5-ть дней в Москве

Странноприимный Дом Н.П. Шереметева на Сухаревке.(1810)

 Я - люблю бродить по Москве без продуманного маршрута, вот так просто, одевшись потеплее и закинув рюкзак с камерой за плечо. Лучшее время - конечно же предсумеречное, когда небо наполняется благородной синевой, хотя сейчас, в предверии Новогодних праздников, город укутался гильярдами огней, как шалью, так что и ночью есть что поснимать.

Настенное пано в Буфете Сергиев Посадского вокзала

 Если будете в Москве - не поленитесь, съездите в Сергиев Посад - комфортабельный автобус отходит от ВДНХ каждые 30-ть минут. Я туда отправилась, честно говоря, влекомая любопытством, прочитав, что там находится музей Матрешки. Но конечно же главная достопримечательность города Троице-Сергиева Лавра.

 Если проголодаетесь - рекомендую ресторан "Пироговая ОгоGo"
Вот вставка с их рекламкой*

Наше кафе-пироговая "ОгоГо" предлагает широкий выбор традиционных русских пирогов - сладких и сытных, больших и поменьше, для детей и взрослых. Начинка наших пирогов только из натуральных продуктов.
Все пироги выпекаются ежедневно и сразу же доставляются вам, неважно, сидите ли вы за столиком в кафе, находитесь на работе или дома.

Телефон: 8-916-990-82-82,
8-916-990-83-83

Адрес: г.Сергиев Посад, пр-т Красной Армии, 143. "Центральный универмаг"

Время работы: с 11-00 до 23-00

Пирог с лососем

И назад, в Москву, чтобы полюбоваться видами на Кремль с Патриаршего Моста.

Патриарший Мост (архитектор М. Посохин)

 Кстати я ожидала увидеть гораздо больше свадеб в этот день 12.12.12. Последняя в этом столетии дата с повторяющимися цифрами не вызвала большой ажиотаж среди брачующихся, наверное заняты подготовкой к грядущему "концу света"...

Свадьба 12.12.12.

 Смешной тапок...наверное китайский...

Гм-м...

 ...а из нашего окна...высотка Сталинская видна, правда только ее верхушка, но все равно - красива в ночи - с подсветкой.

Вид из окна на вечернюю Москву

 А это -в ожидании электропоезда - успела щелкнуть дважды и все-пришел поезд - я еду домой!

Предрассветное небо - р-н Белорусского Вокзала

Photographer's Pricing Calculator and Widget

Mississippi River Trip: Map

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Mississippi River Trip: Home - For a moment

IT'S TIME TO SAY: GOODBYE!

Being home didn't last.  We decided that we had to take the kids to the beach for one last weekend of camping, so we headed to Kiptopeke State Park outside of Norfolk.  The kids used the weekend to help Larisa celebrate her birthday (again - for somebody who claims she didn't want a birthday Larisa has managed to get three celebrations out of it).  We spent the day down at the beach, first swimming and relaxing, then catching crabs for the pot.  We wound up with half a dozen blues, which Larisa ate for lunch.  That evening we went to the pier and did a little fishing - I wound up bringing in a good size croaker, which Larisa ate for dinner grilled.   It rained in the night, but our tent stayed dry (the kids' didn't - heh) and we packed up the next morning after a breakfast of blueberry pancakes. 

 Nice weekend, and a great bookend to our trip across the country. 

BLUE CRAB: Callinectes Sapidus COMING FOR DINNER

For Larisa, it's back to work.  For me, it's back to hunting jobs after a brief fishing trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island.  For both of us, it was the trip of a lifetime.

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING! WE WILL COME BACK WITH NEW ADVENTURE SOON.

ADIÓS, ДО СВИДАНИЯ, Довиждане, ДО ПОБАЧЕННЯ, 작별, paalam

goodbye 

Mississippi River Trip: Knoxville - Again!!

We made Knoxville in time to grab a couple of pizzas and treat Annie, Bob, Johanna, and Asa to dinner as a "thank you" for storing the canoe.  We hadn't met Bob the first time around, so it was pleasant to talk with him.  Turns out he's an author (we've got your book on order Bob!) and an interesting fellow to talk to.  After we were fed and had drunk the local beer Bob provided, Larisa and I loaded up Tsssh and headed back to Elk Rock State Park to camp for the night.

Though a little more crowded this time around, we managed to grab the same campsite we'd taken when we came down here from Minnesota, refugees from a frightening experience.  After we set up camp I sat on the picnic table under the stars and reflected on our trip.  Knoxville, of all places, seemed to be the right place to do this.  After all, it was here that we decided to abandon the Mississippi and head west, here where we made new friends and stored to canoe, and here we returned to at the tail end of our journey.

It wasn't the trip we'd planned, but in the end it was an amazing trip to have taken.  We drove thousands of miles among scenery that most people only see on postcards - and then camped there.  We saw some of the Mississippi River up close (and one part, too close), walked with bison in the Badlands, got stranded in the Black Hills (making another friend in the process), touched the sky in the Rocky Mountains, walked great sand dunes, saw great canyons from the inside (and in Larisa's case, the air), strolled among artwork carved ten thousand years ago in the rocks, and then went and touched the Pacific ocean. And we still barely scratched the surface.

The river trip was what we thought we wanted, but in end we got what we needed instead. 

El Rancho somewere in Route 66

Tomorrow we will continue deadheading home, ending the trip about five days early.  Fine by us, we're ready to be back home.

OUR LAST CAMP ON THIS TRIP

Mississippi River Trip: Deadheading

THIS POST IS 2 WEEKS OLD....WE ARE HOME ALREADY...SWEET HOME!

That's what we're doing now.  Just putting miles under the wheels and heading back to Iowa as fast as we can go.  Day one was San Diego to Holbrook, AZ, where we decided to skip Petrified National Forest in the interest of moving along as fast as we could.  Day two took  us through New Mexico and Texas.  We stopped for dinner at the Bar H Steakhouse in Dalhart, TX. 

The steak house decorated in the typical western steak house style - branding irons, saddles, and farm tool dot the walls along with photographs of cowboys working the range.  We stopped for an early dinner, and were surprised at how crowded the restaurant was.  I, of course, ordered a steak.  Larisa, being a vegetarian, ordered the soup and salad bar.  She asked the waitress what the soup of the day:

"Hamburger Stew."

Larisa looked at her for a moment, then asked, "Is it possible to substitute something for the soup.  I'm a vegetarian."....................................................................................

The waitress paused for a moment and gave Larisa a strange look.  The five or six tables nearest to us did the same thing.  I guess it is a tad bit incongruous to be a vegetarian at a steakhouse.  The waitress's look slowly changed from strange to suspicious, and I could almost hear the gears in her head whirring.  Was this lady with the foreign accent one of those PETA folks?  She studied Larisa closely, and I imagined that the waitress was committing Larisa's details to memory, just in case there was an animal rights related terrorist incident or something.  She finally decided that vegetarians don't get any special treatment, and declined to let Larisa get some steamed vegetables instead of soup. 
 

After dealing with the terrorist couple at table three, the waitress moved on and promptly forgot about us so hard that she delivered my food to the wrong table, then couldn't figure out where it was supposed to go until I finally flagged her down for more iced tea.  Oh yes, the special (12 oz. NY strip, medium rare with baked potato) goes to the terrorist at table three.  We ate and left, and were both immensely amused at the reception Larisa's statement got.  I understood it though - Dalhart is a cattle town.  Period.  Nothing to see, no tourist attractions, nothing but acres and acres of grazing ground as far as the eye can see.  A vegetarian in a place that relies on carnivores for survival probably doesn't see vegetarians very often.  We're happy that we made their day a little more surreal.

We camped at the Pratt County Lake in Pratt, KS.  Nice place.  Five bucks gets you your own little peninsula that juts into the lake so that you're camping surrounded by water on three sides.  Quite a change from paying $25-30 at a crammed full commercial campground.

Mississippi River Trip: Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife!!

I greeted Larisa with these words when she woke up this morning.  As a girl she collected pins from places she'd been or seen, so over the course of our trip I did the same, secretly.  I got her pins from all of the National Parks we'd been to, and attached them to her hat in the middle of the night while she was sleeping.  When we into the car after showering and figuring out where we were going for breakfast it was the first thing she saw, and she loved it. 

Collecting the pins had been tough - Larisa likes to do the visitor's center withsomeone, not alone.  So the entire trip I found myself making excuses to go to the bathroom, send her to the car for something (usually her notebook so that she could get a "passport" stamp from each visitor's center) or generally disappeared for a couple of minutes.  It looks like I managed fool her because she claims that the pins were a complete surprise.

After breakfast we decided to walk around the Gaslight District.  Basically it's a collection of high end restaurants and tourist shops - nice for window shopping.  We got Larisa some ice cream from the Ghirardelli  shop, and then wandered on, taking in a large outdoor mall on the way and snapping pictures together.  Since all of our clothes were camping clothes (meaning stained and old) Larisa kept her eye open for a dress to wear for her birthday dinner, and found one at a little shop near where we'd parked the car.  She agonized over the price until I pointed to a sign in the shop window that read "Your husband called and said you can have anything you want!"  I told her to get the dress (she looked fantastically sexy in it) as well as the wrap that went with it.  How often do you celebrate your "29th" birthday, after all?





 After the Gaslight District we headed to the harbor to look at the ships, including the HMS Surprise replica ship used in the movie Master and Commander, the USS Midway, and others.  Mainly we took pictures from the outside, because we thought the admission price for the Midway was too high.  We walked, talked, and snapped more pictures, then decided to move on so that we could get ready for dinner. 

Russian ''Turisto'' asking for water...

 A couple of hot showers later we were headed back downtown to visit Royal India, named Best Indian Food for several years in a row.  Before heading inside we found some good light and I took a bunch of pictures of Larisa in her new dress.  I, of course, was still dressed like a camper who's been on the read too long, but she looked great. 

 
 The food was very good, but I can honestly say that I've had better here in Fairfax (at Jaipur on Lee Highway).  We walked a bit more, but were tired and full and decided to grab some sleep, since we plan to head back first thing in the morning.

Mississippi River Trip: Lazy Beach Day

Since we'd spent the previous day walking around in the heat, we decided that today should be a lazy beach day.  After a leisurely breakfast we went down to a beach we wound up calling Mexico Beach - we were two of about a dozen non-Hispanic people at the beach.  We spent the day reading, walking, swimming, and resting.  It was just what we needed, though Larisa wound up getting a sunburn over most of her body after taking a two hour wander towards the National Refuge that starts just south of the beach.  Then it was time for dinner and sleep - both of which were fantastic.

Mississippi River Trip: Balboa Park - -Sushi

We woke up early and grabbed breakfast at the famous Hob Nob Hill, using the time to update a few posts and having a great breakfast in the mean time.  Then we headed off to Balboa Park - 17 museums and just as many gardens - it was just the kind of place that we could spend an entire day.

We parked at the edge of the park and took a trolley bus in, getting a reasonable overview of what the park held as we went.  Our first stop was the botanical garden, which houses a variety of hothouse flowers and plants, most of which were in beautiful bloom for us.  After an hour or so I tired of picture taking and settled down by the Koi pond to watch the fish and the people.  By the time Larisa found me I was so relaxed that I was a breath or two from snoring.  We wandered on, stopping by the photography museum (closed on Monday, alas) and hitting the rose garden and succulents gardens next.  The roses were in bloom and amazing in their color and variety, and the succulent garden took up a lot of my time - I just like cacti and their cousins.

We then strolled over to the Spanish Village Art Center.  The village consists of a couple hundred artists working in just about any medium you can imagine.  They create and sell their artwork, and it makes a fine thing to see if you're a tourist who is just wandering around.  We were.  Some of the art was visually fantastic, especially the sculpture and photography.  Other art was the kind of stuff you get when folks stop thinking.  There was much more of the former though, and all in all we had a wonderful time chatting up the artists and shooting the occasional picture.

Tired after a day of walking around, I decided to take Larisa to Harney Sushi in Old Town San Diego.  Set up cafe style, with a sushi bar inside and a small patio outside, it was billed as the best of the best for fresh fish, so how I could not take Larisa there?  The service was downright bad, but Larisa says that her sushi was fantastic, and I'll say without reservation that the chicken teriayki was the best I've ever had, anywhere.  The real bummer was that the sushi bar and kitchen didn't communicate, so my food came out about 15 minutes before Larisa's, so that I was almost done eating when she was just starting.  Larisa griped at the waitress, who was so poor at her job that she didn't actually understand the problem - she thought Larisa was upset about having to wait for her food, not because we had come to eat together and weren't able to do so - and seemed prepared to argue about it.  In the end, though, she offered us free dessert.  We got chocolate lava cake that came out warm and fresh baked with some sort of foamed fruit cream.  The cake was great, the cream stuff tasted weird but was actually very complementary to the cake.  So in the end, great food but horrible service made for an okay dining experience.

I'll admit that there is a part of me that still wants another crack at the chicken teriayki before we leave.

Mississippi River Trip: Sedona -The road is not that bad..

After Slide Rock we headed to our National Forest campsite near Sedona, AZ.  It was down a long, tw2isty road that was bordered by high desert and low red sandstone cliffs – quite a pretty drive.  When we got on the road there was a sign warning that it could be rough, but the warning sign was nothing like we’d seen other places – it just suggested that we drive carefully.  In the Black Hills, for example, we saw a sign that warned explicitly NO ACCESS UNLESS YOUR VEHICLE IS 4WD.  Ditto at the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  But this one just said to drive carefully, so we were determined to do so. 

The road was an average gravel road until we made it to the campsite.  We didn’t really like the site, and since we were in a dispersed camping area, we decided to keep looking around, so down the road we went.  At mile 15 we saw a sign that said SEDONA 9.  “Great!” we thought, just 9 miles from Sedona!  Another mile brought us to the edge of the dispersed camping area in the National Forest, but there were no level sites there – the best had a 30 degree slope studded with head-sized boulders.  The first campsite, the one we'd skipped, was just a few miles away, but we decided to head down into Sedona to check the road.  We didn’t want to get set up and then find out that we couldn’t make it back or something like that.  But I also pointed out to Larisa that the road didn't look that bad.  So down the road we went.

Our first stop was the overlook of Sedona,  which is at the top of Schnebly Hill Road and gives a view of Sedona and the valley.  Beautiful view – Sedona shimmering in the distance, red rock canyon on either side, and blood red mesas surrounding it all. We started heading down, and the road started to get a little rougher – the occasional small shelf of rock and lots of potholes.  A big 4WD tour jeep passed us going up, the gaggle of tourists in the rear giving us odd looks.  We began to wonder what was in store for us, but the road, while bad, wasn’t “point of no return” bad.  

I drove slowly and carefully, avoiding the bad stuff and stopping so that Larisa could take pictures.  We came around a corner and bumped down a shelf I didn’t see, and suddenly the road wasbad.  "Point of no return” bad.  Well, not really, but I was getting a little more worried - but I put on my competent driver face and fooled Larisa completely.  I think.  At any rate, I confidently reasserted my position that the road wasn't bad at all.  We decided to press on with our off road adventure.  After all, we reasoned, we’ve got towing if we need it, plenty of water, and Sedona was only 7 miles down the road.  Another tour jeep came by, bouncing and bumping along.  The tour driver looked at me oddly, but waved and drove one.  Down the road we went.

A mile later I was picking my way along from place to place, dropping down the occasional shelf and often riding the edges of ruts to keep the car from bottoming out.  More tour jeeps passed us in both directions, more odd looks came our way.  I decided that the looks had two different meanings.  The people in the back were thinking “Man, I paid $60 a person to be driven up here, and that guy made it in an Impala!”  The tour guides were thinking “Great, we’re gonna have to tow those idiots out later tonight.”  

 In the end we made it down safely – the car did wonderfully – but it took us two and a half hours to go 7 miles, and it was getting dark.  We plotted a course to take us around the hills and back down to the first campsite – an hour of driving.  And we hadn’t eaten.  And we were tired.  We elected to find a paid campsite in Oak Creek Canyon, but everything was full.  We wound up staying at a motel just outside of Sedona.   The sign wasn’t lit, but there was a “vacancy” hanging sign, and the rate was cheap enough.  I called the after-hours number and got a surprised fellow who was willing to honor the posted price.  Larisa and I decided later that most of the units were long term rentals, and that we were probably the first single night guests in a long time.  Nice place though.  After checking into the motel and showering we headed into Sedona.  Neither of us were very hungry, so we decided to just get some ice cream – we’d earned it after our off road journey. 

As we were walking down the strip with our ice cream a vendor called out to me “Hey guy, take that pretty lady on a sunset drive along Schnebly Hill  road  tomorrow!  We’ve got 4WD tour jeeps that can get you there!”

“No thanks,” I replied.  I was up there today.”

“Really?  What tour company did you take?”

“Oh none,” I answered.  “I drove my Impala.”

He gave me a sideways glance, obviously skeptical but not wanting to say anything bad as he tried to sell us on ATV’s, helicopter tours, and several other things, but we’d seen enough of Sedona.  Besides, the road wasn’t that bad.

Mississippi River Trip: Hippie Beach

We drove straight to the beach without considering where we'd camp or what else we'd do.  After so many dry, hot days an ocean of water and a cool breeze was the only thing we had on our minds.  

We wound up at "Ocean Beach", which we immediately renamed "Hippie Beach" after seeing the denizens.   10 seconds after getting out of the car an obviously stoned girl came up to me, offering to buy a cigarette for a dollar.  For a buck I was willing to part with two, so I handed them over and took the paper in return.  The paper turned out to be a little paper bag filled with pot inside.  I guess California is on the barter system now, what with all the budget problems.  I tossed the packet and lamented my loss of cigarettes.

The water was cool and the day beautiful, so we walked down the beach to the pier, then walked the pier to see how the fishermen were doing, and finally back to the car.  Then we hit a Mickey D's for the internet to find a place to stay.  It looked like we picked a bad time - Comic Con was in town and all of the hotels were packed, as were the campgrounds.  We decided to head out of town to the Viejas Indian Reservation to camp.  It was a tad pricy for what we got, but we were virtually alone in the pasture, which was what we really needed - we don't camp well with others.  We decided to spend two nights there, then three in San Diego at a hotel that we were able to make reservations at.

The next morning we lazed around a bit and explored the reservation - not much to see other than a casino and outlet mall.  We had lunch and decided to hit Julian, CA for the afternoon so that we could see a few sights and get our hands on the famous Julian Apple Pie.  The trip took us along a winding road through a state park (the name escapes me).  The park showed signs of recent fire, and there were signs everywhere about no campfires, no smoking, no fireworks - basically no nothing!  We rode into Julian around 5PM and, after dutifully examining the main street for 30 seconds or so, went to get pie.  It's pie people, it deserves attention.

We settled in at the Julian Pie Company on Main Street.  Larisa ordered a slice of apple-berry, and I ordered a slice of the original apple pie.  Both of us got ice cream.  It's apple pie.  It deserves ice cream.  The pies were great, though both Larisa and I thought that there was too much additional sugar in the recipes.  The recipe I make at home doesn't use sugar on the apples, so maybe we're just prejudiced.  Overall, very tasty pie though, and my own recipe could come anywhere near the tender, flaky crust of the Julian Pie Company.  After pie we wandered the streets, poking our head into shops and tourist traps and photo galleries with abandon.  After a couple of hours of this we were all tuckered out and headed back to the reservation for some tea by the campfire and sleep (Viejas Reservation allowed fires, though no place else did). 

As we were sitting at the campfire we heard the drunken sounds of Spanish singing, backed up and harmonized by the howling of dogs.  A group of about 15 Hispanic men and women had set up across the pasture from us and gotten their drunk on, then broke out an accordion and guitar and started singing.  Interestingly enough, when the singing was low and the dogs had been put away, the sound was lovely to hear and restful as heck!  We drifted off to the sounds of Spanish music and awoke to discover that whoever they were, they had packed up and left well before dawn.   We packed our own stuff and went back to San Diego to celebrate Larisa's birthday.