Helsinki Design Week (with Meme and Carly)

As I mentioned in a previous post, Meme and Carly were here for part of the Helsinki Design week. Since the 50's Finland has been known for it's design.  Architecture, product design, fashion design, etc.  At left my children are showing our a couple of new Finnish toilet designs at Habitare, the interior design expo.

 The next couple of pictures are from the kids designing lego buildings.  An old warehouse had a floor covered in felt and plastered with white and clear legos.  Each kids designed their own structure.

This is a picture of Meme and Michael at Strindberg, an upscale cafe near the Esplanade in downtown Helsinki.  Very good cappuccino here. Michael met the girls there after doing a panel discussion on US graduate programs for the Fulbright Center.






 Carly and Steph and Strindberg.
After Strindberg, we went and took the boat tour of Helsinki.  Meme only nodded off about 5 times in the 90 minute tour.  The tour concludes by saying "Now you know why it is no longer necessary to force people to live in Helsinki."

One night during Meme's visit we went to the Espoo Yacht Club for dinner.  Here's a picture of us all outside the club afterwards.  At that dinner we got Meme to tell some stories of her father, Carl.  We had about a 40 minute conversation that Steph recorded parts of with Meme telling stories of her father.  Really nice.  Carl and Linda the dog protector.  Carl and Saturday afternoons with Knotwurst sandwiches.  Carl and his fishing buddies.   Carl's bathroom. Carl being an early riser. Elizabeth getting Carl riled up about something the girls did wrong and then trying to restrain him.