Millie woke up even earlier this morning (whyyy?!). Unfortunately it was my morning to get up with her. When she was a tiny baby Nick and I got into an unspoken agreement that we’d switch off early mornings, and it has continued for 4+ years, even on this trip. Millie caught on a couple of years ago and keeps track of whose morning it is so she knows who to bother.

We made breakfast, played, and made fancy little paper dolls. I loved her creativity in her clothing designs (I did the boring ones). It was still raining and nasty outside.

We packed up and said goodbye to our adorable cabin in the Latvian woods.

(Photo from when we arrived and the sun was shining)

We drove 2.5 hours to Pärnu, which was described in the guidebooks as Estonia’s beach-y tourist town. It was rainy and cold and gray and felt very Russian. We couldn’t quite see it as a fun vacation spot.

We stopped “downtown” to have lunch at a traditional Estonian restaurant. I talked Nick out of ordering the salted lard appetizer. Something I love (and sometimes dislike) about him is he will always order the weirdest thing on any menu. We compromised on “pickles with garlic honey” which came exactly as described. I didn’t hate it but it’s not getting added to my recreate-at-home list.

I had slightly boring but still comforting Siberian dumplings with sour cream.

We drove on to Tallinn, Estonia’s largest city. There were “watch out for moose” signs everywhere. Driving in, it felt much larger than any of the other Baltic cities we’ve recently visited, and less quaint.

We have been booking our lodging pretty last minute (a day or two ahead of time) and have been landing in great places. Tallinn had very low inventory and prices are much higher than we’ve seen elsewhere in the Baltics. I’m not sure if it’s because there’s something happening here this weekend or if it’s because we’re getting closer to the Nordics and their prices. We checked into our Airbnb which is both more expensive and less nice than other recent stays. It’s fine, but we’ve been spoiled.

After so long in the car we forced Millie out on a walk. She whined and whined and pretended she forgot how to walk until we finally headed home.

We had a simple “snack dinner”, FaceTimed with family, and got her to bed early.