Next we made our way out to Ks land. Gravel roads with no road signs. So you better know where you are going! I can tell why they like to spend time out there.
Some day they have a dream of making their land into a nature conservancy and bed and breakfast. Their land includes dry swamps, swamps, forest and fields. And we just got to see a tiny little sliver of it! They've done a lot of work clearing out a portion of the forest and clearing out some of the fields. They have two fire pits, a big one and a little one. They've also worked hard to put up the first building there in 60 years - an outhouse (free of charge!). Here is the tree that started it all - this is where the clearing of the forest started:
They chopped all of the trees into fire wood that they cut down. My sister and I had to haul it from storage to the clearing so that we could use it on Saturday night.
Other things that needed to be done were mowing and setting up tents.
In Latvian tradition, you do not have bridesmaids. Instead you choose a couple that you admire, and they then bring you into married life, and are people that you can always turn to in times of need. They are called the vedej paris. The husband, Raitis came to help with the talka. He also brought their wedding present which was a picnic table. It needed to be put together so Raitis gave it a try.
He was having some difficulty making it all match up, so my mom and I gave it a try. We did very well and got it almost put together.
In the end, all of the men stood around talking about how it all got put together. :)
The stayed to finish the work at the land, and the ladies went back to Riga to finish up other things that needed to get done for the wedding. Here is where I get to tell the story of Ojars (D and Ks car). It is a crazy, crazy vehicle. First of all theft is quite a problem in Latvia. This all came about during the communist times, and it has not gotten better, and the economy is not the greatest there either. So car alarms are a must. One joke that people like to play on each other is to sell a car, and then steal it back the next day. So car alarms must be very sofisticated. So in Ojars, you have to go through a long process of putting the key in, turning it just so, pushing this button, wait until this light goes off and only then can you turn the car on fully.
And of course visited more beer gardens:
My second cousin Liva was on a teenager-group trip to Latvia. She had some free time this day, so we got to meet up with her for a little bit. We got to hear about all of the cool things she got to see while she had been in Latvia. I felt bad for her, because when she got home she had one day to do her laundry and repack to go to the Latvian summer high school in Michigan for 6 weeks. 
That night D prepared a Latvian casserole for us. One that she had found in a Latvian magazine. There are some foods that you just cannot get in Latvia, so she has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to cooking. (I don't think I could make it very long without cheddar cheese for example). 
Ks parents came over for dinner. They were in Latvia for the wedding as well, but they are fortunate enough to be able to stay in Latvia for a little longer than we were able to. This week in Latvia is the big song and dance festivle. So they get to see all of the cool things that are going on with that. Just to give you an idea of how big this festivle is, I talked with my sister today at 3pm Latvian time, and the parade of all of the participants had been going on since 11am!
We met up with my parents at the airport, as they were on the same flight as us. AAs backpack got searched on the way in because of the styluses in our Nintendo DS (apparetnly they look like sharp objects in the x-ray machine). Our flight left at 4:30 pm. One very cool and unexpected thing on the plane was that on the back of every seat there was a screen. There were over a dozen movies to choose from, games to play and a very cool feature where you could look at cameras that were attached to the front of the plane, or the bottom of the plane looking down. So we got to see some pretty cool views. The first part of the trip was from Chicago to Stockholm, Sweeden. This was about 8 hours. This got to be quite long for AA as his legs are so long. We all slept a little, except for my mom who got addicted to the game, Shanghai. We had about a 3 hour layover in Stockholm. There was some pretty cool art in the airport, and we were antsy to start taking some pictures. So here is the Stockholm airport:
Then we took a propeller plane from Stockholm to Riga (the capital of Latvia). I was quite scared flying on this plane, as you could feel every little bit of turbulance. Then, I saw Latvia! Everyone else was sleeping, but I could not keep my eyes off of it. For 27 years I have been dreaming of going, and I was about to land! Here are a couple of the pictures from the plane, none of which truly describe the feeling;
We finally landed at about 12:30 pm Latvia time (they are 8 hours ahead of us). Then we got our baggage (which by the way we spent hours packing and repacking the night before to make sure that none of the bags exceeded 50 pounds - we had 3 bags). Luckly nothing got lost. Diana and Karlis were waiting for us at the terminal. The complete opposite of the O'Hare checkpoint, there was no security at the checkpoint to get into Latvia. We did not even get a Latvian stamp in our passport. D and K had a van cab waiting for us and had fresh piragi! (For those of you who do not know, these are our favorite Latvian food. It is fried ham, bacon and onions with seasoning wrapped in bread.) AA and I decided that we were on a mission to eat at least 100 piragi while in Latvia. I have a recipe to make them, but it takes about 5 hours to make about 250. So if you can get someone else to do the work - that is good. My sister also greeted my mom and I with 3 gerbere daisies each. It is customary to bring flowers to people when you meet with them. When you go to visit them at their house, even if you know them very well, you usually will bring flowers with you. (Pastries or breads are a good second choice.) Because of this there are many s flower stands on the streets of Latvia. Many of them have beautiful bouquets and you will never see even a slightly wilting flower. Back to the original point here. As we were driving into Riga to D and K's apartment, K was describing some of the buildings and pointing things out to us. Two things struck me at this time. One is that people drive like maniacs in Latvia. On a typical 2 lane street - most people in Latvia will usually make this a 3 lane street. Now this is just city traffic. Once we get outside of the city, I have more stories about that kind of driving. Also, the trolley buses and regular buses get right of way over cars, so if one pulls out ahead of you, you better make way. Luckly everyone uses their turn signals at all times (contrary to the US). The second thing that I noticed was that during the Solviet times many buildings were not taken care of. I was shocked to see the state that some buildings were in, but happily surprised to see how much reconstruction was going on in the city.
He was a commander for the Latvian army, and the little Latvian school that we attended in Milwaukee was named after him. While walking through the park, something just completely wierd, and that you would never see in the US. This is one of the kid jumping blow up bouncing things - of the Titanic...
Something that apparently shows up every summer and the kids enjoy.
On the day that we went, there were not guards there. Usually there are two guards that stand there for hour shifts. Like in the UK - still as can be and cannot be distracted. My grandpa used to have a shift there too. Here is a picture with the guards on a different day we were in Riga:
Here is a famous clock in Latvia. Laima is the name of the most famous chocolate maker in Latvia. It is in a pretty central location in Riga, so it is a famous meeting point. We took a photo of my sister and mom in front of it because Laima is both of their middle names. Laima is the name of the goddess of good fortune in the old Latvian religion.
We stopped at a couple of the little stands to look at the amber jewelry and other Latvian items for sale. That evening we went to a bar called Kiploku Krogs - translated Garlic Bar. 
We ordered appetizers which included all garlic or garlic infused items. 
In the middle of the big plate is roasted garlic. You just plucked it out with a toothpick and ate it. On the right are garlic breadsticks and the green stalks are the stalks that grow out of a garlic if you leave it too long. Then at the bottom of the plate is garlic fetta, then garlic cloves marinated in a marinara type sauce, then garlic infused mushrooms and garlic infused olives. We all drank Bauskas alus (alus = beer - the first Latvian word that AA ever learned). All of the beers that we drank are all of micro-brewery quality. Also, because beers are so much better there, many are drunk at room temperature - something that was a little hard to get used to. We have yet to drink any American beers, as we are sure they will taste like water to us after being spoiled by Latvian beers. To the right of the beer you can see my Evian water. First bit of culture shock. First of all you are not brought a glass or water when you sit down at a restaurant like here. You need to order it. Second everyone drinks carbonated mineral water. So you need to make sure you ask for non-carbonated water. It cracked me up that they brought me a wine glass to pour my water into. Lastly, if you want ice for your water, you have another thing coming to you. Luckily, water, unlike beer usually arrives cold. There was also a basket of dark bread. Which I am usually not a big fan of, but for whatever reason, it tasted much better in Latvia. On the left you can see the two sauces for the bread. One was a mild garlic butter and the other a spicy garlic pesto. Both were extremely good. I don't like olives, but decided that a garlic infused one might be alright. So here is proof that I tried it. As you can see from my sisters face, she does not like olives either.
I have to say that even garlic infused olives are no better than regular olives.
Mara and Joel came to meet us at the beer garden. They just recently got engaged and are getting married in Mexico next year. They are both teachers at international schools and are in the process of moving to Mongolia! Mara was not so pleased with Joel's new choice for facial hair... 
But they are a very cute and fun couple to hang out with! Joel has been intensley working on his Latvian, and it is extremely good now!
Culture shocker #2. Bathrooms. Here we are so used to having bathrooms readily available for us to use at any time. In Latvia, you must be a patron to use bathrooms, and most of the time they are small, don't always smell the greatest and sometimes you are lucky if you get toilet paper. If it is free, even better. So at this beer garden, there were outside toilets that cost 20 santimi. (Latvian currancy is Lats and Santimi. 100 Santimi = 1 Lats. Conversion was approximately 1 Lats = $2.25 US dollars). So you do the shuffle to use the restrooms. One person goes in, comes out, and holds the door open for the next person - if you can get your 20 santimi to open it in the first place... Sometimes it just didn't work and it stole your money. Needless to say, we always made sure that we had change... I will tell you that there is a great bathroom story later in our trip.