We can't believe it--our kind and generous friends Marc and Julie
from Alpine came to visit us! Marc
has been our wonderful property manager of our house now for 5 years! He does it out of the goodness of his heart,
not keeping track of the time he helps us, and always joking about we owe his a
million dollars for his services, an amount of course he knows we don't have,
and then won't take money when we try to pay him. He has saved us so much money over the last 5
years. It's impossible to thank him
enough! So we were excited to hear they
were coming to Riga so they could stay with us and we could spoil them with
food and tour guides. They decided to
stay in a hotel downtown though because they didn't want to be a "burden." They give and give and never want to put
anyone out. That's frustrating for those
of us who want to give back!
Briant and I did love playing tour guides for a
day though and catching up with them. We appreciated the time they took in all
their world travels (and they are many) to come see us in Latvia. We only got
to see them on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and then Sunday morning they
joined us at church for sacrament meeting where they were able to see the kids. Then they were off in their rental car to
explore more of Latvia and Lithuania before they flew to Denmark to see Kristine
J. from our Alpine ward who is serving a temple mission there. Being with Marc and Julie reminded us of all
the reasons we love and miss them!
We got to take Marc and Julie to our favorite medieval
restaurant called Lasite. It was a good
break from walking around the sights. We
also took them to Muse Maia, our favorite upscale souvenir store. Then we hit all the major sites—House of the
Blackheads, the first Christmas tree, the Doma church, some Soviet Union
monuments like "Stalin's birthday cake," and also stopped at a Lithuanian
festival after visiting inside of Central market.
Muse Maia feels like a second home to Bri. He (and I) would have bought the whole store (or at least moved in) if we could! Everything was homemade--wood, pottery, fabrics, jewelry, etc. It represented the best parts of Latvia--beautiful and cozy. The only part we didn't like about it were the prices!
Lithuanian traditional dance
We didn't taste this, but it looked good!
And Bri of course told them the story of the "Town Musicians Bremen," a popular fairy tale retrieved and recorded by the Brothers Grimm. It was gifted by the city of Bremen, Germany in 1990 and the animals aren't looking into window of a house like they do in the fairy tale, but instead are looking through an iron curtain...at their independence.
We look forward to seeing Marc and Julie again
this summer back in Utah!
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