Fall for at least one more weekend

Luck held out and yet again another beautiful weekend here in Moscow. I've probably put 50 miles on my sneakers over the last 3 weeks just wandering around the city. First stop this Saturday was Gorky Park. Its half Central Park/half amusement park. Its kind of like walking into the fair grounds in Dallas, alot of booths and rides for kids and then opens into green space. There were a lot of wedding couples walking around the park getting pictures made. Walking through the park back along the river there is a big Space Shuttle from the scrubbed Russian project (odd to see a space shuttle with the hammer and sickle instead of the stars and stripes)



From there I wandered south for a bite to eat. I had to try Starlite diner (US style american diner) just to see what it was like. After 3 weeks of trying to acclimate to new food I caved and had a cheeseburger, fries and Mountain Dew (can take the boy out of the US but not the US out of the boy). After that walked through the sculpture garden. Some very interesting pieces but the highlight was the changing leaves and the view of Peter the Great over the trees. Walking in it almost looks like he is sailing on a sea of red and orange leaves.

Back along the river there was a beter view of the statue with the river and Cathedral in the background.

From there headed southeast through some neighborhoods to see some churches and some open squares. Headed back across the river and came to a park with again, a ton a wedding couples. Not sure the significance of the park but looks like its a tradition to come there on the wedding day and put a lock on one of several metal trees. Either way wedding parties everywhere so kind of interesting. In the park though was a sculpture that struck me as pretty powerful. It is called The Children -victum of adult vices. It depicts several characterizations of evils in the world surrounding two children. Almost reminds me of something you would see in Pink Floyds movie The Wall but I just thought is was pretty interesting.

Walking back north across the river to the Kremlin there was a good view looking into the grounds. Can really see the elevation change within the compound.

Finally one last view of Red Square as the sun was starting to set.

After that it was off to work at 11:30pm to dock the Soyuz and welcome 3 new members to the ISS. Several VIPs from NASA came so interesting to watch them come through and see what we do. Docking went very well and now back up to 6 crew. Got home around 9am and grabbed 2 hours of sleep then woke myself up so I can go to sleep normal time tonight for the day shift next week.

Hoping my luck holds but the snow is supposed to get here later this week. I'm sure the snow will add an interesting element to the landscape but sure is nice walking around town in sunshine and 50 degrees.