Today is Grandma Kaminski's birthday. We slept in late after just about everyone but me decided that perhaps 4:30 in the morning would be a good time to wake up. grandma read a bit and fell back asleep. Rob made the kids eat a bit and then sent them back to bed. Then it was difficult to wake them up at 9:30. We finally got rolling and went to the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. We were lucky enough to be there during a guard change. Interesting to see the plaques on the monument that goes back to the 10th century. Ally (in all seriousness) asked who was the unknown soldier. Good thing she wasn't wearing her "naturally blonde" t-shirt at the time :-)

We were VERY VERY hot as it was in the 90s today and humid. We still walked a couple of miles with the kids complaining all the way....the adults were just fine. We had periogis for lunch, the kids and I had Ruskie periogis and Grandma had "Grandma" periogis which had mushrooms, sauerkraut, and other goodies in it. Rob had dessert periogis.

In the afternoon, we took a taxi to the Summer Palace. It was a beautiful palace with a lot of paintings of the monarchy to look at. I was a bit disappointed because the gardens are under construction for the next 2 years. The last time we visited, they were just gorgeous.

We took another taxi back to our apartment and then we had salads (the adults) and subway (the kids). Grandma had a couple od bites of carrot cake to help celebrate her birthday. She asked us not to sing to her ( we were in an outdoor cafe).

We came back to the apartment to crash fro the night. Of course, that is when Rob decided he wanted to go shopping. He and zosia went for an hour or so. Grandma K then decided to go shopping as well. She was concerned we were going to run out of toilet paper (really!). So, she set off on her own. She did just fine and was back to the apartment a short time later.

It is time to sign off for the night. Visiting Aleksandra's orphanage tomorrow morning.