We arrived in Rovaniemi a bit after lunch. We decided to make the most of our day and visit. Arktikum. It's a museum that has lots of information on climate in the area, conservation, and life of the Sami people among other interesting things. We even saw an interesting short video projected on the ceiling while we lay on the ground of the Northern Lights. Unfortunately it was so cloudy while we were there we were unable to catch them outside. We will definitely attempt to see them again but probably in a different northern location. Maybe northern Sweden. We may also try to go when they are most active as well.

That night we grabbed dinner at the local mall in a restaurant called Comico. It seemed tex-mex however when you look at reviews for it, like I did after the fact, it appears the burger was the way to go. My burrito wasn't bad though.

Something I forgot to mention was the disappointment Luke and I felt that there was no snow in sight once we reached Rovaniemi. We also learned that this is quite uncommon for this time of year. We were hoping for a winter wonderland for our little ones. Apparently it was only a picture in our mind because they didn't seem to mind at all. As a matter of fact everywhere we travel the kids start raving immediately about it and it only continues once we reach our hotel. I've concluded just exploring this world and staying in new places makes them happy!

The next day we decided to take a very expensive taxi ride ~20Euros about 6km to Santa's Village. One of the great things about going early was seeing the morning sky. Isn't it beautiful.

The first thing we did was travel down through the secret passage to have a visit with Santa. The nice thing was admission to Santa's Village was free. The bad thing is that you can't use your camera to take pictures. They do that for you along with a video of the conversation with Santa if you'd like to purchase it for a mere 49Euros. Yikes. The least expensive photo was 25Euros which we did get however you'll have to wait for our Christmas card to see that! After that we took some pictures at the article circle line, did some shopping and finally finished up in the post office where we sent a few cards that were stamped with the official postmark. Unfortunately I didn't get all our Christmas cards together in time to send them from here. Oh well. Had the weather cooperated a bit more I think there is usually an area for reindeer rides, husky rides, and also ice slides. Not of this was open on our visit though. 

An afternoon snack and some hot chocolate.

That night we dined Finnish chain style at Rosso. Which is apparently an Italian restaurant. It wasn't bad. We loved that it had a kids area. All in all the first two days, I think for Luke and I, were a bit less than what we expected but the last couple of days made the overall experience worth it. 

Friday we headed to Santa Park which is inside a grotto so to speak. Basically a cave. It was a bit expensive, as if anything wasn't here, but in the end, to me, proved to be worth the money spent. It was 28Euros/adult and 23Euros/children and the tickets were valid for two consecutive day. Everyone was friendly and in character. Mostly elves I mean, except for an ice princess. The kids attended elf school where they learned 5 very important things that elves must master, a couple of which were peaking through windows and tiptoeing very quietly. They also learned three magic words that when said create magic somewhere in the world but it's not always seen. This time of course it was seen when lights came on that were around the Christmas tree in the room. The head elf was adorable and very in character. The kids loved it.

We could barely get past the very first thing there which was a snow globe that was big enough for the kids to play in. They must have played in it for 30 minutes. After that they got caught up again in the area right before the ice princess because every few seconds or so it would snow indoors. Right after that we all went into the ice sculpture room with the warm jackets that were provided.

We also saw Santa again this day and the kids were a lot less shy. Campbell even remembered to tell Santa that my friend Mollie really wants something in her stocking. We decorated a gingerbread cookie (2Euros each) at Mrs. Claus Gingerbread Kitchen, took an indoor sleigh ride (more like a train of sorts), watched a neat show over lunch and made a craft in the elves workshop. What a fun day! As a side note, how ironic that one of the elves working in Santa Park happened to be from Boone, NC! What are the odds!! That night we dined in a Greek place called Akropolis. Too bad it wasn't cold enough to dine in the igloo restaurant. Well I guess we just assumed this but didn't really check into it either since it was above freezing much of the time we were there.

Saturday, our last full day, brought not only a fun excursion but snow! Hip hip hooray! We went to the visitors bureau which was quite close to our hotel, City Hotel, and arranged a tour called the top twosome. We visited the Konttaniemi Reindeer farm and Huskypoin Käpälämäki. At the first stop we earned our reindeer drivers license by taking a one loop ride around on a sleigh pulled by a reindeer. The second stop we were pulled by a pack of 14 huskies around a loop on the summer sled since it hadn't snowed enough yet to use the winter one. Both were great experiences that I can't imagine you could do together anywhere else. It did cost 98Euros/adult and 73Euros/child 4-12. This was actually the best price we had seen on this type of safari and we think it was because we didn't go through one of the big safari companies there like Safartica or Wild North. Honestly, Safartica people were there on site with our tour. Ours was just run directly by the Huskypoint folks. Our guide was very gregarious too. She was wonderful.

After our morning excursion we went back the area of Arktikum to the Pilke Science center. It's all about trees and conservation. A great place for kids where they can touch and feel and interact with everything there. There is even some Finnish karaoke you can do. What does karaoke have to do with trees you ask; All the song are about nature and trees!

That night look where we dined! It was tasty. All are the same except the dipping sauces for nuggets and phrasing on the menu to me it seems.

We left our hotel Sunday while it was snowing. It was beautiful. Maybe not a lot but we were able to make this little guy.

Did we wear him out or what. This was the first leg of our plane ride.