Our summer vacation at the beach

We were afraid that since we were not getting to take a summer vacation apart from our trips to Russia that we wouldn't get to see the beach this year. Well, this is the "beach" outside our hotel. This is the River Dvina and our hotel is on the banks of this river. We saw lots of sea, rivers, and marshy areas on the flight in. That flight was on something akin to a regional jet, just not quite as nice or as new.

The Hotel Pur Navolok is a nice hotel. Seems to be the only place that has a truely bi-lingual staff, so I am glad this is where we are staying. We have enjoyed our day of doing very little. We did venture out for a midday stroll. We found several shopping opportunities but all we could come up with to buy was bottled water for the hotel room, and a nice lunch. A good rule of thumb seems to be that if you can read the name of the resteraunt then they will probably have a menu for you in English.

We also met another couple that is here from Maryland. They are into day 6 of the 10 day waiting period. They get to see there son twice a day for 1-2 hours at a time. We had a nice visit with them over dinner. They still have about 3 weeks left in country so we will try to see them again when we come back from Kotlas.

We thank you for your continued prayers, and look forward to seeing you after we get home. Oh, and thanks Tyler for waiting until we left the country. We expect to see you at the airport Sat. night so we can give you both a big hug. We are very happy and hope we have our little flower girl home in time for the wedding!

The blue tarp on the roof kind made me feel like we were staying in New Orleans!!