From the first time I saw you,
I was swept out to sea,
past the breakers and the takers
until there was nothing left of me.
My essence stolen upon the waves
and heart churned to foam,
All fears turned to salted tears
Floating, never free.
It was a good day.
We got moving earlier than usual so that we could set off on a surprise adventure day with Smallsteps, as we headed to the coast, which is a couple hours drive away from our hometown.
There is exactly (AFAIK) one beach in Finland that qualifies as such and it is on the west coast near Pori, a small city that is best known for a jazz festival. We arrived into town relatively early so we could grab lunch first and have a quick chat with Uncle G, before driving off to the beach proper, about fifteen kilometers away.
Apparently, we weren't the only ones who thought a beach day on what is likely the last hot day of the summer where the temperature hit 32C was a good idea, making finding a parking spot difficult. Cars lined the long entry road and we ended up having to leg it for about a mile before we could reach the sand.
Smallsteps was super excited by the surprise hike!
Not at all.
But she barely complained other than a couple "are we there yets" and once she saw all the sand, she was excited for reals and couldn't wait to get into the water.
But she had to.
But after all the sunscreen was applied...
Boom!
She was running like a mad girl non-stop in the water.
She has loved being in the water this year, but I have never seen her spend so much time in there, as not only was the water warm, she loved that it was clear, she could see the bottom, it was shallow for ages and there were no rocks to hurt her feet.
I have some other shots of this on my other camera, but I will post them later - these are all from my phone for now.
My wife has never been to this place either, even though pretty much every summer since I have been with her I have been trying to get her to go and she was always not keen to make the trip. Finns think a couple hours is too far to drive for anything - Australians have no such issue.
However, upon seeing the sand and the view, she was as excited as Smallsteps and wants to spend more days here next year. The challenge is that rooms are booked out months in advance at all of the accomodation for the summer and one can never know what days are going to be beach days. Perhaps next year we might get lucky with a AirBnB or something.
Of course, there was plenty of sandcastle building throughout the day and despite my wife's reservations of leaving our stuff unattended, we spent a lot of time together in the water. Far more than I thought we would, less than I had hoped. I haven't been in the sea for almost a decade and I really miss the feeling of salt water on my skin. While I am not a great swimmer, I love the ocean and would have been happy to spend all day in the water.
Even without more water time, it was a lovely day and we had a lot of laughs, a lot of games, a lot of teasing (I am making sure that Smallsteps knows what it would be like to have a sibling) and a lot of enjoyment was had by all and most importantly, by our daughter. She is now pretty well sold on the idea of living by the sea instead of a lake, so who knows, perhaps it will be back to tropical Australia at some point in the future.
Oh, and Uncle 
Maybe when that Point Break, "50-year storm" - arrives.
Normally, Smallsteps is in bed by around 8pm, but we didn't leave the beach until after six and then went and found a place to grab some dinner before the drive home. Weirdly, I ran into an ex-client I haven't seen for about a decade, who saw us arrive and came to say hi and meet the family. Finland is small - there is no escape from the network of familiars.
But, once back in the car, it was a matter of minutes before there was the dainty snoring of my daughter drifting from the backseat and this is how she stayed until our arrival home. Because we haven't traveled much for various reasons, this was one of the handful of times I have been able to carry her straight to her bed, put the covers on, and have her stay asleep.
Hopefully she sleeps in tomorrow, but I doubt it.
By lunch tomorrow, the rains are arriving and by Friday, the temperatures will drop to almost half of what it was today. As I have said, beach days are normally quite rare, so you have to take advantage of them when they are available and I think we did that today.
We were meant to have many more days like today this summer, but due to circumstances, they have been unfortunately rare. My wife and daughter go back to work and daycare respectively next week and with rain forecast for the foreseeable future, this might have been the last warm memory of this summer and I am glad that for both of them, the trip was a first out to the sea.
Taraz
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