We pulled out of Vilnius around 2pm with me at the wheel so Greg could get caught up on email. Since it was a four lane road most of the way out it was agreed upon that I could handle it. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive back to Riga. We are unsure whether we will drop bags off at our Airbnb before we pick up Jake or go straight to the airport.

And I did, until passing was required and then I happily pulled into a gas station to hand over the driving responsibilities to Greg.

I failed to point out in my earlier post that it didn’t take long for Greg and Logan to channel their inner Lithuanian style.

Thankfully, today’s drive was much quicker than our last. Before we knew it we were in Riga. Jake’s flight is delayed by about 30 mins so we will have time to drop our bags off before meeting him.

Our Airbnb is in old town Riga and parking is not easy to find so we parked the van illegally (we think) and walked the short walk to our apartment.

Thankfully, despite the odd entrance the apartment is nice. My only complaint (currently) is the lack of pillows.

After quickly dropping bags, Greg and the boys decided to walk to find an electronics store in the 20 mins that they had before we needed to head to the airport. Greg had left his AirPods in Tallinn and doesn’t like using mine continually and neither Jake nor Maddie have converters so we need another one ideally. Somehow they only returned with beer.

The airport is a 20 mins drive from here. We all decide to go to pick him up. We had no issues finding our way.

We did however have some trouble figuring out where we could stop to wait so Greg dropped off me and Maddie at departures. He was hoping maybe I’d see a converter cheap. I did not see anyway. We were trying to make our way to arrivals when Jake FaceTimed and said he was outside of departures but he would come inside. I said no stay out, we will come outside!

Greg looped around to pick up back up.

So what do the Baker’s do once they pick Jake up from three flights with only two hours sleep? They take him shopping, to the mall, to Euronics in search of said AirPods, or more specifically some cheaper brand and some converters.

We were lucky and got everything we needed. Our only issues were one person spoke no English and that was a slightly difficult transaction and Logan was checking out a mixer and pressed a button thinking it would turn on and it ejected the beaters. It’s finnnne!

We popped into the DinoZoo in case we saw any animals we wanted. There were some cool birds!

We kept our shopping short, now back towards the Airbnb. Plans are dinner and an early night since Jake is exhausted. Also rain is in the forecast.

Greg and Brooks had staked out a 24 hour parking lot so we headed back in that direction. The only issue is that we couldn’t figure out how to get in. There was a gate on one side that looked like an exit gate so Greg drove to the other side. Bad idea. No gate. Narrow dead end street.

He decided to go all the way to the end to see if it was wider for him to turn around. It was not but somehow he managed to do it. All while two women walking down the sidewalk judged the hell outta what was happening. We weren’t entirely sure it was a two lane road but really, who was gonna stop us?

On our second attempt at the parking lot a car was coming out and there wasn’t enough room for us to wait so we drove past hoping we could go around the block.

We came to a tunnel type thing with a sign that looked like you couldn’t drive through so again Greg did some crazy turnaround. As he was ready to back out onto the street at an angle that would allow us to only go back the way we came we had to wait for cars to pass behind us, thru the tunnel thing.

Back up the narrow street and finally, we have success at accessing the parking lot. Greg parked the van like a boss in the spot we were directed to park in.

Next stop is the Airbnb to drop off Jake’s luggage and then dinner.

Greg, Maddie and Jake decided on a place for dinner so after a quick stop we were back out. We sat outside at Ogle’s which is a short walk from our apartment.

In Vilnius, Logan and I had each had a drink and needed more so we had ordered table water that took forever to come. I didn’t want to risk not having enough to drink so I ordered the large lemonade (which in my defense was only a few euros more than the small.) She said you want the liter? I said yes without even processing what she said.

I might have overdone it.

I love how they give wet wipes here. This should be a thing in the states. Although I am surprised at on the one hand they are so environmentally conscious with paper straws and a million different types of trash cans for recycling but yet they give out individually wrapped wet wipes almost standard it seems.

Speaking of people watching, the lady with the ponytail, not the one staring directly at the camera, literally kept turning around and staring directly at us. We are pretty sure that she had a convo about us with the server but since none of us speak Latvian we can’t be certain.

This pic was taken as a fake pic of Logan and then cropped so it wasn’t obvious I was taking a pic of them but by the end of the night I wouldn’t have cared if she knew. It was weird. And also they were taking pics of us. Logan thinks it’s because they have never seen another that looks like him here. He’s probably not wrong. 🙂

Logan had banana peppers with his steak which for some reason he thought were hot. He challenged Brooks to a proper eating contest. They both won because they were in fact not hot.

It started raining somewhat steady so Brooks and Greg stayed behind to pay while the rest of us headed back. Riga is starting to really party now that it’s 9pm.

Also, as is standard with many European places we have no air conditioning so the apartment is stuffy. We have opened windows to try to get some airflow.

Fortunately or unfortunately we are here on a large Latvian holiday called Ligo where they party until the sun comes up. Staying in Old Town might not have been our best idea since we typically turn into pumpkins by 10…by we I mean me and mostly Greg.

At 9:30 the band was really just getting started down the street playing “Johnny Be Good.” Greg started praying that rain would come in and send everyone one. While rain did start, it didn’t stop the fun.

The boys and I played a game of Uno No Mercy (not for the faint of heart) and somehow I won. I tapped out of the game, Brooks and Logan stayed to play at least one more with Greg because typically he likes to play until he wins.

Thank goodness for the earplugs from my amenity kit from the plane. Pretty sure that’s the only way I’m getting any sleep tonight.

Not sure what’s on tomorrow’s agenda. Need to see what all is open with the holiday. There’s a large market in a zeppelin hanger that I’m hoping will be open. And maybe pics of the pretty bridge so I can redeem myself with the boys.

Until then!