Sunny weather ...but don't blink

....because it is gone before you know it. Like they say in Calgary, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. Except for here...if you like it..wait 5 minutes and the clouds will be back.
Despite this, Cheryl and I decided to take advantage of the break in the clouds in the morning to go check out the National Forest area which has many lakes in it. We had heard there might be some sort of resort or cabin area there on the lakes.

Our first stop though was to check out the storks in their nests in a farmer's yard. Apparently, having your own resident stork family is viewed as a sign of good luck...so maybe this was an auspicious start for us as well?? There was a guard billy goat tethered right below.




On the way to Plateliai we came across a sign directing us to a cabin area. Thinking this might be what we had heard about, we ventured down this little country road and into what looked like a farmyard. Just behind the barn, the scene opened up and there wee several very tiny cabins around a pond. Cheryl said that that this was a bit too rustic for her tastes...outdoor johns, well water, etc.

We kept going until we found the actual village of Plateliai and and numerous signs promising accommodation. Many of them appeared to be similar to a B and B, but there were others that had fancier individual cabin set ups. Eventually we came across the Yacht club.



We decided to have lunch here before going on...we had TEXCAN beef...which was some type of marinated stir fired beef on a bed of rice. Not very spicy so not sure where the Tex came from , but like all the meat here, it was very tender and and flavourful.

Back on the road we came across an interesting Art gallery...privately run by a local artist..called Leonardo. He was also suitably attired in Picasso -like striped long sleeve T shirt and wore a jaunty mates cap. We should have taken his picture but I think I am still a bit shy to push myself on people like that. You can see that he also did carvings by the fine looking totem outside. You run across many of these carved images or totems in Lithuania. Not sure how this developed or the significance yet.

We stopped initially to take a picture of one of the large Totems in the yard and and then I decided to peek in the door that was ajar but chained across. As I was doing that the artist himself came by and and invited us in.
The place was interesting mix of local antiques, junk and original paintings and carvings done by our host. We wandered around the 2 floors of this old mill before Cheryl purchased one of the smaller wooden carvings. Time to go back to Mazeikiai and shop for dinner. Labanacht!