St Pete zoo in video clips

Pardon the bad video, some of it I wasn't paying real good attention I see. But it does give you an idea of what we saw at the zoo yest.

zoo trip

Our trip to the zoo went good, we were there over lunch time for the animals. There were several animals that we don't usually see in our zoos, so that was nice, but lots of exhibits were closed or out. There were only 4 monkeys in the whole zoo so that was sad and lots of the animals were out of view. They had some fox, they were inside and the windows were all frosted over, they came to the windows and were scratching on the windows to see out. They managed to get some scraped off to see out a bit and we could see them a little. THey had a red fox and a white artic fox too. The fee to enter the zoo was different for tourists and russians, Tamara went to the window herself and paid as tho we were all russian. :-) Then she came back and said please don't speak english now... :-) Hey Am, there is one pic up there that Roger took for you!!

Tuesday

Today was a much slower pace. We stayed here at the apt till after lunch and then went out to the zoo. It was cold all the way around, but we managed ok. We saw lots of different animals than what we would have at our zoo. They had a whole section with fish tanks in it, then the typical reptile section and bird section, a few monkeys, they had Jaguars that were amazing and a huge lion. A few other cats, some fox, wolf, moose, reindeer, deer, etc. It was neat. On the way home we walked through another outdoor market and looked at stuff. Then to the grocery to buy some juice again. Back home we had a traditional russian soup for supper. The soup had been cooking all day and the smell was a little iffy earlier in the day, we just weren't sure, but by tonight it was awesome. Noon meal was omlets, not like we know omlets, but good all the same. We are being treated like kings here, served wonderful meals. There will be no weight loss here. Amazing how this all has worked out. Now I need to get to bed, short night last night is catching up with me...

Going native

We have offically gone Russian, bought a hat and boots today, now all I need is the fur coat. Not really planning to do that, but good idea anyway. We are in a huge market in this pic, again video did more justice than pics, but you can see tons of veggies and fruits behind us. There were sooo many stands like this, then the meat counter...guaranteed to not meet USDA standards, chunks of animal laying on these huge stumps with axes waiting to be cut. Simply amazing to see and the smell well we just won't try to describe that other than to say its good it was only 12 degrees and snowing...not sure I would want to smell this place in the summer. REally really yucky at above freezing temps. Today you could buy icewater anywhere in the city, all the street vendors with water bottles were selling icewater whether they wanted to or not!! :-) Iced juice, tea etc all were available with fresh ice. It was cold for touring, but we did it anyway.

Just got word from Jill that today Braxton doesn't have a temp anymore so is on the mend. He still isn't himself, but working on getting that way.

Now, mama is doing better, Brayden is having some tummy trouble tonight. Beginning to wonder is it a bug or is it the milk, what is it?? Wish I knew, all I can do is try to get through it. I am doing better tho not perfect, but can't really complain.

Tamara is doing wonderful with cooking our meals, don't know what I would do without her at this point. sure don't want to be eating sandwiches and that is what it would be most likely. I am learning tho from her that I can do a lot with what they sell at the market. Moscow might be better than sandwiches and breakfast. Still learning so it remains to be seen. Now I am heading to bed before my eyes cross!!

more Oceanarium

Brayden wasn't sure of the diver, he looked real but was fake, he really liked playing on the sea lion, liked watching them too, He and daddy were sitting under that curved glass and then a wave came over it..., last we ate lunch at McDonalds. It was good tho not like home, fries were wonderful. Still a bit like home and we needed that today.

Oceanarium

Next we went to the Oceanarium, this was especially for Brayden as the rest of the stuff we look at isn't so interesting to him. The first one is the jaw of an ancient sea creature, then petting the koi fish, good thing no one saw that!!, the next one I took with flash photo and got in trouble for that too. Seems no flash photo is allowed in the Oceanarium, I kept forgetting to turn off the flash so got approached by these really staunch looking Russian men. All I could do was apologize and they really didn't understand me so we just went on.

Cathedral

More of the cathedral, top pic is the fence outside that surrounds the gardens, it is beautiful wrought iron, the Russian art museum, lining the street on the outside of the buildings they have these huge prints of art hanging in fancy frames showing the prints that are hanging in the museum, our fam inside the cathedral in front of the alter that is depicting the "holiest of Holy's", a miniture of the cathedral, the front of the cathedral mosaic, the entire inside of the church was floor to ceiling mosaics like this one. I videoed the inside of the cathedral because pics just didn't do it justice, video didn't either, but its the best way to remember it.