They don't call it Leisure park for nothing...

Here is me wrangling a gun, (actually air rifle with pellet.) with Loki next to me. Sad story, Loki couldn't properly hold the "rifle" and pull the trigger at the same time.

 See this lady in the blue with the long brown hair? Yeah she's holding a "pistol" or hand gun and is totally blowing away lined up cans. I mean she was brutal.

 The other kids at the gun parlor (is that the right word, whatev's it's my blog) where aiming at a target. I was aiming for that blue disk in the upper right of the photo. And not hit my kid with the gun. After the lady in blue was done using the pistol/hand gun, the propprietor then handed it to my son, because it fit his hand better. So that's promising. What did Loki hit, I don't even think he landed anything. But he sure was laughing.

A parting shot of an almost sunset. By the way, it gets dark at 11, but the sun set is technically after 1015 pm.

Kirov Centeral Culture and Leisure Park

We go here quite a bit. It's usually free, but this was a Friday evening so there was a cost to come in. Realize that anything inside the park also has a cost to it. It is known as either Leisure Island, Kirov, or Yelgin Island. A lot of sections of Saint Petersburg gets the moniker, "Island", but I am not sure if they are technically islands or not. If they are man made islands, then does that technically count as an actual island?

 Here is Loki and Sergey trying to cram their way into the park. The lady in the orange safety jacket is collecting tickets.

 So Loki is really into fishing lately, and this resulted in his grandparents spending money on fishing supplies. That's okay because it makes Loki extremely happy. Those people are sitting at the lake edge, trying to enjoy their beer, and have a snack and here comes MR. American child. So much for your pleasant afternoon.

 This is the lake in the park. It could partially be man made. The Neva feeds into it, and it was frozen the last time we came to Russia. Yes those are ducks, and yes you can rent a row boat and feel very romantic rowing your self across the lake. Through the lake? I don't know, how you transit through this body of water. The people in the boats are : kids, adults, teens, parents, seniors. I insisted Loki wear his life jacket, when we went on a boat ride, but it wasn't actually that deep. I would prefer that we attempt to pretend to be safe. When we take Taxi's he refuses to wear his seat belt, because literally no one else is.

 This is how they have Loki fishing. It's a reel that isn't like one I am used to. But sometimes the rod sits in the water, and sometimes depending on the location it is held . Mind you, people are only 5 feet away from us, churning up water with row boats.

Eventually a fish was caught, instead of releasing it back into nature of course we tied it in a bag, and let it suffocate. I am under the impression that we are going to eat it. I would rather never eat that thing. SO GROSS. We caught two more that day. By the way, don't comment about what kind of fish it is. Your guess is as good as mine.

So finishing up from July

I realized that I am pretty far behind on postings. So here are some final images of our time at the Summer garden. So a lot of things about Russia are odd and unexpected. The city, the downtow specifically Nevsky prospect is the main "drag". There sidewalks are wide and there are lots of different types of public transit. Including subways, but subways are underground. How do you get around if you have say a slight disability.

 Well as you can see from this wheel chair "ramp" (if you want to call it that), this is the tentative response to someone with a wheel chair. Or a stroller? The staircases to get down to the subwayss are more frightening and way more unsafe. The way down is very steep down those stair cases and it makes it more scary. In fact everything is steep and kind of dangerous. Also it gets worse when the weather is worse. So just imagine everything unsafe and slippery and probably neck breaking all the time.

 This is a very famous bridge. In fact all the bridges are famous in the city proper. The canals were created to make it into a Russian Venice way back. The city itself was largely designed, specifically the layout and streets etc, by Peter the Great (as the story goes) after he went on travels throughout Europe. The majority of the buildings were made/designed/created after his death. Other bridges include lion's holding the mouth of the crossing, and the bridge that they dumped Rasputin's body into after the botched assasination attempt. Many rivers held bodies after many botched or completed assisinations and murders. (King Alexander the First was assisinated by the river in Saint Petersburg.)

 This is one of the many, many small playgrounds built around apartment circles. The children usually play at them. But we wake up super early in the morning, so there isn't a lot of children playing around them. Also I don't like that Loki will play after 7 pm. Which is when a lot of children are out and playing.

 This is in the same play area. Their are some green areas but not a lot of grass, I would assume this is because of the weather/frozen snow. But there are some trees and it's clear that children are using them. Also the adults congregate there. It is really weird to see older adults there. I am not accustomed to seeing as many men as I see here at the parks. Either grandfathers, or fathers. Sometimes they are with their spouses, and the kids. Sometimes it is just the guys and the kids.

One final shot of the bridge. It's really strange to see the river, not frozen. I can't explain how frozen the river was when I was here the last time. I mean it was frozen, solid, people were ice fishing in it. People were boring holes, and ice fishing in the river, sitting on it. Men, large men, some even had chain saws. Now it's all smooth sailing, the water is deep so it must be pretty damn cold when it freezes.

So I was taking you on a tour of the Summer Garden

So Loki wants to take pictures with the camera, and he does a pretty good job.

 These are his crocs, he is very proud of them. He love wearing them.

 I took this photo of him and Baba together. He enjoyed the fountains.

 This is Loki's scooter. He also loves his scooter.

 This is a photo of Baba (Larisa) and my arm. My arm is in the shot because I am trying to wrangle the camera free from Loki. It's the third camera I have had to buy in so many years.

 Dede, enjoying the fountain.

 Loki's scooter.

This was either a vegetable garden, or a herbal garden. It was interesting that most museums use grandmas to guard the treasures of the Russian federation. You can only get so close to the plots and flowers. You can't pick you can photograph.
I wanted to spend more time at this location, but it's kind of hard when your son is running away with his scooter to another fountain.
Most people will mill about the grounds leisurely. I believe the cost is free. There was a wide range of people touring the gardens. Nobody really talks or laughs, they keep to themselves and have mellow conversations. You can get drinks and ice cream during the walk and they have small garbage cans scattered around every where. The best thing about being in Russia is paying to use a toilet. You have indoor toilets that flush, you have to pay to use those. You have out door toilets, you have to pay to use those. I have seen more consumption of various kinds of liquid during this visit, then previous. (not always alcohol) time around. It's a very interesting time during the summer. I try to not have a huge eyes when walking around.
Yes it's true the russian government has banned any western or european union,  fruits, vegetables and dairy products. As most food products are imported, this is a huge burden on many people. Ourselves included. 

So they had to do another root canal

On my other moral the one in the way back. Meanwhile I am in a ton of pain. So I went out today in a rain storm and got just annihilated with fat rain drops.
Have you watched the news lately because if you haven't we are now facing a ban on all imported foods and produce from NATO/UN western countries. That's cool though we can still eat these lovely Russian ????? Well I am not sure what they grow over here other then a seething hatred for all things normal.
Anyway I will go back again on the 27th of August to finish up the root canal and other things. I do have more photos to post, I have just been distracted by all my dental pain and situations.

I went to a dentist in Russia.

Because I can't afford to go to the dentist in the states, so an international plane flight with a small child made the most sense.
So the cost of the dentist, was only 91 dollars, for an hours worth of digging and pulling out awful pulp. It went on and on. The dentist was very nice, and it was a she. I would have to say it was the most competent and least like going to a MASH clinic like I thought it would be like. They had a fancy X-Ray machine, that did things like make digital images of my rotten back teeth. She spent quite a while digging around and it was nice to know that I couldn't understand a thing they were saying. Which kind of relaxing, you can't hear what they are saying about your nasty awful teeth. It makes life more pleasant knowing they aren't judging you. But what's the purpose of saying that you are allergic to latex, if they use double latex gloves.
Other things that was interesting about the Russian dental office, they had a bowl of candy right out on the open for everyone to eat. Because nothing says job security like a bowl of candy. That my son decided to eat all of them. Job security is what I am talking about.
Which made the fancy job that they did on my glasses, look fantastic. I mean it's not that big of a deal that I won't be able to see past the front of my nose. In my mind I considered bringing my second pair, but I don't really like them. Also I meant to bring my sunglasses but they got left in the car at the airport.
So there are a huge list of things that I forgot from the states. But it was a really confusing trip to the airport. Why was the Seattle airport so far away from where you think it is.

This is the summer garden, it is close to the Hermitage

So the garden is filled with fenced in Green spaces. Because nothing says "Garden" like fences every where. Including signs that say, Stay off the Grass in two languages (English and Russian)

  

 The grounds are very large with wide open paths to walk through. One thought is that they were created to be so wide so that a carriage or small carriage could fit through.

 Loki still insists on wearing his crocs. They are not really for walking, and they are not really that well fitting. His grandfather bought him some "Russian" style sandals or as I refer to them as, Orthopedic children's shoes. It's cool he and mommy have a matching pair so that he wouldn't feel so out of place.

 Statues are every where and were added during the "Reconstruction period" which would be when in the Russian government. Possibly after the freedom of the Serfs, but before 1917 would be my guess. Certainly not during the time of Communism, and not during the time of WWII. Maybe Wikipedia will hold my answer.

 Here's my son plowing into someone on his scooter. Dude put your cell phone down, it's the summer garden.

 Here's one of the many, many fountains that dot the garden. Maybe not dot as much as dominate huge areas of walking path. 

 Here's me in all my american tourist glory. Hat check, bag over shoulder that's more of a satchel check, weird clothing style, of course. Also I am wearing sneakers, with ankle socks.

No I lied I have my orthopedic adult sandals on. So that's better than sneakers. Here's me with Baba - Larisa. We are getting our photo taken by Sergey. By the way it's almost 8 at night, and we would be out for another three more hours. Including another boat tour.