We started the day with a huge meltdown over not getting to eat candy for breakfast. It was like a repeat of the Great Lewes Incident of 2025: me carrying a screaming child through early morning quiet streets while onlookers stare with concern and horror. Eventually I just stood over her while she screamed it out in a public park. Parenting, it’s not for the faint of heart!

We got back to the Airbnb and attempted some breathing exercises. I had to hold back laughter at Millie yelling “I! HATE! BREATHING!” I snuck this photo of the tail end of the full 90 minute saga. The three of us on the rug, back to back because she couldn’t bear to be looked at, angrily breathing it out.

Eventually we checked out and got on the road for a 45 minute drive to Trakai Lake Castle which is, yes, a castle in the middle of a lake.

We did a self guided tour inside the castle. Our family dynamic is as follows: Nick listens and reads everything intently while Millie runs around pretending to know everything and I follow her pretending to believe her. Then we meet up every 2 minutes and Nick gives me an abridged version of just the fun facts he thinks I’d care about. Everyone gets what they need.

After seeing so many castles in the UK, it was cool to see one with such a different style. Once we were done we offered either a paddle boat ride or lunch. Millie yelled BOAT FOR SURE!

She almost fell asleep after 5 minutes. We cut it short to get out of the direct sunlight. Between the sun exposure and the meltdowns, I’m going to age 5 years in the next 10 months.

We stopped for lunch to have famous Lithuanian Kibinai, which are basically empanadas. Every country lays claim to meat wrapped in bread.

This area of the country was beautiful and reminded us so much of Wisconsin in both environment and vibes. We drove on to the city of Kaunas.

We checked into our hotel and headed out to an early dinner. Like Vilnius, Kaunas is a wonderfully walkable city and we were able to walk from our hotel to dinner on all pedestrian streets.

We had dinner at another traditional Lithuanian restaurant. Every restaurant advertises “Lithuanian pink soup”, so I finally had to order it before we head to Latvia tomorrow. It was like drinking tzatziki with beet juice mixed in. Millie tried it and her face says it all. I thought the first bite was good but it had rapidly diminishing returns after that. After the third spoonful I was forcing myself to make a dent.

After dinner we strolled around and admired how lively the city is. Millie did her new game where she pretends to be a gate that we have to guess the “passport” (password) for.

We found a playground and got some energy out before going to sleep in our hotel room that has REAL BLACKOUT CURTAINS.