Russia

We had a fabulous trip to Russia with 6 other couples, Warren and Sue Wainwright, Arnie and Marion Lyon from California, Glen and Shirley Spunaugle from Oklahoma, Jack and Leona Kofoed, Dennis and Cherry Good from British Coumbia, and Kent and Sharon Chappell from New Hampshire. We were on a river boat cruise that started in St. Petersburg and ended in Moscow with quaint little Russian villages along the Volga river. We crossed Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega which are the two biggest lakes in Europe. One of the Villages, Kizhi, was an island pretty far up north on the Volga. We were warned to stay on the path as they island had a "Viper" problem. Oh yea....I stayed on the path. I fret over the gofer snakes here at home....I definetly was going to stay on that path for vipers. We saw the russian ballet, Swan Lake in St. Petersburg. Don actually only slept through 3/4. The russians have an odd thing they do, they come out and take bows at intermission, Don put on his coat because he thought for sure it's over, he was sooooo dissapointed when he realized that it was just intermission. He kept his coat on well into the 2nd half, wishful thinking I think. We had meeting in St. Petersburg at the sister workers bach and it was very very special to meet that little group of friends. They fed us lunch then we had a little testimony meeting, which was special to hear those Russian testimonies, then we were back to the ship. The sisters were able to spend a little time touring with us when Stephanie was not in school. Moscow was incredible. A huge and mostly wealthy city. 13 million. We met Enid and Lyle Dean who have a condo there and the brother workers and had wed. meeting. The Kremlin and red Square were a once in a life time memory for me. I could have spent a week just sitting there soaking in the history. So much history. We saw the old KGB building. The russians have a saying, the building is the highest place in Russia, from the basement you can see Siberia. :) Russia was not someplace I ever thought I would place high on my places to see list, but we are so glad to have been there. What a country. What an awesome trip!