May 16, 2012  7:00 p.m.  (Finished at 10:00)

We left work early enough this evening, about 5:30, that we are home, having eaten dinner (some Alfredo sauce the children sent) on some noodles the Russians sent, plus some sok (juice.)

It is a lovely evening, about 65 F.  It has been cool and rainy lately, but sunny today.  That's good because the dandelions are doing well.  You will see a picture in a bit.

Last Friday we left work about an hour early and with the Walker's, wended our way to nearly the end of the Green line so that we could see the park in which is situated one of Catherine (Yekaterina) the Great's palaces. It was built toward the end of the 18th century.  The story is that she came to see it, wandered around for few hours, did not like it, and never came back.

It is quite a striking complex of buildings, grounds and water features.  The flowers were outstanding.  In the middle of the grounds is a lovely fountain, computer controlled, which later in the evening is lit from under the H2O.  I have a few pictures.

The next day we returned to Red Square and its environs, for our 2nd visit.  We have been there so often they are beginning to recognize us.  Oh, wait, they already know who we are.

We did this frantic touring partly to expose a law intern to these sites while he is with us.  He is Travis Hunt, a 1st year BYU law student.  He is bunking with the Walker's for about a month, who as you might remember, work in the Area's legal office.

I don't have pictures but I would like to wax on a bit about Church on Sunday.  We attend, as you might recall, the International Ward, where English is the language of choice, but, oh my, what a variety of people we have in the ward!

The sacrament was administered by four Africans, one Colombian and one American boy.  An African, Serge, from DR Congo,was confirmed a member of the Church, in French.  He is a very pleasant man and was leaving the next day to go to South Africa in search of work.  He had come to Moscow looking for work and instead found the gospel.

Later in HP group I asked the nice man who confirmed Serge how he had kept up his French so well.  (I knew he had served there as a missionary, but that was 20+ years ago.)  He said, "If you are really interested I will tell you after the group meeting."  I said I was, and so he told me his story after the meeting.

He started his mission with companions who were not at all good with the language, but by the end of two years he had gotten pretty good.  After his mission he was sitting in his BYU dorm room one night thinking about how he could keep up his French while he studied to be an engineer.  (He now works for an oil company and every Monday morning he takes a flight to some outpost north of the Arctic Circle and then comes 'home' on Friday evening.)  So, at BYU as he pondered his French future, he decided to make a deal with the Lord.

Now, we pause to acknowledge that that concept is fraught with danger.  One does not typically dicker with God.  He knew that and went on to explain his deal.  He said, "Lord, I will pray night and day in French if you will help me keep this language alive in my mind."  And so he did.

Shortly after graduating he got a job in the oil patch in southern Louisiana.  Where else can one go in the US and speak French regularly?  One of his first overseas jobs was in Vietnam, a former French colony.  He has worked in China where he hired a gardener or housekeeper (I don't remember which) who spoke French.

As we talked in the empty HP meeting room I noticed a tall, black, recent convert, sister, standing in the doorway.  It was clear that she wanted to talk to someone, and it was not me.  She waited patiently for several minutes but finally eased her way over to stand next to us.  It developed that she had previously asked Brother Fryer (my oil patch friend) for a blessing.  She has been a member of the Church for about two weeks.  He invited me to help him with the blessing, again in French.  It was fun to listen, and understand about 50% of what was said.

Anyway, on to the pictures and the witty commentary.

Helicopters practicing for the May 9 Red Square performance.  Each helicopter is carrying a flag of some kind.
We saw these do a flyby when we watched the parade on TV.

A morning scene out our window.

We see this as we walk to the grocery store.

A dog, a cat, or a candidate for the meat wagon.

Sister Johnson is fascinated by these branch brooms.  She thought she would sneak a picture of this nice young man w/o him noticing, but it was not to be.

Our Russian friends had the first three days of last week off as part of the May 9 celebration.  We cross this street, risking our lives, every morning on the way to "work."  On this morning we were about alone in the city.

Marlene purchased some rain boots a few weeks ago and this was her first opportunity to flout them.
She tromps straight through the puddles, while I skirt lightly around them in my loafers. 

Another morning view.  Lots of moisture in the air.

Our street crossing on a normal day.

Just inside the entrance to Catherine's palace grounds.  

A sketch of the area.  The word in the upper left decodes to:  Tsar ish ina.  (Tsar = Czar)

These appear to be some kind of tulip.  At least the green part looks like a tulip stem.

Crossing a bridge to the fountain.  The babe has some strange ice cream bar in each hand.  I had to wrestle her for my share of the goodies.  You can see the palace way off  in the distance.  When we got closer to the buildings I never could get the whole thing in one picture frame because it was so extensive.
We are about 20 or 25 miles SE of downtown Moscow.  This would have been a country home 200 years ago.

What is going on here?
Sister Johnson has decided that she wants a blouse like the lady on the left.

You can look it up if you want.  I encourage you to go there. It is a nice web site:  

http://www.tsaritsyno-museum.ru/ru/

The SE corner of the palace.

One of the many striking towers.

A mock up of the estate.

This is the gate between the large building on the left and the main structure.  It's striking.

A cute girl in a cute hat.

I think one of these figures is a young Geo. Washington, but maybe not.

Tourists at rest.  Travis is on the left.

We are on top of a bridge that crosses a depression leading to the palace with is at our rear, or in our rear, or behind us.

The water from the left flows into a small lake that surrounds the lovely fountain in the next photo.  This is how the gardeners keep the 'stuff' from floating all over the lake.

We are en route back to the Metro and have paused to catch the light show.

More light and water show.

Two workers hard at it. When we first saw these men the box on the right was holding up better.

The carrots here are enormous.  The one on top is probably three feet long, or close to it.

The gardener is packing the bags to roll the groceries home.

The dandelions are doing well.  We have seen several young women make crowns of these to wear.

This display is just north of the north entrance into Red Square, which is just to our right in this picture.
Y'all have probably seen the movie.

I messed up here and missed the bottom of the sign.  It says, "Kill Bill, and is an ad for a sushi store.  You would have laughed had I not messed up.

Inside Red Square.  This is the famous GUM mall that faces the Kremlin, which is behind us. The Russian characters are 

 ГУМ = G oo m, or goom.  The initials stand for Main Universal Magazine.  Back in the day, this mall was designed to show the wonders of communism by demonstrating that the commies could provide really good stuff for the citizens.  It is a striking building, especially from the inside.

St Basil's.  We are on our way to tour the inside.

Lenin's tomb again.  I can't bring myself to give the state money to see the embalmed remains.

Inside the Goom.  Lots of very high-end stores.  We only spent about 10 minutes wandering around inside, but one could spend hours.

Several high end cars were parked around the store.  This was a nice looking Jag.  You cannot see it well but the color is a very deep chocolate.

The Russians love to pose for their pictures.  The lilacs were at their peak.
We are about to pay our 250 rubles to get into the cathedral.

For such a massive building the rooms inside were quite small.
We are taking a very narrow, winding, stairway to the 2nd floor.

The view of the outside from inside the cathedral.  We are looking north across the square.  One enters from the north end to the right of that building in the distance.  You can see just off the edge of the green roof some of the stands that held the dignitaries for the May 9 parade.

This is what those onion domes look like from the inside.  Very striking.

Another inside dome view.

We call our Rachael 'Rach' so this caught my eye.  The PAX on the top line is Rach.

Another lovely dome.  These bricks are painted on ... something like Ben's arms.

Another view from inside the church.  The stands are more visible here.

This where they keep the good stuff.  We did not get invited inside.

I thought this was a particularly lovely painting.  It dates from the late 1700's.

My attempt at artsy-crafty.  I did not have the light right.

Tourists at rest.

A young Russian riding his Johnson to fame and fortune.  Those are either gall-stones or golf balls.

A tourist at rest.

Better artsy-crafty.  These things really are striking.

Nathanael.  You have ignored my efforts to locate your car, but this time I am sure I have found it.   Blow up that brownish one in the middle.  I know you will like it.

Ahhh.  The real reason we are at Red Square.

I don't know why I shot spider-man, but here he is. 

We are eating outside.  The restaurant was a mob scene at 2:30 in the afternoon.

A lovely stream running down hill.  McD's is just to the right.

This lady walked by us while we were eating.  I think she charges folks to take their picture with her.
The doorway behind her is the north gate into Red Square.
You cannot see them but there were two characters near the gateway dressed like Lenin and Stalin.
Hasta la vista.
Aurevoir.
Dasvedanya.