Oulu and that "Christmas Old Man"

So we made the long trek to Oulu, Finland which is dangerously close to the Arctic Circle. We had a tough weekend on the ice losing 6-0 the first day and 4-2 the next to Karpat, one of the stronger league teams. We played much better the second day, obviously, and had chances to win, playing the entire weekend without our first line center who was out with a shoulder injury.

I was asked by one of the girls if we could visit the home of the "Christmas Old Man" after the game. Santa Claus does apparently keep a residence here in Finland but unfortunately was still much further north, so we could not go. The trip was quite long about 7 hours on the bus.

We returned to a welcome day off on Monday. I returned to my first visitor, as Kelly had made the trek from San Jose to Finland and found her way safely to Vierumaki where she will stay here for the week! We had a fun day in Helsinki checking out the sites and having lunch before returning after dark (around 2:30 or so). We got a chance to see the site of the Helsinki Olympics, which was a pretty cool complex.

So now, we have a tough week both tomorrow and Saturday facing the league's top team, and 7 time champion, the Espoo Blues. So it is back to work in Finland!