Ashley visits Latvia

[June 24 - 29]

Right after John's Day, we went over to the airport to pick up Ashley. She lives in sunny southern Spain with her husband Greg. (They have a blog site too.) Latvia is on the entirely opposite side of Europe, but she made it out for a nice visit.


Marita, Dean, and Ashley at the Cesis castle

Since we are getting near the end of the trip and terribly behind on the blog. I'll just do some basic captions for our fun times.


Dean and Ashley in Riga


Ashley and Dean cook dinner

We took a visit to Cesis, the birthtown of my father, where we can stay in his family's old house. My aunt has been spending a lot of time fixing it up after 60 years of neglect. It has modern plumbing now (no more pumping water from the well), and a great guest room. In the driveway, we were set up with a little campfire for our evening meals. Ashley brought the smores and it was so yummy.

We went on some hikes around the area, but the mosquitoes were fierce in the evening. We held sticks to bat them away and it became a bit of a game.


Batting away mosquitoes

The guest room had a great view over the Gauja Valley, where could see the brightness of the sky. This shot was snapped around midnight.


Twilight in the North

On our day into the town of Cesis, we went to the Cesis castle. Lanterns and hardhats are supplied in the visit. It would not pass US safety standards to wander around and hit your head on the walls and go down a narrow ladder into a former prison pit. The pit was a bit spooky and we took some funny pictures.


Lanterns in the pit

Someone took a shot of me climbing down the ladder. Hey!





The castle has been slowly restored and they are still finding new goodies everyday with digs. An old statue of Lenin is also laid to rest in the castle grounds. A freedom monument has replaced his spot in the city center.



Another fun activity was badminton in the front yard. Soon we will also have a grass field for playing golf or ultimate.



Back in Riga, we saw a few more sights and hung out with Aaron and his friends. Sorry that this post is so short.