Experience Finnish summer with a summer cottage and sauna

I know there is winter outside, dark and snowy days (although so much longer now comparing to pre-Christmas days), but on and on I am coming back with my thoughts to our week in a Finnish summer cottage at a lake. We rented a small place somewhere between Mikkeli and Lahti at a beautiful lake surrounded by forests. It wasn't very remote place though, there were cottages every hundred meters around the coast line of the lake bordered only by some woods. It was a perfect distance from Helsinki to drive with two small and crazy excited kiddos almost exploding on the back seat. Two hours on a highway. After that just a few kilometers through a forest path... Yes, our GPS got sort of lost and asked us to turn to a little road off-road actually. Through a deep forest. The "road" looked like used last time some five years ago since there was deep grass growing all along it and bushes and small tress almost covering it too. Luckily we had a 4WD car. After driving with a speed around 5km/h and making jokes about how remote our summer place is going to be and how are we going to survive for a week if every grocery trip is going to lead us through this path... so after some minutes later we finally reached a gravel road and after another few minutes of driving in dust we reached our final destination. It looked cute from the first sight and we loved it from that first sight. The house was painted in this deep reddish color - as most of traditional Finnish country houses) and it was situated just few dozens meters from a lakeshore with a tiny sandy beach and a rowboat rested down there. Idillic! If I add to this that it was some +30C and sunny and sooo green, there is nothing more I would need. The cottage had a wooden heated sauna and this is a must if you ever decide to spend your summer in Finland. Of course that was our first time to operate such a thing. But of course it wasn't a rocket science and my hubby managed that just fine. Oh, that cosy smell of burning wood, the heat somehow different from the heat made in electric sauna - I know, sounds ridiculous, but if you have done both, you know what I am talking about. This is just THE SAUNA. Indigenous. Real. Ancient. On the first day we wanted to enjoy it with the kids, but Tomek, our two-years-old, was scared and Wanda, the five years old, was too hot. And she was of course right - remember, there was +30C outside, so why those crazy parents want to get even more heat? So we didn't make another effort for the whole family sauna bath and waited until they were asleep to get some heat. Oh, amazing! Now, in the middle of winter, I am almost jealous of myself indulging in that Finnish heaven. But what is the best thing in sauna? Running naked right to the lake and letting the cool water coat you and chill. The still water of an evening lake surrounded by a dark deep green forest and yellowish and pinkish blue evening sky. Heaven. And right after that a glass (or a bottle, it's vacation after all) of chilled white wine. Yes, this is why you go there. The days are just days with no plans but BBQ-ing, swimming, rowing on a boat - or actually not so much, since our little one was kind of afraid and wanted to escape from the boat. Playing with the kids, pretending to read that book you brought with you, but now you are also watching the kids (water shore is right there), chatting with your husband, wandering with your thoughts, daydreaming and are not able to focus on anything in particular. Vacation!