Travel around the world and back.
The following is our trip to Russia. We were in Russia from August 7th to September 4th. For the entire photo album: http://www.rsb0.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/album-2017-russia On our way to the airport. This was my first Uber ride, although not Dmitri’s first… We’re … Continue reading Russia 2017
Olessia has three weeks of vacation. Me, on the other hand, has been switching jobs so much I am lucky to get a week here and there. I made the switch to Progressive at the beginning of January and the trip to Russia had been on hold due to the situation at National City Bank. It was looking pretty good I would have enough comp. time and vacation time at National City Bank that I could take three weeks off. But the bank was in trouble and then bought out and my job security wasn’t looking all that great. At … Continue reading Three Weeks in Russia
There’s plans in the air for returning back to Moscow in 2009. It looks like the current plan is to try to catch the 2009 MAKC airshow and at the same time, try to not miss any school classes. The trip specifics are a bit unknown at the moment. Olessia has some paperwork she needs to catch up on while back in Dubna. We are thinking to aim for taking 3 weeks this time, if my work will let me swing it. If so, we might try stopping in Western Europe, such as Paris. I’m looking forward to returning and … Continue reading Russia 2009
Road Trip!
Olessia hadn’t been to DC yet. We took advantage of the labor day weekend and headed out on Friday and arrived in downtown Washington DC in the afternoon. We did a quick walk to the White House and returned back to the hotel for food.
I haven’t been able to figure out how to summarize the trip. In one word, I think “awesome” would summarize it pretty nicely. Russia is an amazing country. The United States goes back 300 years, while the city of Moscow alone goes back 860 years! The country is HUGE too.
It is easy to write about it, or look at pictures of Russia. But to actually go there, smell the air, and experience life, it is something else. I think for everything that is good about Russia, you can find the negative. It is still a tough place to live, in my opinion, although it does appear to be getting better. The trip allowed me to meet Masha, Olessia’s sister, as well as see where Masha and Olessia grew up and lived. I also saw where Olessia went to school, where she used to work, as well as where her mom and dad used to work and where her mom works currently. I experienced travel by road, boat, train, and metro (the subway).
Olessia’s mom cooked for us often. I tasted Russian ice cream and can say it is really good, so good in fact, I could see it being worth while eating outside in the cold of winter (which Russians do). It was a real treat to be able to go to Saint Petersburg as well as make it to the air show (the air show runs only once every two years). We ran out of time before we could see or do everything we wanted. This just means we’ll have to go back some time.
Pictures are available. I’ll try to narrate them here. Each album in the gallery is one day. So the first album is day one, the next album is day two, and so on.
Continue reading “Russia 2007”
The end of March, Olessia and I made a trip out to Las Cruces, New Mexico to visit my grandparents. It was a just a weekend trip, although we wish we had more time. It had been probably ten years since I was in Las Cruces the last time. The temperatures in Cleveland were just starting to warm up from 40F. I remember scraping frost off the car before leaving for the airport. We arrived and it was in the low 70F. The weather was absolutely awesome. My grandparents took us out for lunch and we got some authentic southwestern … Continue reading Las Cruces, New Mexico
Ah ha! Someone posted some nice video from the 2007 MAKC air show on Youtube:
Update: The video posted is a highlight of the stars of the 2007 MAKC air show. It is not actual footage of the air show itself. Still, very entertaining to watch…
Olessia and I are back from Russia. We spent 2 weeks there in Dubna, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. We’re still recovering. Pictures have been uploaded. I’ll post more info shortly…
Continue reading “Russia”
I’m going to Russia with Olessia!! My passport finally came back with the Russian visa stamped in it. It didn’t help that I forgot to sign my passport before sending it to the Russian embassy. Oops.
Continue reading “Russian Visa Update”
I’ve been trying not to get too excited about our upcoming trip to Moscow. I haven’t received my Russian visa yet. The good news is just yesterday we received a slip from the post office. This should be the invitation from Olessia’s mom (it has to be signed for). I’ll be picking it up shortly. If everything looks good, it and my passport will be sent off to the Russian Embassy in D.C. With this document coming in, it is now permission to get excited. We can now purchase the airline tickets. We can start planning and packing for the trip. I’m looking forward to meeting all the new people, trying all the new food, seeing all the sites, sounds, and smells!
Continue reading “Moscow, Russia”
Had another trip to Chicago last weekend (I’ve now lost count how many times I’ve been to Chicago). This trip was for Jason and Leslie’s wedding (pictures in the gallery). We scrambled out of town on Friday evening after a full day of work and made it in to Chicago 12:15pm Cleveland time (11:15pm Chicago time). Saturday we recovered from the drive and attended the ceremony and reception (all of which was beautiful).
Before the trip, we didn’t have any plans for Sunday or Monday. Olessia found some ideas for Sunday and a dinner cruise sounded like a great idea. Plus, the cruise she found was a fancy one which required evening/cocktail attire (which just so happened we had brought with us because of the wedding). The cruise was excellent. A trip up and down the Chicago skyline during sunset, while eating an excellent dinner. The cruise concluded with fireworks.
Olessia received her official green card in the mail on Thursday, April 19th, 2007. This was of course, very exciting. This expands Olessia’s rights in the United States. For example, US citizens can travel to a bunch of countries without a visa (Canada, Mexico, most of Europe) and her green card grants her this privilege.
So on Friday, I checked the weather. It has been down right cold and snowy here in Cleveland for quite some time. This weekend was going to be in the sixties and seventies! Ah yeah! Finally! I checked with Olessia and we had no plans for the weekend. Roadtrip! The plan was to go back to Niagara Falls, but this time visit from the Canadian side. Olessia found a deal on a hotel room so we made a 2 day trip out of it.
Its that time of the year! I’m pretty sure everyone who lives in the
rustbelt (those geographical environments that eat cars alive) know its
that time of year to find and discover those new potholes. Yesterday I
felt pretty confident I knew where all the new potholes were at. So I
had fun switching lanes for no apparent reason and watching those who
had no clue. For those who get to travel on Rockside Road, keep an eye
out. There’s a couple holes there that can swallow a small vehicle.
I finally got back to scanning Tanzania photos. Roll 10 is one of my
favorite rolls. There’s a lot of cool pictures from Ngorongoro
Crater. You’ll find hippos, lions, hyena, ostrich, and other animals.
Continue reading “Another Tanzania roll uploaded”
Olessia pointed me to the car she
href=”http://www.vaz.ru/v2108.htm”>owned when she was in Russia.
Although she said her’s was red. It has a 1.5L engine and is a 4×4 and
does 0-70mph (or 0-100km) in about 14 seconds. She said it gets good
gas mileage too.
A lot happened. I won’t go into all the details, but I got sick on
Thursday and had to call off sick on Friday. I didn’t get anything done
but get a hair cut on Saturday. Sunday I launched
href=”http://www.ancientrhino.com”>Ancient Rhino. I was starting to
feel ok on Sunday.
Monday we went to Kelleys Island. THAT was fun! Whatever I had caught,
I wasn’t feeling the effects of any more and we went to the island. We
eat dinner at the Casino. Walked around some and enjoyed the sites.
Then we headed back and I started a campfire. We enjoyed the evening
together. Oh yeah, I turned 30 on Monday too…
Tuesday went great. We got up and had breakfast at Bag the Moon. Then
we went back and packed up our campsite. Then we spent a good amount of
time at the beach and in the water. We got tired of that and then we
headed home and had dinner with my mom. Its been a busy week! And
thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday!
So that’s also why there hasn’t been any updates to the site. As you
notice, I’ve swapped the counter with one that counts the days down to
my calculus class (ugh!).
I haven’t forgotten about the Tanzania pics either. There’s only a few
rolls left to do. But I was way too sick to even think about scanning
them. If all goes well, I might get some more up tonight.
The gallery got upgraded and tweaked. I’ve ironed out the kinks and the
7 rolls of Tanzania film are now up. I
hope to have the last 7 rolls up by the end of next weekend. If you’re
wondering what is taking so long, I’m scanning each negative
individually. I’m doing very little image touch up. You’ll notice a
lot of black borders hanging around the images. This is due to how the
negative gets aligned over the scan head.
This last weekend we went to Geauga Lake (the amusement park formerly
known as Six Flags formerly known as Geauga Lake and Sea World). It was
bought out by the company that manages Cedar Point and a number of other
parks. I had been to Geauga Lake the year before Six Flags bought them
and this was the first time going back. Basically, I managed to skip
visiting the park when it was Six Flags. It was a pretty pricey to
visit this weekend. About $70 for two adults!
We went on one of the roller coasters, the water slides, the wave pool,
and several other rides. We had a great time. We walked all the way
over to the old Sea World park and checked out what they had going which
ended up being not much. We stayed for a good 5 hours and got a little
too much sun. I ended up slightly burnt and Olessia had a bit of heat
exhaustion. We got home and didn’t do anything for the rest of the
entire evening (which actually felt good).