Charlottesville After the Violence

There are many statues in Charlottesville.  It is sad to think many people will only know about the statue of  Robert E. Lee but not one  to a more famous person: Thomas Jefferson . 

Jefferson's statue outside the Rotunda at the University of Virginia

Jefferson asked that these three accomplishment be on his tombstone: Author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and  Father of the University of Virginia



 

This is the statue that has been in the news.  Someone left a sign below "Heather Heyer Park"




Below is one of the non Civil War statues here.

The statue stands in the center of Charlottesville 

This is a statue of Lewis and Clark and their Indian guide Sacajawea.  They traveled 7000 miles over two years to explore the land Jefferson bought in the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the U.S.

This is the other statue to be removed, one of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. It is right outside the county court house.

 The fate of this statue erected to the common soldier is unknown.

The George Rogers Clark  statue stands along the center of Main Street in Charlottesville.

 Meriwether Lewis,  Jefferson's personal secretary, said he would accept the assignment to explore only if his former captain, George Clark,  was made co-leader.

 Charlottesville's favorite sons. Four of the first five presidents came from Virginia.  George Washington was the first, John Adams of Massachusetts the second  and then these three men followed.



And of course there are the more recent memorials

This is the street where Heather Heyer was killed. 

This lady told me she was a friend of Heather's and has come by each day to light a candle in her memory.

There are many expressions of love and forgiveness ,

I thought this tribute to the two police officers who were killed when their helicopter crashed was touching.

Hopefully Charlottesville can return to being a quaint, welcoming town. 

Viking Cruise Russia: in Moscow and Places in Between

On the way to Moscow aboard our Viking River cruise, we stoped at  a third port , one with a famous history,

Kizuno is the home of the Kirillo-Belorozersky Monastery.



KIZUNO

The monastery was founded in 1397 on the bank of Lake Siverskoye  Its founder, St. Cyril first dug a cave here, then built a wooden Dormition chapel and a loghouse for other monks. 

   In the 16th century, the monastery was the second largest landowner in Russia.




SCHOOL TOUR

One of my unexpected pleasures of the trip was a visit to a Russian school.  Students study  English beginning in grade two, Our fourteen year old guide spoke fluently.

What is there to say?

                         
                             This student sang Russian folk songs for us.

 
 I am fascinated by how current or real World War ll remains in the  Russia  psyche . This photo display of war heroes is one of many that hung on the walls of the elementary school.




YAROSLAVL

Another unexpected favorite was a stop at the home of a typical Russian. We met Natasha , a retired engineer, who grows vegetables  for the winter on her one acre plot of land.

Our guide, Olga, on the left and our host, Natasha, on the right.

Lovely table setting for us. The brown jar in the middle contained "moonshine".  No vodka here.

Medi loved the garden,   reminding her of home in the Philippines.




YAROSLAVL

                        The churches of Yaroslavl

THE  WORLD WAR ll MEMORIAL

The soldier on the left represents the 9.7 million Russian soldiers who were killed. The peasant woman on the right represents the 13 million Russian civilans who died in the war.  Of the more than fifty countries who fought in the war,  one third of all casualties were Russian.

It is beyond comprehension.



MOSCOW

The elegance of the Moscow subway station.

Some of the stations have sculptures honoring those who fought in WW ll

Kazan Cathedral inside Red Square. Destroyed in 1936 on the orders of Stalin, it was rebuilt in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

I'm standing inside the Kremlin.  It does not look so threatening after all.

    Medi in  Red Square  It does not look so threatening after all .

 Hare Krishna members chanting and dancing  do look threatening.   Who knew Moscow would be so open.

Viking Cruise in Russia: St. Petersburg and Places In Between - July 2017

We sailed from St Petersburg to Moscow down the Volga River stopping in five places along the way. It was magical . Even now, looking at my pictures , I wonder if it was a dream.
We were with dear friends, with lots of nice people , with a attentive, caring crew.  We had so many wonderful interactions with Russian people.


OUR SHIP

Outside our ship

Dining in style with our dear friends, Doug and Sara Sheldon

The Russian Crew (there were also many Filipinos)

ST. PETERSBURG

I had always heard so much about St. Petersburg and I can say it did not disappoint.

THE BOLSHOI

 Saint Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre built 1860 

Swan Lake

The Bolshoi Ballet founded in 1776.

The Peppers 

THE HERMITAGE

   

The Hermitage was founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great.

    

   The Hermitage has six main buildings. It is the oldest and largest museum in the world.

Exhibit

Exhibit

AROUND TOWN

   

    Castle of Count Stroganoff, a man now famous for his taste in food. 

       

      Every district of the 26 districts in St. Petersburg has a similar church.

    

    St. Petersburg is on the water front and  there are many scenes like this.

PEOPLE

    

     Medi enjoyed checking out the sidewalk shopping.

  

 Our guide, Anastasia, holds the St. Petersburg franchise for Urban Adventures. This young                     capitalist now has six guides working for her.

  

 These shopkeepers are not happy . They expected gullible tourists not international bargainers.

AND OTHER PLACES ALONG THE WAY 

Mandrogy

First stop was basically a tourist spot with rides, entertainment and local cuisine like difeent types of vodka, four kinds for five dollars.

    

A typical building

    

    Cossack music and dancing .

Kizhi

It is billed as an open air museum with all the buildings brought there from other places in Russia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Transfiguration Church . It was first mentioned in 1563 as a 22 domed church but it was reconstructed in 1769 as a nine domed church

Bella Visits Lola and Granddad

We had the most wonderful three + weeks with our beautiful granddaughter,  Bella and wanted to capture the memories for us and for her.

Bella seemed to enjoy everything we did together and thanked us all the time . She said she knew we were spoiling her and was lucky we were rich.

We explained we were far from rich but she then said "But you are over-comfortable, right ?"

A new financial term : "over-comfortable" 

On her first Saturday with us, Bella got to sit on the stage and watch Peter and the Dream Catcher at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton VA. She stared down the evil pirate who menacingly told her kids would be needed for his boat.  She did not like the fact he took a swig from her soda and did not drink it after that , perhaps fearing pirate germs.

The very next day, Neil and his daughter Sophie came to visit. It was so nice of Neal to take the two hour drive down to C'Ville , especially since it was Father 's Day. We had lunch, followed by Sweet Frog and then went peach picking at Carter's Mountain.

We made quite a few trips to Sweet Frog. Bella made the most colorful combinations of frozen yogurt.

The following weekend we drove to Busch Gardens and visited both the Waterpark and the Amusement Park.Nicest of all, Bella got to see her best friend Sienna.

The week before, Bella attended a  camp at ACAC and got to go swimming for at least two hours a day . Somehow, I neglected to take photos at the camp which she enjoyed tremendously.  She made a good friend, Julia and that led to three play dates.

What could be better than one best friend than two great friends!  It just so happened that Rosie, her friend on our block, was going to the Amusement Park the next day and she joined Bella and Sienna. They had a ball.

Here they are again deciding what to do next : really scary roller coaster or not.

Bella's friend Lucy went with us everywhere . Here she is resting after a day long outing at the park. She actually had much more energy left than did Lola and Granddad.

Bella and Sienna discovered Bubba's General Store and Ice Cream Parlor on Saturday night.

Bella got to visit Lindenhurst the next weekend. It is our ancestral home on the Island of Long.  She enjoyed playing with Theo who sought out her attention .

He had tough competition next to this little cutie, Annabella. So adorable.

The best part , of course, was meeting all her cousins. For some reason, she referred to cousins Kevin  Kyle as Billie  & Bob . Not quite sure why but she always laughed when she did.  Here we are at Ihop's on Saturday morning.

On a Sunday afternoon, we visited with Marty & Maureen , Uncle Eddie and Megan. Bella got to swim to her heart's content.   We stayed util 5 pm and then left to attend the twin's birthday party which was just starting.

She loved seeing cousins Alex, Ben and Brandon.  It was the twins birthday. She had presents for all her family members who in turn could not get over how thoughtful they were. For example, Brandon told he just started playing chess and she gave a chess set as his present.

I am not sure Bella played with Brian's Great Dane . It was the size of a small horse and still growing. But I know she was thrilled to see it.

Cousin Marie and Aunt Helen, who Bella calls Grams, were particularly delighted to see Bella

Bella also got to see Emma Kate with her parents Kaitlin and Mike. We attended Rocco's christening Saturday afternoon.

In between an Ihop breakfast and the christening, we went to see Despicable Me 3

My favorite picture. How can you not be crazy about this beautiful girl.

Bella and Lola in front of the lovely flowers.

One of the fun rides at Hersey Park

One of the most fun things Bella did was to see the seals perform at the Hershey Aquarium.

One of the four performers . MC said if you clapped harder they would perform better as they loved applause.  (oh, please)  Everyone  clapped and cheered  enthusiastically (oh please)

I almost wrote that the seals were the best thing about the visit when I remembered Chocolate World where we saw how candy was made and even made our own candy bar.

The candy makers.

The last stage of the process: designing your own label.

Lola already made a candy bar but did she then buy this gigantic bar too?

Come to think of it, there was an incredible amount of ice cream and frozen yogurt consumed on this trip.

A lot of ice-cream.

Could there ever be too much ice-cream?

On the day before she left, we all went to the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport.

Bella is holding up the era of flight. Before that she got to go on two space rides. Who knew a museum could be so much fun.

End of the day at the museum and time to go back.