Happy Anniversary in Moscow

Who knew that Russia would celebrate our wedding anniversary? We felt very blessed to have a holiday on our special day. So, we took a train to Moscow to find my friend Anita and her travel partner, Pavel. We missed seeing the massive parade that happens every year in Moscow. And to ensure that we had good weather, the government used some special chemicals and special aircraft to make sure the clouds were gone! Seriously. For those of you who have never heard of this, I hadn't either before I was reading about Victory Day in Russia. If you want to read more, check out this website: http://englishrussia.com/2013/05/13/moving-clouds-away/

Our first destination was VVC, the All-Russia Exhibition Center. Kind of like a mixture of the Epcot Center/Disneyland/State Fair and street markets. Established in the 1930's, it was designed to be an agricultural exhibition center. There are numerous memorials around the "park", the above picture is one of those memorials. It was a fantastic one designed in memory of Russian space adventure.

I think this man was trying to get to space with these balloons. Reminded me of the movie "Up".

Inside the center, there are about 80ish pavilions. Each pavilion had been dedicated to a certain industry or field. For example, a few pictures down, you will see the one dedicated to Space. But strangely enough, inside they were selling garden supplies, seeds and plants. They also had pavilions to different countries that used to be a part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Armenia to name a few.

Lovely fountains throughout. 

Space Pavilion with garden center inside...strange.

Brian almost overheated and kept dreaming of swimming in the fountains. 

I was also hot, but not as bad as my Alaskan husband. 

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman statue. Seventy eight feet high, built in 1937. The man holds a hammer and the woman a sickle to form the hammer and sickle symbol. A very Russian, communist symbol. Brian and I don't  quite look as good as the statue does. 

Dinner that evening was at a fancy place. Our friend Anita had the best meal by far. Not necessarily in taste or amount of food, but by the art and layout of meal. Her bucket had some juices for her cutlets. Sadly the bucket wasn't that tasty. The fence (see below) wasn't either. 

Happy Four Year Anniversary to my wonderful Brian. He's the best. 

Check out our firework show below. We went to a big park with literally, tens of thousands of people. The firework show lasted about 10 minutes. A little surprising...and then we waited 45 minutes for people to flood into the metro so we could get home.