Sunday Morning

It's 7:00 a.m. Some chance of sun, but mostly high clouds, and it should be in the sixties. Chris is still sleeping. We will head out in about 2 hours for the Central building. Chris' stomach gave her a bad time yesterday, so she came home with the Ireland's after dinner. I went with the Mason's to conference. The Irelands are in the Moscow West mission. They had their conference two weeks ago.

Gorky Park was fun. It is located on the Moscow River, just a little bit to the West of the Peter the Great statue. It is an old time amusement park, with roller coasters and a ferris wheel. Lots of rides for little people, even a living tiger (on a chain, no cage), to have your picture take with. A nice lake with paddle boats, fountains and lots of trees. The large monumental gate entrance shows that it was constructed in 1954.

Peter the Great looking over the girls' shoulders. Ferris wheel and central fountain. The entrance, grand as ever!! Paddle boats on the pond.

There is a marked diffence between our parks and the Russian parks. Theirs seem much older. Rust is their constant companion and the buildings and cement steps are crumbling. There is so much that needs to be repaired, or just torn down and rebuilt. Yet, throughout this entropic environment, are lovely planted flower beds and many of the same sounds that you would hear in our parks. The Russians seem to have no problem looking beyond the aging and really seem to enjoy the otherwise simple surroundings. If you can remember some of the scenes in the movie, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?," you will get a pretty good feeling of the "old" that one experiences in Moscow. Building under stress. Our faithful group, the Masons, Irelands and the Shepards.

Chris and Greg tiptoeing through the tulips.

Some Russian entertainment for park visitors. Chris was invited, but she passed.

Speaking about sounds, we noticed that the music intended for little children had the same tempo and melody that you would expect in one of our parks. Music designed to get the attention of children and to make them feel gay and happy. Of course, the words were quite different!!

At the entrance to the park, actually outside of the main gate, is a double-decker merry-go-round. That was a first for me!

The conference focused on building and strengthening families. I find it a bit of challenge listening to the translator, when I am also trying to listen to the Russian in an attempt to increase my vocabularly. But it all seems to work. Well, Chris is up, so I guess I better get into the kitchen and make some breakfast.