The Long Walk

On Wednesday Kalee demonstrated her new walking prowess by walking all the way from our apartment to downtown (about 1 mile). Mind you, I never mentioned that this is what we were doing. I didn't even think that was what we were going to do. We headed out to investigate what was drawing dozens and dozens of people to the lake. What could be going on on a Wednesday afternoon? The plan was to walk across the lake, investigate, then catch a bus to go downtown.

We discovered it was some sort of game that was drawing all the people. It looked a bit like hockey but played on the snow (not ice) in boots (not skates) with a small ball (not puck) on a much smaller playing field with much smaller goals and with hockey sticks that had sort of webbed ends instead of solid ones. [Maybe one of the Finns out there can tell me the name of this game.] Loud music was playing, sausages were being roasted, much fun was being had.

Kalee and I walked over to check out the ice track that opened last weekend. Was it plowed well enough to slide with our boots? No, but it was still fun to walk on. We walked toward downtown some more until we had reached the furthest side of the lake (see the map to the right to see our walk. Google wouldn't let me put a path over the lake - they don't think we can walk on water, apparently - so you'll have to imagine setting out from our apartment at A, walking along the ice track toward downtown, etc. all the way to letter B.), then took a pier up to the sidewalk. "Kalee, look at that bridge! You can see trains from up there. Do you want to go look?" And off we were. By now I knew we were skipping the bus, but I didn't tell Kalee. We saw a huge train full of logs pulling out of the station as we walked by. Then Kalee ran down the spiral bike/stroller ramp on the other end of the bridge. From there is was just two more blocks to where we needed to be. "Do we have to walk up that hill?" Kalee moaned. "Only one block up. I'll give you a push." And then we were there.

We went to a coffee shop where Kalee ordered hot chocolate and a beautiful little 4-layer torte. "The best hot chocolate I have ever had" Kalee said, until it was 3/4 gone and then she decided it was too rich, she'd had enough and yes, I could finish it. I added it to my coffee. Perfect.