Attitude is Everything!!

Lately we have been planning a trip to Estonia with some friends. Latvia's independence day led to a longer weekend and we decided to spend it there. I had long wanted to go to some islands Janis has told me about, and another friend felt the same. So Saturday morning at 5:30 am. 6 adults and 3 children (2 and under) all piled into a van and off we headed.
The "fun" began when the borrowed van began having a wide display of service lights start lighting up. We were at a loss to know whether to call the owner at that unearthly hour or continue one. The van seemed to be running fine, but the lights were giving warnings of unseen problems. We finally stopped at a gas station and my husband, who can fix anything it seems, went to work. We wives were praying hard and God did give Janis the wisdom to fix it. We were SUPER thankful to get on the road again, as we had a ferry to catch.
After crossing the border (there are now now passport controls) we were soon pulled over and our passports were checked. Good thing we had them with, supposedly you don't need them when traveling by car within the EU.
We arrived on time and had a nice ride to the island of Saarema. We saw some houses fashioned after the way they used to be made in Estonia, with reed roofs. We walked around in the rain looking at these old houses. Then we headed to a quaint town where we got to visit a castle. It is the best preserved castle I have ever been in and it was so much fun to go wandering through it, it just kept going on and on. Janis watched Daniel and so I was able to meander through the castle. It was very impressive. Afterwards I even fed Daniel in the castle, it was such an odd feeling to be feeding my baby within such ancient, silent walls.
We then headed to the port, where we were to catch our next ferry after a couple of hours. We had hoped to eat in a nearby town. But there was nowhere to eat. (November isn't exactly prime tourist time). We then decided just to wait till our ship left and eat in the car. A man came along after about 15 minutes and told us due to the high winds the ship couldn't leave its port, so it wouldn't be coming. So we had to decide on a new plan. We decided to try to catch a ferry back to the mainland of Estonia, which meant we wouldn't get to stay at our originally planned guest house. We were all rather disappointed about that, as it had looked so cute.
We drove a long time before we saw a place to stay. It was a nice guest house, though rather pricey, but they gave us a great breakfast.
The next day we caught a different ferry over to the next island, Hiumaa. We went to a lighthouse, and explored some old military compound buildings. (The men did that is). We saw another lighthouse as it was getting dark, which is the third oldest working lighthouse in the world.
The place we stayed that second night was one I had found a long time ago, and it was so comfy, cozy and cute. We all enjoyed the fireplace and rustic atmosphere.
The next day was my birthday and our friends made a nice breakfast and presented me with gifts and hugs. The remainder of the day we did a bit more sightseeing and headed home.
By the last day the kids were REALLY crabby, and it was a trial to everyone. At the last place we had lunch in they all kept crying at various times. That was stressful. . .
This whole trip was fun, but we had to keep reminding ourselves to keep a good attitude. Traveling with others is challenging when they have differing opinions of when to do things and what to do. We entered into a whole new level of friendship with these friends by these new challenges.