Carson's visit

Right after we returned from Europe, my brother came for a visit. A friend of mine told me we must take Carson to Big Jud's for dinner, so we did. (She was surprised that I had never heard of this local landmark.) These are the pictures that prove that we went there, and that Carson earned the top honor at this restaurant.

If you eat the whole Big Jud Special, you get to have your picture put up on the wall of fame. There are a lot of missionaries' pictures on the wall... amidst a slew of other not-so-well-mannered folks' pictures.




Yes, he did eat the whole thing. Then, right after they took his picture for the wall, he went to the bathroom and said he'd puked. Of course now he denies the puking. (There were no witnesses either way.)

Fountains of Peterhof

Peter the Great designed St. Petersburg to be like western European cities. Peterhof, he planned to be like Versailles. When I went to Paris in September 1996 and visited Versailles, tourist season was over, so all of the fountains were off -- a great disappointment. Happily, the fountains were all on at Peterhof.

The grand fountain shows Samson ripping open the lion's mouth, a symbol used by Peter the Great for his naval victory over the Swedes.














More of the Grand Fountain.











At a Fountain in front of the Great Palace.

The Roman Columns (of course there is a pair, but I didn't have a wide angle lens to capture them both).



The Pyramid



Even in Russia, parents let their children play in fountains! This is a "trick fountain" meaning it randomly spits water when people are walking on it. (The Lonely Planet guide book said that kids are always on it, so the fountain is constantly on.)



This fountain spun around, very slowly.

This fountain was on the canal that would bring Peter in from the sea.

All of the water in these fountains are recycled by gravity - a forward thinking innovation designed by Peter the Great.

Wedding tradition in Russia

While walking around the touristy sections of St. Petersburg, we had the opportunity to see a lot of wedding parties. Apparently, the couples would hire a limousine, a photographer and perhaps a videographer, and then drive around St. Petersburg with 2 attendants, having their photos taken at various sights. We saw them almost everyday!

Russian Museum

These are some of the paintings/sculptures that we liked at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Showing Christ, as if preaching the Gospel in Russia.
[Ryan really liked this one when he saw it while serving his mission.
I thought it was a cool depiction due to my belief in the Book of Mormon.]

This is a very sinister-looking violinist. We took this photo for Sabrina's benefit.

Interesting abstract art.About an hour into the museum, Hyrum needed to nurse, so I went ahead of Ryan and found a gallery that had a bench in the middle and began feeding him (completely covered up with a nursing blanket). A docent came up to me and in Russian asked if I was feeding a baby and if I would follow her. She took me into this passageway, pulled the rope barricade away and set up a chair with me facing the wall. When Hyrum was almost done, Ryan caught up with us and took the picture (after asking if this is where I put myself). The sculpture in the foreground is named "Calamity."

Spring in St. Petersburg.

Going off to war. Notice the steam engine in the background. We took this for Roderic's benefit.

Fashion in Russia

Photos from 'Peterhof' - Peter the Great's Palace Estate near St. Petersburg.


See-through is the fashion for women.

Men in both Russia and the Netherlands wore cropped pants!

I was the only lady I saw wearing sneakers.

Others wore uncomfortable looking sandals - and we did a lot of walking!

Travel Log: Day 2

Lesson learned: When they say its a restaurant that serves American food, its an American chain restaurant.

One of the few people that Ryan was able to correspond with before our trip was Kirill Ananich. Kirill is from St. Petersburg and served a mission in Ukraine at the same time Ryan did, so they knew eachother. Now Kirill is the Branch President of the Central Branch in St. Petersburg. His wife and children are visiting family in Ukraine, so he had quite a bit of time to hang out with us. After seeing the cannon shoot off at Peter and Paul Fortress and walking through the Summer Gardens, he suggested that we go to lunch. He said a friend of his was telling him about a new restaurant that serves American food that is better than McDonald's. I was thinking that it was a Russian restaurant that served hamburgers and french fries, so I said sure, we could go. The building that the restaurant is in is being renovated, and was completely covered with scaffolding, so there was no sign. We went in and I saw a yellow star with a smile in it. Then the clerk popped up from behind the counter and said, "Добро Пожаловать в Карлс Джуниор!" (translation: "Welcome to Carl's Jr.!") Kirill's friend was right, Carl's Jr. is better than McDonald's.

Travel Log: Day 1

Lesson learned: Don't change planes in Moscow.

This trip was more affordable because we had enough SkyMiles in Ryan's account for one round-trip ticket. Travelling on a 'free' ticket is a challenge though because you have to be extremely flexible with flight choices and you have to book your flights 331 days in advance. We flew Delta from SLC to ATL to SVO and there we had to change to Aeroflot Russian Airlines to fly into St. Petersburg. Signage in airports is horrible, Sheremevo is no exception. When we got off the flight, a sign said that Aeroflot passengers with less than a 4 hour connection were to go to a different section of the airport for passport processing. When we got to that location, there was no one there, then a couple minutes later an airport employee came up and said we were in the wrong place. Since we came off the Delta flight, we had to go downstairs, claim all our baggage and go through customs. So we did that. Then as we're wondering what we need to claim on our customs form - that the sign says in Russian that we need to fill out 2 of (it doesn't say that in English), we spend another few minutes. As I'm a people watcher, I'm noticing that everyone who goes to the red line (stuff to claim for customs) is sent to the green line (nothing to claim), I tell this to Ryan but he wants to continue filling out the form - he's dealt with the Russian red tape before. Then as he's translating for a minister from a church in Texas who is trying to make a claim on a missing bag, the minister tells us that unless he has a lot of cash, he always goes through the green line. We go through the green line. Then we are met by a crush of taxi drivers. Long story short: we are convinced to pay a guy $45 for the drive to the other terminal where we are barely in time to make our flight. Once again I say, don't change planes in Moscow!