June 25, 2007 day 3 Sweden Öland

This morning we bid goodbye to Rolf and John after a delicious breakfast and a few tears on my part.



Inger took us to Pukeberg (yes, the name is pretty funny) and Nybro, two towns famous for their glass factories. We had the privilege of observing glass blowers at work and quite by chance even met a glass designer from Belgrade who was working with the blowers as they created his designs which were going to be part of a major glass exhibition in Holland in the fall.



He told us all about his profession and even took his laptop out and showed us the designs he was directing these glass blowers to make. We felt pretty special to be privy to his explanations! We would have loved to buy some glass to take home, but it seemed pretty impractical.







Then, Inger drove us to Kalmar Castle where we met Katie and Tom and enjoyed at great fika (light lunch)Inger had packed for us. We had to get going soon because Tommy had soccer practice, and so we said goodbye to Inger with hopes she and Rolf would come visit us in Eden Prairie.



So, we have now arrived on the island of Öland, where Scott's daughter Katie is staying. We have met her boyfriend, Tommy Karlsson, and are staying tonight at Tommy's parent's house. It is so wonderful to see her and how happy she is.


Tommy is a great guy--still in college studying business, plays soccer professionally, has a great personality, and complements Katie perfectly! We just got back from playing mini-golf, and we all laughed and sang and joked in "svengelska" or "Swinglish."


Everyone got a hole in one, too!




The weather was beautiful, and the mini-golf course was right on the west coast of Öland.

While I'm writing this, Katie and Tom are grilling steaks for us. Tomorrow, Katie joins us for a six hour train ride to Borlänge to meet our Swedish relatives.