Day 9 - St Pete!

After Friday was a day full of art-man made beauty of buildings, paintings, dance, music and more, on Saturday we headed out of town to see the God made beauty of nature!  We got up, ate a breakfast, packed a lunch and got in the van and headed out of town.  Catherine says many of the US women don't drive in Russia but she was great.  Unfortunately there was a wreck and her GPS didn't put her on the fancy new toll road so it took 3 hours, but it was great to drive out of the city and into the forest; the kids did pretty good on the drive too.  We drove on smaller and smaller roads including 4 km of potholes and then a camp trail!  Past tons of dachas, family countryside homes built by themselves and often with outhouses.  We arrived to the guys campsite, in what is national forest land that is not regulated, so first come first serve camping and  huge trash pile behind the site.   After missing snake night in Austin, Caleb had caught a snake for the girls to see.    We ate our lunch.

And the whole place was covered in Strawberry and Blueberry bushes!  It was so awesome.  We spent the entire day picking and eating!

Our hands and faces turned purple.  I supervised the kids and didn't need a cup, all went straight into my mouth :)

This is a picture of where the guys were fishing and I love it because after we got home I noticed Abby enjoying her berries!  I think she and I consumed the most.

We headed back up the path to pick some more, when Caleb brought a frog.  Gloria enjoyed it for a while before releasing it.  Where Justin is squatting is a spring and he saw a gold fleck, so he tried to pan for gold here but he never found anymore.  The kids enjoyed exploring and having their secret spots.  Beside us was another group of Russian men with no shirts and cameo pants.

Lydia lost her tooth in the woods.  We asked Yulia what Russian children do, and she said they throw it in the grass and say-mouse, please take my milk tooth and give me a strong tooth.  We gave Lydia three options, she could do that, try her tooth under the pillow there or wait til we get home.  She decided to wait.

Up from the lake and the blueberry hill was a WWII monument.  It was crazy to think that the place we were standing had seen battle in that terrible time.

Back down the hill the kids found this great rock to climb on.  There were many rocks with this spongy moss that the girls were enjoying using as chairs, but this one became a massive playground.  They were being so silly and Gabriel threw Gloria's hat right at I took the picture and I captured it!

The campsite with Justin and their longest Russian friends, Kostya and Yulia.  They have a daughter who spends a month each summer at her babushka's near Sochi.

 I was there too.  Here we are eating our hotdog dinner. This was the worst day for my puffy eye but thankfully it got better quick.

Yulia made berry compote by boiling them, then adding sugar and cooling, it was yummy!  After an amazing day, we packed up and got back into the van.  Everyone was so kind and let me sit in the front.

We drove back down all the roads, past a car on fire, down the nice toll road and back into the city to their apartment.

Where all 8 of us took turns taking showers.  While waiting the girls enjoyed their kids indoor jungle gym.  We all slept great that night!

FB Status:  Nature day-we drove outside the city to a lake and caught fish, frog and bugs. We ate so many wild blueberries and strawberries off the bushes that we turned purple. Amazing day!