sverige top 10

(although the romance of public transportation has worn a little thin after our karlstad-stockholm train was cancelled due to a power outage on the electric rails (severe thunderstorms) and our bus never showed and we had to walk back to our hotel in the rain with wet bags and a very disappointed 4-yearold we're still hoping to hop on a morning train and continue our plans to celebrate american independence in the capital of scandanavia AND our top ten list still stands.)

without further ado here is

cara & owen's list of our ten favorite things we love about sweden

(seriously contemplated while waiting for toasty sandwiches at wayne's coffee--yup, the swedes don't have starbucks but they'll tell you they do have wayne's):

#1: pink smoothies (available in most cafes are yogurt and strawberry fresh smoothies--owen was drinking one while we scribbled this list)

#2: FIKA which owen has extended to include glace or ice cream which is available about every

10 meters or so in the summer

#3: the båtbuss (see previous post)

#4 chokladbolls (after many many tastings we've found the best ones are homemade by george's brother's mother at coffehouse by george)

#5: riding trams and trolleys (we're hoping to ride a heritage tram to in Djurgården in Stockholm

#6: swedish legos -- ok, maybe they're not officialy swedish and legos are danish but we've picked up the coolest scandic post office lego set complete with a posthorn mail box and a

postman on a mail bicycle (i know, i know my obesssion or owen's??) and a yellow city bus set

#7: "hi hi" or the swedish greeting--this was all owen, he exclaimed: "when we say hello here there are two words and that's funny!" yup. it is funny.

#8: "swedish songs": owen loves all swedish takes on music. first and foremost of course is ABBA ; then there's the maypole and the frogsong; and we've recently discovered a national

obsession with karaoke concerts or "swedish sing alongs" (check out this concert blurbfor 7 july at skansen) that happen outdoors all summer long and are televised with bouncing balls on the telly.

#9: the windmill slide at mariesbergskogen

and #10: the indoor pool (a marvel adventure going to an indoor community pool with daddy for this cali boy)

. . . we will of course continue to add to the list and we've already wanted to add the ubiquitious löfbergs lila coffee (michael was lucky enough to get a tour back in february) and the berling hotel lift (more on that later)