our amusement they fired one of the cannons on the deck, it was cool. But the baby had had it with the heat by then and was ready to head to a cooler spot..

The man sitting next to me was one of the cannon firing re-en-actors sipping some ice chilled water. Peregrine was trying to prick the little seashells of the walls later. The fort was built with such a funny rock, but apparently was excellent in absorbing the cannon fire..

The St. Augustine Alligator Farm put on a show for us, even risked one of their own to entertain us. We saw all the 23 alligator species in existence! some were cute, some strange, some big, some all white, some in water, some on land, all lazy as a animal can be!! the things without exception were like wax copies unmoving in the heat of the day. (well over 30C) somewhere between 90-100F.
During the visit we also ate at he local restaurant Columbia, where I had some delicious red snapper and we all ate until we felt like we could pop! Thanks for doing that H and J, and also for going to the alligator farm. I had a great time, even if we didn't check out the fountain of youth... we had our very own youth with us! Thank God for keeping us safe on the way and greetings to all who were not with us!

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Gators, bats and Meat-Club-does-Florida

Lake Alice, right in the middle of the UF campus..




Yesterday evening we ventured out to inspect the local wildlife.. more specifically the GATORS. Halle hardly stepped off the sidewalk until we got to a impromptu gator gazing spot on lake Alice. We saw bunch of people sitting by the shore and some taking pictures.. In the lake the friendly local gators were gazing us humans from the water with their beady eyes..  some snapping turtles also came forward for a view of the two legged creatures.

There they were with their big mouths and I kept thinking, how does this lake supply food for a such a big predator, surely the fish and frogs are not enough.. perhaps some campus dwelling foreigners keep fattening up the crocs??? Well at this particular night no people were eaten..

Here, I think the baby is the only one seeing the giant crocodile climbing out of the pond to eat us...
After gator gazing we stumbled upon a small crowd gathered to watch something.. and as we joined the crowd all the time wondering what was going on we saw the huge bat nests on the field. The dusk was upon us and surely enough, we saw the "meavning" (morning for bats) first flight of thousands of bats as they started their hunt for small insects and such. It was great even though the skies were little darkened by the forest fires raging north of Gainesville. The thick smoke made everything small like BBQ..

Weekend is upon us and we got some potatoes from horticultural society for a bargain price, fried a filet Mignon and made fresh salad to wash it all down.. and as we sat down to eat we realized Meat Club had made a impromptu side visit to Gainesville!  






Happy weekend to all and let the wonderful weather continue!!
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PA to FL and beyond

Well 1000miles south and people still speak English and fly a American flag, lizards have grown big enough to eat you and temperatures have changed to 90+ degrees F, (that is above 32C) oh and the football team is called gators.. :)
Everything here has gone really nicely, I visited the dental department and met up with the staff, who are great people and finally met the wonderful Michelle who has helped me through the planning process from Florida end. The bugs are noisy and big, I kid you not the bee I saw here was not only as thick as my pinkie, but also as long..
Food is good as any.. I thought to call this place GAINesville.. just have a look at this photo.. atkins here we go..

The boy is learning to eat ice cubes to compensate to the hot weather.. I think he will be swimming almost everyday through this summer holiday..
The fruit here are absolutely amazing, fresh and tasty.. I think it will be hard to get used to the Finnish grocery store fruits imported from Florida.. Everybody here thinks this is the worst time of the year to come to Gainesville, but if this is as bad as it gets here... then I am totally ready to move to FL as soon as I am free to get going...
Tomorrow we are on with the research and work.. then we see how is the Florida research weather like.. :)

The pool is the place to be in the morning and little bit past noon, at about 4pm the weather changes to rain with a side order of thunder and lightning..
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Scrapple and other experiences

As I boarded my plane from Helsinki to Frankfurt, little did I know that baggage handlers had gone on strike.. I had checked my bag the day before.. I had the most uneventful flight over to frankfurt and to Philly.. I guess that is a good thing.. But anyhow, I got to meet my little son and wife at the airport smiling and waving! It was wonderful.. at the last check (border control) the lady asked what am I doing in US.. I said visiting my in-laws and also the university of Florida, she promptly said that we call that business and stamped my paper. I was terrified that I would have to start explaining how I am not employed by a american company and that I am only doing a part of my project here and eventually confessing that I am importing some human tissues to US without the proper paperwork.. But it didn't happen..
Ever since it has been wonderful weather, I have enjoyed staying outside and playing some volleyball outside and inside and I got the compulsory sore throat... which I am so hoping will pass before we get to Florida as I am hoping to enjoy the hot and sunny weather outside by the pool.
Our little guy is growing so fast, he knows sometimes how to switch off the lights and rolls around the floor very nicely, only getting trapped when he rolls into a chair leg or other "immovable" object.

We also met our good friend from Oulu here, had some scrapple, pictured above.. it is the Pennsylvania version of the famous haggis made of pork and other things found on the butchers floor.. It was delicious and an experience at the same time.
Getting a phone to use here was a struggle.. as we opted to go to the at&t store instead of K-mart... so advice to all, get your pay as you go phones from K-mart or Radio Shack or any other store than At&t.. which will sell you the same deal for 10*price..
No matter we have a phone now and are ready to head south.. I find it rather intimidating as the directions are.. take this road (95) for two days and turn right... OK.. we are off to the Sunshine state.. to charge our sun batteries for the winter ahead..

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