Moscow, Part II

Our adventure in Moscow continues...

Prior to our trip, our Russian friends advised us to only carry photocopies of our passports while in Russia. Apparently, the local police are known to ask to see your passport, and then they will keep it until you pay them a bribe. So we heeded this tip, with the downfall that we could not get into the Ostankino TV tower (which required original passport documentation to enter). Next time, I will carry both the original (tucked away safely) and a photocopy. :)

Ostankino Tower - the tallest tower in Europe

OK, we all know Emily cannot go too long without shopping. We visited a local street market that sold everything from fresh produce to fur coats; it reminded me of the elaborate bazaars in Cairo, but colder and less touristy.


We also checked out a little more upscale shopping at the GUM, located in the Red Square. Honestly, we usually just went into the GUM to get warm in between visiting the magnificent buildings in the Kremlin and the Red Square. It is also a good place to grab a latte to combat jet lag in the afternoon. The 1890's building itself is nothing short of spectacular. The clothing stores may change with the season, but architecture like this never goes out of style.

inside the GUM

Emily ponders her next purchase at the GUM

the GUM at night (as viewed from the Red Square)

Emily read about a castle that was nestled in a wooden park area, so we took the train across town, got off at a remote stop in the country, and embarked on a trek through the woods to find said castle.

Apoptosis; the leaves had just fallen from the trees. The stark contrast between the barren black and white trunks and the colorful lying leaves, which once produced energy and life, signified the onslaught of the cold Russian winter.

the Russian squirrels look a little different than those native to the U.S.

We came upon a small log cabin surrounded by a wooden gate. Thinking this was the castle we were looking for, I opened the gate and walked inside. A man came out speaking in Russian and gesturing that they were not open for visitors, so we decided not to push our luck and returned on our path back to the remote train station.

"Is this it?"....not exactly the castle we were looking for

While waiting on the train, we realized we had gotten off at the wrong stop, so we got back on the train, rode to the next stop, and disembarked to find the castle we were searching for all along:

this castle is much better than the tiny cabin we found in the woods

a vodka distillery near the castle

Outside of the castle was an open air market selling lots of paintings and WWII memorabilia...I found an authentic old bronze SCUBA helmet that would have made an excellent decoration for the house, except for the fact that the guy wanted $1500 for it, and it probably would not meet the weight requirement for our checked baggage.

Emily bought a set of souvenir Matryoshka dolls at the market. Each one is hand painted and opens to fit the next inside of it. There are 20 in total with the last few so small (only a few mm tall), that you can barely decipher the details of the painting!

Some other random cool buildings we saw as we were walking around:

One destination which particularly piqued my interest was a former underground nuclear bunker that has been turned into a museum and opened to the public....well, sort of. It turned out to be about as welcoming as one would expect the KGB to be. At $40 each for admission, you would think they would be clamoring for customers. However, I could not successfully make a reservation on their website, nor find any real details about when they were open. I had difficulty speaking with them on the phone, so I tried to get our hotel concierge to talk to them to no avail. Finally, we decided to just show up and see what happened. Well, what happened is that we did not get in. There was a "No Trespassing" gate at the entrance, which I pretended to ignore. Then I found a small intercom buzzer at the gate so I pushed the button a received a crackly reply in hasty Russian. I have no clue what he said, but it was not exactly in a friendly tone....so, once again, we decided to cut our losses and leave before anything bad happened. Oh well, I guess it just adds to the mystique of the place.

Here we are, in a foreign land which had been an enemy of our country for most of our childhood, trespassing in the name of tourism. I love it!

Even though we did not get to tour the underground bunker, we did get to frequent the underground subway tunnel system while riding the Moscow Metro. Of all the cities I have been to in the world, I would argue that Moscow has by far the best subway system. It costs less than $1 to ride, the trains come every 2 minutes, the routes span out from the center of the city and include a large circle line to connect the outer extremes, and the stations themselves are historical relics. The stations are lined with marble and many of them house artwork and sculptures. The 1930's era light fixtures, while probably not efficient by today's standards, add a warm glow and distinctive classical feel. The trains themselves are a little old, but feel like they are built out of solid steel and function very well....they are the type of design that would make your grandfather say, "they just don't make 'em like they used to". Every time I rode the train, I could not help from being transported (pun intended) back to my childhood where I used to watch old James Bond films on VHS with my friend, Mark Lindloff.

the infinitely long escalators leading down to the Moscow Metro
(just for fun, I took the stairs up once....and was utterly exhausted at the top)

a typical Moscow Metro station

Despite the Cold War being long over, there was still a strong overtone of military prowess in the air. This feeling culminated at the Central Museum of Armed Forces. Chad and and I enjoyed checking out the tanks and missiles, while Brie and Emily waited patiently after briskly walking through the exhibits.

A quote from Chad (referring to the large missiles in the background), "You know, those probably used to be pointed at us". A sobering thought. I'm glad it never came to that.

my personal favorite - the armored locomotive

On our last evening, we decided to walk around the Red Square at night. Even though we had walked it several times prior, we just could not get enough of it. It is a real beauty at night.

the State Historical Museum (which we toured, but we were not allowed to take pics inside)

the State Historical Museum as viewed from the Red Square

the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin - originally built in 1491

...well, as they say "all good things must come to an end", so does our adventure in Moscow.

Moscow, Part I

In October, we took a trip to Moscow. Emily studied Russian for several years and used to perform Russian dance, so she had been itching to go for some time now. Of course, it did not take too much to convince me to travel to an interesting land so filled with history. In preparation, I picked up Tolstoy's "War and Peace" about 4 months ago (free download on Kindle)....however, I must admit I am only about a quarter of the way through the book....so I did not get it done before the trip. Oh well, it seems to focus more on St Petersburg anyways. :)
It was a short trip, so we decided to focus our efforts on Moscow and try to see everything we could in this amazing city. It is about the size of New York City, but does not boast skyscrapers. Instead, it has some of the most beautiful architecture and one of the best subway systems I have ever ridden on. The buildings are so iconic, you can feel the history radiating from them. A few months before the trip, we were talking to my High School friend Chad Staker and his wife Brie about our plans. Fortunately, the decided to join us and booked a trip as well. Since they are now living in Denver, we don't get to see them very much....so it was nice to spend time with them, albeit halfway around the world.

Chad, Brie, and Emily just outside of The Kremlin

in front of the Tsar Cannon - the largest cannon in the world, cast in 1586

The Assumption Cathedral
(sorry, no pics allowed inside most of these buildings)

Ivan the Great Belltower

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (WWII)

Lenin's Tomb

Chad and Brie in the Red Square in front of St. Basil's Cathedral

narrow passageway inside St. Basil's

the inside of St. Basil's
(most of the cathedrals had inner walls adorned with elaborate paintings)

As we were walking around the city, we noticed a lot of police and TV news vans. We decided to see what the commotion was about. They had red carpet rolled out leading up to the world famous Bolshoi Theatre. It is one of the oldest opera and ballet theatres in the world. Apparently it had been under a nearly $700 million renovation for the last 6 years, and we were lucky enough to be in town when it had its grand reopening! Unfortunately, we are not A List so we didn't get invited to actually go inside for the premier (but we did catch a little of it on TV in our hotel room after dinner).

the world renowned Bolshoi Theatre

We visited the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, which is located underground, just under the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. It was interesting to see the old Russian space propaganda which acted to poke fun at the USA for being second place to space. We may have put a man on the moon, but they did beat us in sending a person to outer space and in putting a satellite into orbit. You can thank the Russians next time you use your cell phone. :)

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

We wanted to see some Communist era buildings, and we stumbled upon the All Russia Exhibition Centre. It was quite bizarre. Outside was a sort of free-for-all open market where we saw people standing in the cold, holding one or two items for sale. Most were selling handmade clothing, but other items ranged from live pets stuffed into the front of their coats (kittens, puppies, birds, ferrets, you name it) to outdated CDs, to taser guns. As Chad looked closer to see if the random guy was actually selling a taser, the guy hit the trigger to show us how it arced a menacing spark. Uh, OK buddy, no thanks. I can only speculate that this place would get even more shady after dark, but after my near death experience in Israel, I was not about to stick around to find out.

the Exhibition Centre

Well, this post is getting a little long, so I will wrap it up here for now. I'll try to get the rest of the Moscow adventure up soon....

San Fran and half marathon

I decided to tag along with Em to San Fran for her October MBA classes. It was nice getting to meet her classmates; they are an impressive group of individuals and I am sure most of them will be very successful in their future endeavors. While they were in class, I got to visit with an old friend from grad school, Mark Witschi. Also on the docket that weekend was for Emily to run the Nike Women's half marathon. Personally, I don't know how she could manage running two half marathons in back to back weekends, seeing as how I was still sore from the Portland half marathon the previous weekend. The race was sponsored by Tiffany's, so she received a Tiffany's necklace at the finish line....I think that is the REAL reason why she signed up for this race. :)

Em and her classmate Alice at the race
(Alice was also kind enough to host us for the weekend - much thanks for the amazing place to stay downtown)

Em must have been relaxed during the run, because I found this pic on her phone - she took it during the race

another pic from the race - rounding the last bend toward the finish on the beach

Em at the finish - staying warm in her space blanket

On Sunday, we met up with Renee, Danny, and the girls. I have been getting a little jealous of all the time Em gets to spend with Naomi and Nina....they are awesome kids. Naomi has just started at a Mandarin immersion school, and she was quizzing me on my Chinese. I was amazed at how much she has learned already; it looks like I need to start studying my Rosetta Stone program more aggressively so I can keep up with her!

Naomi and Nina styling Em's hair

Nina plays until she falls asleep....kinda reminds me of myself as a kid:
a pic from the archives - when I was 3, I used to play until I fell asleep...wherever that may be - this time on my turtle sandbox

Portland Half Marathon

I decided to take my running to the next level this summer and signed up for the Portland Half marathon. OK, it didn't actually happen that way; I'll be honest. Em was running all summer, and I was tagging along on her training runs....call it Quality Time if you will, since she has been so busy with school and work. When one of her teammates for the Hood to Coast race (see earlier blog) got injured weeks before the race, I stepped in as an alternate. After running 16+ miles over the course of 1.5 days during the Hood to Coast relay in August, I decided I might as well run the half marathon during the first week of October. I have a life goal of running a full marathon, but, you know, sometimes you have to lower your expectations. :) Besides, how hard could it be to run 13.1 miles? (I was soon to learn the hard way!) I was quite busy traveling (Israel, St Louis, Chicago - see earlier posts) in the month between the two races so I did not get much training done. On top of that, I had been battling a cold for 2 weeks before the race. But enough about excuses. A week before the Portland half marathon, a friend said she had signed up for the race (which was sold out) but she did not want to run it anymore....so I bought her race bib and ran in her place. The first 10 miles went great and I was running well and keeping on my target pace. Then I hit the proverbial wall that is commonly mentioned by distance runners. I was out of energy and struggling to stay moving. I knew if I started walking I would get cramps in my legs, and it would only get worse from there. I kept going, but my pace slowed to a very slow jog. The last 3 miles were one of the most painful experiences of my life. After the race I could barely walk. I was sore for 2 weeks after the race....the pain is temporary, but the memory will last forever.

Oh yeah, and Em ran the race too.....but it is no big deal for her because she has done several of these before. Case in point, note the differing facial expressions between her and I in these photos.

Em after the race: chipper as always

me after the race: not so chipper and in a world of pain

Chicago Visit, Sept 2011

During the last weekend of September, Emily and I made a trip back to Chicago for the Northwestern Alumni Annual Leadership Symposium. Since we both serve on the Board for the Portland Chapter (and Em is Regional Director for Portland, Seattle, San Fran), we get invited to come back each year to share ideas with other leaders from around the country. It is a great way to meet fellow NU alumni, learn new recruiting/event ideas, and brainstorm on how to make our clubs even better. It's also a good excuse to visit old friends and familiar places.

Em with two of her former NU roommates, Pauline and Amanda

We were on campus for alumni stuff all day Friday and Saturday then we had to leave on Sunday, but that did not stop us from squeezing in some of our favorite restaurants: Buff Joe's Wings in Evanston, Nookies in Lincoln Park, Chi Cafe in Chinatown, and Giordano's Pizza (we got an extra two deep dish pizzas to bring back to Portland).

Of course no trip to Chicago is complete without visiting my sister Kristy and her husband Pat....especially since we got to see Elliot! He is growing up so fast....

Elliot showing off his scooter skills

Kristy and Elliot at brunch
...sorry Pat, you didn't make the cut...JK, I just didn't get any pics of you ;)

Jon and Stacy's Wedding in St Louis

After my trip to Israel, I was home just long enough (1.5 days) to unpack, do laundry, then repack to head to St Louis for Emily's brother's wedding. This is why I have been so slow to get these posts up.....things are happening faster than I can write! But I guess it is a good problem to have. :) We had an awesome time in St Louis visiting with family and enjoying all the wedding festivities.

dim sum

the groomsmen hanging out on Friday before the rehearsal

rehearsal in Forest Park

Mom and Dad looking great

Emily's Aunt, Grandma, and Mom

Jon and Stacy toasting at the rehearsal dinner

The rehearsal dinner was a 12 course traditional Chinese meal including lobster....we ate like kings

Emily's Mom's side of the family - Aunts, Uncle, Mom, and Grandma

the wedding party table

traditional Chinese tea ceremony at the house: each couple is served tea from the bride and groom in exchange for gifts and jewelry

Em got emotional at the tea ceremony - so happy for her little brother!

at the ceremony in Forest Park - the lawn in the distance was decorated with a flag commemorating each of those lives lost in 9/11 (the ceremony was on 09/10/11 - a day before the 10 year anniversary)

the ladies looking their best at the wedding

Jon and Stacy's First Dance

Congrats Jon and Stacy - we are so happy for you both and wish you a lifetime of love!

The Dead Sea

On my last day in Israel, I got off work with just enough time to drive 1.5 hours to the Dead Sea before the sun went down. Driving through the West Bank is akin to being on Mars; it is very desolate, hot, arid, and shows absolutely no signs of life. The only water present is so saturated with salt that nothing can live in it, nor can it even come close to being used as a refreshing respite for a parched traveler. The Dead Sea is aptly named.

the road to the Dead Sea

yours truly at a roadside vista with the Dead Sea in the distance

a resort appears as an oasis

I pulled over near a hotel resort and had some time to take a float in the Dead Sea. It is a feeling that everyone should experience at least once in their life. Put this on your bucket list. I would argue it is worth the plane ticket just to have this experience. Imagine walking out into an oily hot bath only to have your feet float out from under you. You float on top of the hot salt water with zero effort and bask in the sun with a feeling of zero gravity. As you move, the viscous liquid flows around you in ways that make you appreciate all those lectures in fluid mechanics. You suddenly become aware of the differing buoyancy of your different body parts. Lying on my back, if I lift my leg out above the surface, my overall weight stays constant while my displacement lessens....and I sink an extra inch in the water. If I use my muscles to force my legs deeper into the water, my displacement increases so my body floats a little higher on the surface. You simply cannot get this graduated level of buoyancy in regular water nor can you experiment like this because, in regular water, you are usually expending a great deal of effort just to stay afloat. Now I am floating with zero effort. It actually takes effort to attempt to sink. I fail to completely submerge my body. This is fun....I start to laugh....out loud. As other tourists delight in a similar ethereal experience, they too giggle and profess their fascination in their many different languages. You can tell immediately who is a first timer by their giddy expressions. You can soak in the salt water for hours and the skin on your hands does not pucker, it looks the same as when you got in. When you get out of the water, the drops never dry and you do not experience evaporative cooling, despite the fact that it is a very hot and very dry climate. The minuscule amount of water in the drops on your skin is so tightly bound by the salt molecules that they will not let the water release into the air. Eventually, however, evaporation slowly wins and you are left with a thin layer of salt crystals coating your skin.
After a quick rinse, I hit the road for a final trip to the hotel to get my stuff and head to the airport for my return trip home. It was a memorable trip, but hopefully next time I will have more time to see the rest of the country.

Floating on the Dead Sea was a relaxing way to end a trip that was anything but relaxing.