It's 7:30AM Khabarovsk time. I haven't slept much, my mind is full of everything I have seen, heard, smelled & witnessed. For example, Joe being mistaken for a local by a German tourist, funny. And the sad but really touching of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Red Square. The whole procedure takes less than 5 minutes, but like the changing of our guard it is done in absolute silence. The inside of St. Basils is without mention the most amazing thing. It is several (10) small chapels joined together. The stairs leading from one to another are really high & steep. I almost went into an asthma attack climbing them! But I made it. It was a shame we couldn't take pictures (you have to pay extra for a picture taking ticket). The icons were beautiful and somehow tragic. The ceiling and walls are covered with a beautiful, basic medieval flower blue and red print. It is so old the pigment has faded almost to pink. And it was so cold inside! I could see my breath! Joe and I are watching the sun peak through the clouds. In an hour (around 9) we will land and our journey or our pilgrimage to our daughter will continue. We just finished a good Russian breakfast, coffee, a croissant with butter, 2 slices of a mild swiss cheese and lettuce. They don't eat lunch and dinner is a small meal also. This confuses me. The dark bread we saw Katya eating is a staple here. It is heavy and has a strong wheat taste, but it is filling. I wonder how many points that is? It's a heavy fiber rich diet. Well I guess I should stop for now and get my boots on and gather up my stuff.

We're in the air - took off at about 6:30PM, right on time. We're flying Dalavia on a TU-214, sort of like a Boeing 737, only Russian built. The plane is a little noisier than an American built plane, but not too bad. The first thing that I notices was the plane smells sort of like a locker room. The seats aren't very comfy either. My back started to bother me before take off. Now that we can tilt them back, it's not quite as bad. I recommend a pillow for [your back in] these jets. Not much padding in the seats. Our driver was good so I tipped him 500 rubles - about $18. Russian currency looks funny when you are used to US money, almost like full color Monopoly money. Good thing we have the CD player - with both headphones at full it is audible above the plane noise. Good enough to drown it out most of the way.

It's way too early to be writing this. We have left Moscow and are now on our way to Khabarovsk. We will lose something like 7 hours. It sounds still so impossible that 1) we made it to Moscow, 2) we are on our way to see our child, our daughter, our Dolka. And 3) I sat on the windows seat on this flight. We have had an amazing trip so far. Our interpreter Olga was fantastic. Seeing the Kremlin, Lenin's tomb, St. Basils Cathedral was cool. Olga gave us great history lessons (from a Russian viewpoint) at each stop. Plus personal feelings on many things. Our unnamed driver could put many Nascar drivers to shame. He maneuvered through Moscow traffic like a pro! We played tourist on Arbat St. shopping at the Hard Rock Cafe for T-shirts and a souvenir shop for Matryoshka's (nesting dolls). We met a nice couple from Texas who were going home today with their new daughter. Hopefully that will be us soon. I'm hungry I hope they serve dinner (whatever it is) soon. Then I will attempt to sleep for a while.



One thing I forgot to mention - while on the way to the airport we stopped by the Cradle of Hope office. We waited with the driver while Olga went for our tickets. We waited fro a while. It turns out that she was waiting for documents for us to take with us to Khabarovsk. Turns out we may not have to do the 10 day wait! That is really good news for us on the second trip.

Had a great day sightseeing. Went to see Red Square, Lenin (Yes, Lenin - he's in a glass coffin), St. Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin. Maybe we'll tour the Kremlin on the return trip.

Day 2 for us (or is it 3?)

Jet lag has us all screwed up. We have gained 8 hours so far - 7 more to come later today. We're up and getting ourselves packed and ready to go. As soon as we eat breakfast we'll head to Arbat St. to exchange currency, maybe some shopping or internet time if we can.

Well, We're in Moscow. Landed at 1:15PM - the VIP package was worth it. We were through passport control & customs in less than 1/2 hour. If we had to wait on line it would have taken at least an hour, probably longer. (We got there at a slow time, it could have been a whole lot worse than it was.) And we would have not known that we only need to declare our valuables if over $10,000 total. We're both pooped - Rain is asleep already, but we only got like 1-2 hours sleep on the plane. We tried some real Russian vodka with dinner at the bar in the hotel. The airport (Sheremetyevo-2) was not bad. Small, not too modern, but not bad either - kind of reminded me of a bus terminal. Sure there were lots of people for hire (Some legal cabs, some not), but we had arranged for transportation through AllWays. Again, worth it. Someone was waiting for us right outside. They took us to the hotel and got us checked in. Tomorrow morning we'll hit Arbat St. and exchange some currency and maybe hit an internet cafe or shopping till our coordinator picks us up at 12:00. Then hopefully a little sightseeing before off to the airport to Khabarovsk.

Wow, what a long strange trip it has been. In the last 24 hours I've watched the sunset in New York and watched sunrise somewhere over Europe. I've tried Russian white wine and experienced trying to use the bathroom during international flights, huh - no dignity there. The flushing toilet sounds like it is going to suck you out of the plane. Take off was an experience, kind of frightening, kind of cool. I might get the hang of it. The air food is still a little bizarre, cold fish and parsnip? Salad as a side dish. I passed. And Nicholas Cage movie in Russian I couldn't follow. Yes, I followed Lisa's advice and dressed in layers. Thanks Lis. Soon we'll land in Moscow. Cool, I look forward to a new land and a thousand opportunities, as we cruise at 33,000 feet it does feel like a big bus. You're right Fred.

We took off at 8PM EST (4AM Moscow). Rain handled the takeoff pretty well. Once in flight we broke out the CD player - the headphones and splitter were a good idea. Had to crank it up most of the way to hear it over the plane but it kept us occupied till after dinner. Airline food is not all that bad. I had the fish - Rain had the beef. It even included lemon cheesecake for dessert. We tried the white wine - wasn't really to our taste, but it was kinda neat seeing a Pepsi can in Russian. We tried to get some sleep but weren't successful. I think with the excitement of flying half way around the world, the noise of the plane, etc. made it difficult. I know I got an hour or 2 of sleep. I tried watching the in flight movie. The airline had the audio on one channel in Russian and another in English. I kept flipping back and forth. It was kinda neat. Not sure what movie it was but it was a Nicholas Cage movie. Looks like the sun broke the horizon at about 10:15AM Moscow time. No sign of the ground, only clouds below us. I set the camera on night mode and got some pre-dawn pictures from 33,000 feet. It was real neat to see. I'm glad I was awake for that, though I know I'm gonna be tired when we land - should be around 1PM Moscow time. Rain is still trying to sleep. The plane is slowly waking up, I see a few people reading, one or two have the shades up letting light in. I'm trying to be courteous and keep mine most of the way closed. So far we hit pretty calm air, just the occasional flutter from the jet. Of course at 33,000 feet there isn't much air to get rough and at nearly 550mph I think it would take alot to toss a 737-300. I'm not sure but I think we're somewhere over Sweden by now - maybe a little farther along. Pilot just put the seatbelt sign on. Looks like turbulence ahead.