Day 3: Thursday, July 10 - From Edna

Olga was occupied today, so we had a different tour guide. Tim is a Nazarene who has been coming to Russia in the summers for ten years to teach soccer to children in the villages and orphanages.

Today we were planning on seeing the cathedrals and palaces in The Kremlin, but when we arrived at the gate there was a sign saying it was closed. When we got back home the Moscow guide book said that The Kremlin is always closed on Thursdays, so we'll try again tomorrow.

Instead we strolled across a bridge over the Moscow river for an embankment view of The Kremlin and it was amazing. We took some really good pictures there.

Then we went and ate lunch at the McDonald's on Red Square. I told the boys they could eat at the "golden arches" one time while we were here. After that we went and toured the inside of The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. It was beautiful, but the outside was still my favorite. Then we got ice cream from a street vendor and watched the changing of the guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

My favorite part of the day, though, was when Jacob and Zachary went outside to play after dinner. In the middle of a block of the highrise apartments there is usually a small playground for the kids who live in the complex. So Jacob and Zachary went down to the playground and played soccer with some Russian children. They played a version of keep-away and tried to be the one to get the ball to dribble in between all of the play equipment.

Of course the kids and parents at the playground knew we were visitors and could tell we are American. Two girls (Dasha and Tarmin) talked to Zachary in broken English for a long time, and later they came over to talk to me. They were so sweet, and Zachary is hoping to run into Dasha tomorrow!