We set off from Kaunas late this morning. We had ~4 hours of driving to get to Riga. Usually for drives over 2 hours we let Millie watch a movie but yesterday during The Meltdown she spit in my face and we immediately said “that’s it, no iPad in the car tomorrow!” All day today I thought of this DJ Khaled meme:

I’m not sure who was the true recipient of the punishment; Millie for being bored for 4 hours, or us hearing about it for 4 hours. In between the complaints we listened to this playlist, made up of the now defunct Dry Creek Saloon’s jukebox. It really hit the spot.

The drive was rural and pretty. I admired the personal vegetable plots of so many Lithuanians. I love gardening and felt proud to be able to recognize what everyone was growing. Lots of potatoes, beets, and cabbage!

Our first stop was Biržai, which is the brewing capital of Lithuania. Nick will drag us to the most obscure of beer tourism, which I sort of love because when else would I go to a small town in Northern Lithuania? We got some bottles of beer from a brewery. Most of their beer comes in plastic bottles which is not appetizing. Haven’t tried them yet.

We drove on and crossed the border into Latvia. Our first stop in Latvia was the Rundāle Palace Museum, which was based on Versailles and very grand. Millie, of course, loved it. Her favorite room was the Duke’s bedroom. We kept walking on and she kept asking to go back to it, saying “I just can’t stop looking at this beautiful bed!!”

I liked the details and the gardens. Nick liked the audio tour. Millie liked dancing around the ballrooms and pretending that the shoe covers were fancy princess shoes.

We drove the final hour to the capital of Latvia, Riga. We checked into our Airbnb and 5 minutes later a very cute 6-year-old boy knocked on our door to deliver a basket of toys. His parents are the hosts and they live downstairs. We’re hoping to broker a play date for tomorrow evening.

We walked to a nearby restaurant called Lido, which is a buffet of Latvian food. Imagine the restaurant at IKEA but double the options and make it more delicious. Millie ate a ton of salmon and tomatoes, which was probably her first healthy meal in 3 weeks.

As we were leaving I spotted a mother-daughter duo from London that was on our prison tour a couple of days ago in Vilnius. I was so shocked to see them that I loudly said “Oh my gosh, hi! Our friends from prison!” which I’m sure confused anyone who overheard it.