Fall Break: Estonia Part 1

On October 22nd, Kara and Asa and I got on a plane to Riga, and then on to Tallinn...They had just had their first snow, and it was just above freezing. We rented a car and drove to Kasmuu, on the gulf of Finland...Pine forests, bogs, beautiful coastline, and a sauna with wood stove in the bathroom. It was AWESOME.
Asa skipping stones, a stone's throw from our cottage in the village of Kasmu
Walking along the shore. Note the glacial erratic, brought by glaciers from finland...
The village view, from the top of the glacial erratic...practically the highest point in Estonia.
Hiking in the woods behind our cottage. Look, a glacial erratic!
Lots of rocks. Lots of red pine.
We visited Palmse Manor, an 18th-century manorial spread that was a communist orphanage and is now a manor, and hotel, and open-air ethnographic museum...
...with olden steam engines (london, 1822)...
...and a do-it-yourself smithy (Eli made a horseshoe).
Hiking in the woods some more. Looking for a bog.
Kara, keeping the glacial erratic down. That's the third-largest rock in Estonia there...
Found the bog.
It's a big bog. Flat. Full of carnivorous plants.
Pretty bog.
Eli carrying 40 pounds of sleeping boy.

Lunch at an Estonian country inn. Picturesque.
Deep fried pigs' ears. Delicious.
The wood stacks have eyes.

Next stop: Tallinn...