House of blues

Lots of good classes today. Now some good food and music at house of blues. 

Nola

I'm in New Orleans for eye convention- surrounded by blue blazers and booth babes. Will is joining me tonight. 

Unfortunately someone here can't spell ophthalmology. 

Welcome Sam.

Samwise Storm Mason was born at 7 pm last night. He's a big baby. 9-8. Rachel did great and feels pretty good today. Jack was pleased to see his new brother. He's been doing great. Jack spent the night with us in a hotel so Ben could sleep. Amanda took care of jack all day yesterday. Will and I were glad we could help today. 

Sam's middle name comes from the continuous rainstorms that have flooded north central colorado. 

Paris Day 2

Beautiful day for walking (19,000+ steps per Susan's wrist meter). Mostly sunny. Nice breeze. Ate. Museumed. Ate. Shopped. Had great fun. A delightful evening with Jackie Smith who said she last saw me when i was 3 years old. We had a delicious dinner, then strolled throught the Marais district listening to multiple impromptu outdoor musical gatherings for the Fete de la Musique. Here are some pics:

Paris

We flew via Scandanavian SAS from St Petersburg to Paris with a stop in Copenhagen. France has had flooding rains. The freeway from Charles De Gaulle airport to town was also flooded.  Compared with Russia, Paris is vibrant!  St Pete, with its pastel palette, even in sunshine, can't compare with the action, diversity, and splendor of Paris. Plus, the food here is the best. We're eating we'll, walking and taking the Metro, shopping a bit, seeing museums a lot. Our first day included the Louvre and the Orangerie museums. Here are some pics:

Food

Some delicious things we've enjoyed:  

This dessert was chocolate cake with ganache with some kind of cookie/rice crispy layer and caramel. Very good. 

This doesn't look good but guidebooks say its delicious. And they're right. Meet with gelatinous gravy. 

Borscht. Not as good as carolynns but still good. 

When in at petersberg one must eat stragonov. Very good. 

More St Petersburg

Today we enjoyed temperatures in the 60's under summer Arctic Circle sunshine. At 59.93 degrees North latitude, at noon, the sun was only 1/3 up from the horizon. We visited The Hermitage, which was the Tsar's winter palace. Now, it's the national museum of international renown. To us, the art was rivaled by the palatial splendor. Like Paris's Louvre, The Hermitage sits at the bank of the city's river, making for terrific views. We also did some souvenir-shopping, ate good food, tried the subway, listened to street musicians, and soaked up the sights. Here are a few photos: Me and Susan on the grand staircase of the Winter Palac; Susan and Amanda having fun with a very friendly souvenir salesman near the onion/turban-domed Church On The Spilled Blood. 

More Moscow

Highlights have included: the ballet Don Quixote" at the Stanislov Theater -- with enthusiastic "brrrraavo"'s throughout the performance, shouted by two men seated right next to Susan, and with about 8 curtain calls by audience who crowded the orchestra pit railing; the Moscow Circus, without the usual circus animal smells despite multiple animal acts, including trained birds, horses, dogs, and elephants (whose toenails were painted white). Very smooth and professional show; Georgian food, Ukrainian food; Red square, with Lenin's tomb overshadowed by GUM, a large, well-stocked, sunlit mall;  St. Basil's Cathedral, with It's A Small World whimsical twisty-cone ice cream domes;  weddings galore, with bridal parties out for pics at all the monuments we visited; Metro stations named and decorated for artists, scientists (see the pic of Susan and Amanda beneath Metro chandeliers of chemistry ball/stick models at the Mendeleev Station), thinkers, and even memorializing canine cosmonauts. Here are a few pictures:

St Petersburg

Yesterday we flew one hour from Moscow to St Petersburg. A city of rivers and canals, with nearly 24 hours of sunshine at this summer solstice. After arrival, we walked much of the old downtown region, but today we had the treat of a guide. Boris is an acquaintance of Dean and Carolynn. He showed us "his town".  He helped us understand why Peter the Great is his hero. We got to learn more about life in newly capitalist Russia from a family man with 2 daughters and 1 son -- same as me!  Here are pics of us at riverside with view of original red tar-fueled lighthouse, at lunch for blinis, at Peterhof, and at the view from Peterhof of the Bay of Finland, and in front of the WWI ship whose deck gun shot the blank that signaled revolutionary storming of the Palace and starting the Communist Revolution.  

Not a consistent blogger

I've been really bad about blogging.  The last few nights have been late but very delightful. 

For more details on our trip visit Amanda's blog at chitarita.blogspot.com. 

Dean and carolynn met us at the airport and herded us thru trains, trams and metros to their beautiful home. Carolynn had fixed borscht and dean made some delicious bread. It was very good. We talked until well after 1:00 am. 

Friday we visited victory park and a museum about ww2. After a snack at a potato shack we visited the museum for tolerance including a 4d movie about the Jewish creation. 

Very deep subway

Beautiful stained glass in subway

Victory park

More victory park with one of the seven sisters in the background and aj  in foreground. 

Moscow

We flew from London's Heathrow Airport via Warsaw's Chopin Airport to Moscow. Our friends from home, Dean and Carolynn Sonda-Smart, are graciously hosting us. They are serving as church area medical advisor and mental health advisor, respectively. They have a spacious apartment. They're adept guides and very energetic. Sunset is at 10:30 PM. We have been up until after 1 AM both nights, so far.  Here are a couple of pictures. The panorama of Red Square catches Dean and Carolynn at the lower right.  It also shows Amanda at the left (and also from behind at the lower right -- she moved as the camera slowly panned).  The pic on the electric tram is of Carolynn and Susan. 

Sitting in Chopin airport

Waiting for our late plane. At least there's free wifi. 

Colorful London

Despite being grey and misty the whole time here (perfect london weather) this can be a colorful city. 

A great end

We ended the night with a quick stop to see parliament And the London eye. 

Goodbye London

Yesterday we started the morning at harrods. Amanda and I me never got out of the food court. Amazing goodies. I look At the peacock decorations in themeT section differently now that I've seen supersizers go. Will wandered thru the whole store. We visited the "luxury" washroom But decided little America in Wyoming still has the best. 

Next we went to the borough market in the London bridge train tracks. Beautiful food displays nice people. We had steamed milk cocoa nibs tea, salt beef sandwiches , fig and mushroom sausage with pecorino cheese and mango sticky rice. Delicious. 

We walked to Shakespeare's globe theatre  a d had fun shoppi g for souvenirs surrounded by school kids there to see a show. 

We crossed the millennium bridge to St. Paul's and didn't go because admission was 14 pounds each!?!  We went to the muse of London. Very nice exhibit about the history of London. There were some french school boys there who were searching for various artifacts for an assignment. There was one they couldn't find. They asked if we had seen it. They said they had "cherche'd" but couldn't find it. Very cute.  

We decided to see a play at the rose theatre. The foundation for the rose was found about 30 years ago when the city was tearing sown an old building. A mew building is now built onto of the site. This was presented by a group of people trying to raise funds to have an archeological dig at the site. The play was on a tiny platform over the dig site. Cold dark and no facilities. The poor acting was made up for by their enthusiasm. 

Before the play we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant called tas pide. Very good

London

Fun 3 days in London. Some snaps of us about town: Amanda and Susan shopping at Covent Garden; riding the escalator of The Underground; view from Millenium Bridge with Tower Bridge, new "Shard" high-rise, old-ish Globe Theater, and Tate Modern Museum; the ladies in front of St Paul's; me at St Pancras with curious cloud art.