Jamie and I got back Tuesday night from our trip to Russia, where we took a river cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Here are the highlights, with a few pictures. A more complete set of pictures is in the 2010 Russia trip album on TypePad, which you can reach directly by clicking here. They aren't labeled, but maybe I'll get around to that this weekend.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
After a late night packing, we left Shreveport at 11 am for Atlanta and then had a long but comfortable direct flight to Moscow.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
When we arrived in Moscow, we were surprised to see that the city was literally covered in smoke from the forest and peat bog fires around the city. We caught the transfer to the ship, docked at the 1937 boat terminal. 
Moscow was very hot as well, although not as bad as we had heard, so we were happy to spend the afternoon either in our room resting or in the dining room snacking or having dinner.
Friday, July 30, 2010
We had the morning off to keep resting, which encouraged my unfortunate tendency this trip to nap at least once and usually twice a day. We then spent the afternoon on a Moscow city tour by bus, 
including a ride on the Metro, and a walking visit of Red Square and GUM
. A highlight of sorts was the squat toilets near Moscow University, which made a definite impression on our group. We ended the day with a music concert by the Russian folk orchestra Moskva at a former urban palace near the Kremlin that we enjoyed very much - although it was hot.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
We spent the day touring the famous Trinity monastery of St. Sergius at Sergiev-Posad, which is located a long drive east of Moscow 
Jamie was the envy of all the other passengers because she brought a little fan for the tours, which were extremely hot inside the old churches. We had a long break when we got back to the ship, then got back on the bus to take a nighttime tour of the sights of Moscow
, 
which we really enjoyed.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Sunday was the guided tour of the Moscow Kremlin, which we enjoyed very much. The ship set sail at 2:30 pm on the Moscow Canal, headed for the Volga River. 
Monday, August 2, 2010
Stopped in the very small town of 
Uglich Monday afternoon. Had a walking tour around the tiny town kremlin and really enjoyed the church of St. Dimitry on the spilled blood, as well as the little shops, and another brief concert by a men's vocal group. Picked up our Santa Claus carving, church ornaments, a Russian shirt for the boys, and a little print of St. Dimitry's at the vendor booths on the way back to the ship.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Today we had a long tour of the city of Yaroslavl, a provincial capital of about 650,000. We toured two old cathedrals, the riverside park under construction (next to the reconstructed cathedral) and the downtown park next to the market. Jamie picked up a lacquered wooden box after watching a presentation on how they are made. Very, very, very smoky all day from the fires.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
We arrived at Kuzino/Goritzy, and took a bus tour to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery
, which was at one time the largest monastery in Russia. It also has a very well-done museum with icons and other artifacts. We also enjoyed the bus ride through the forests of the national park to and from the monastery.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Spent the morning at Kizhi, where the giant wooden church is
, as well as a lot of other wooden structures. Very interesting tour, but very humid and hot. We managed to make it through the day without taking a nap and crashed right after dinner, finally both sleeping all night. We'd been taking a lot of naps the first week, which meant I at least usually wasn't sleeping all night, so this was a nice break. As usual, we spent a lot of time on the iPad checking the boys' pictures from Camp Fern!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Got to 
Mandrogy midmorning and spent a couple of hours walking around. Great shopping and really enjoyed the walk around the fairy tale island taking pictures of the carved figures 
and looking at the animals. I picked up three more watercolors, this time of Kizhi, the "on the blood" church from St. Petersburg and one of a lady riding with her dog. Back on the ship we had lunch and then I went to the lecture on the Romanovs.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
We docked at St. Petersburg at 8:30 am and after breakfast went to a seminar on the debarkation procedures before boarding our bus for a three-hour tour of the Hermitage museum at the Winter Palace. 
We had a very early dinner, then it was back on the buses for a performance of Swan Lake at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. It was very hot in the un-air conditioned 18th century auditorium, but we enjoyed the performance.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Morning was a tour of the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Seloe, 
then in the afternoon 
we went on a city tour by bus, including stops all over town. We came back to the ship for a slightly early dinner, then spent the evening watching the Cossack folklore show. Again, very hot, and the city, which had been clear the day before, was covered by smoke as the day went on.
Monday, August 9, 2010
We started our tour of 
Peterhof early in the morning, then spent the later afternoon touring the gardens before heading back to the ship for lunch, followed back an afternoon minibus trip back to the city center. We were dropped off at the arts square just off Nevsky Prospect, and walked up to the 
Resurrection Church "on the blood" built on the site where Alexander II was assassinated. 
We then went souvenir shopping and picked up baseball hats and other souvenirs before boarding the bus at 6:15 for what turned out to be an hour-long ride in traffic back to the ship.
We had our best dinner yet (reindeer) with the former Baylor professor and his wife (Steven and Patsy) from England and Scott and Elena Mosko from California and stayed up late packing and weighing repeatedly to get our three checked bags under the 20 kilos required for the short flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow the next morning.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Departure day always starts too early- we were up at 5:30 am for our shuttle to the airport at 6:45. No problems making the Rossiya flight to Moscow at 8:40, and then the Atlanta flight at 12:40. I actually had a great time watching movies and TV episodes on the seat back TV and got some naps in before we reached Atlanta. Once through customs we had a long drink (Coke with lots of ice and a margarita) at the Chili's and picked up a couple of new fiction books via Kindle, and had a comfortable flight back to Shreveport. Once home we have three days to get our personal and professional lives back together before we resume parenting Saturday by picking the boys up at Camp Fern!
