Riga, Latvia - May 27, 2008

This was a sunny but cool day in Riga. We started walking, seeing the Art Nouveau architecture. It is well preserved in the Old Town of Riga. My favourite is the dragon. Our tour guide filled our heads with all kinds of information. My notes say that I must look this up on line, but cannot find a satisfactory site that shows a good photo gallery and gives the history or names of the buildings. We did a stop at the huge market. Many stalls where they were selling a huge variety of food and produce. The spice lady was not very happy about the tourists snapping her. The fish did not seem to mind the camera.

Over the last 4 days we took our Model T to the Nanaimo area for the Island Challenge. The Nanaimo club put together a terrific tour -- good friends, good food, good weather, wonderful tours. We were at at wildlife rescue center, at Englishman River Falls, as well as touring some of the areas off the main highway, where we would never see otherwise.

We now have some of our draperies installed. More to come yet. I also got an email from the Kitchen Technician giving me a quote on what the renovations we talked of in my kitchen would cost, not including counter tops, lighting, nor any very detailed costing of materials or labor. Dean does not seem very enthusiastic about the job. I need more quotes, so I spent the afternoon reading about some of the renovation places on the internet.

I won the silent auction for the painting - Unbridled - that Ducks Unlimited had set up. The picture was delivered on Wednesday last. We hung it facing the hallway, so that when you come from the back of the house you see the horses running at you! The print of the painting had a minimum bid of $250. I bid $276.50. They added delivery costs and tax to it and it came to $325. Its worth it though, even if its only a print. I really like it.