It snowed in Russia!

We continue our story in Russia!



Our last day in PK (Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky)was very cold and it snowed off and on all day. The Roberts decided to take a day off from their language study so we went on a special day trip about 45 minutes away from their house to a....



thermal pool! It is heated by hot springs that are warmed by the nearby volcanoes. It was awesome! The water was hot and the air was cold so you can see all the steam floating up! They have a large (hot!) lap pool, a jacuzzi that will seat about 25 people, and a large round pool with several water slides! We went on a Thursday morning about 11 am, and it was just the 6 of us and 5 or 6 other young men and then when we were about to leave a couple of hours later, a couple of other people showed up. It was cool to be in the hot pools with snow flakes falling on us!


Glenn getting a mouthful!


One of their churches out in a nearby village


Bible study in the living room

While we were there, we stayed in another families' apartment while they are on stateside assignment. Before leaving for the States, the family had started a Bible study in their living room, and the Roberts are carrying on with it while their co-workers are stateside. We were really impressed with the Roberts' level of Russian in such a short time. They evidently have worked hard at learning it, but also, since they are out there in PK alone, they have no choice but to speak Russian!!

We left PK on Friday morning to return to Budapest. We had to be at the airport by 1:30 pm to catch a 3:00 pm flight to Moscow.


Countryside on the way to airport


Volcano peeking ABOVE the clouds

Our flight from PK to Moscow was 9 hours long! Once we arrived in Moscow, we had 5 hours to kill before catching our flight to Budapest, which was about 2 1/2 hours long. Mary and Alvin met us at the airport to take us home. Normally, Glenn and I catch a taxi home but Alvin has a real strong gift of service that shows itself in always wanting to take and pick us up from the airport so since we were so tired, we let him, and we were glad we did! We woke up at 8 am on Friday to fly home, and arrived in Budapest the same night because of flying westward, but according to our bodies, it was 7 am the next day when we arrived and NO SLEEP!


Our yellow duplex behind Glenn, left half

On Saturday, after starting the 5 loads of laundry, Glenn and I decided to go into town and hike up the mountain that overlooks the city, up to the Citadel. Usually we drive up to the top behind the mountain. but this time we went via public transportation and walked up the trails on the front side. (We now have a bus stop in FRONT of our house in addition to the one in the block behind our house. We are so spoiled!)


Beautiful fall leaves


Half-way up


All the way up


2 million people


The Danube River


The Castle


~200 motorcycles ride across the bridge

On Tuesday we leave for France to spend 5 days with Kari and Jonathan. We are really looking forward to this trip! We are taking some vacation time and plan to walk a lot and eat a little. We will be staying out in the country where they have been housesitting since the beginning of summer. I hope we get to rest some while there!!!