Expedition to Russia 2008 Family Gallery
Russia
Map of the Expedition to Russia, 2008 including Scandanavia, Svalbard, Europe
Moscow
Red Square!
The "Candy Castle" is what Cokie dubbed Saint Basil's Cathedral
State Historical Museum
Orchids in town!
Anna Conception Cathedral in Serpukhov south of Moscow - a day trip to see the European Bison
Getting cherries in Serpukhov
Karl!
Inside of Saint Basile's
Back in Red Square
Famous Moscow Subway - veritable museums in their own right
Izmailovsky Market, Moscow
Jake!
Back to the subway!
The Kremlin! This day we saw Putin himself with the Chinese President, President Hu Jintao
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Classic Moscow scene
Elena delivering our tickets!
Our overpriced hotel - great location at $400 per night!
$50 water that I drank by accident!
Kremlin cathedrals
Assumption Cathedral
Kolomenskoe Blue Onion Dome Church
Kolomenskoe Park
Ancient Oak in Kolomenskoe Park
Polovtsian Woman, Kolomenskoe Park
Kolomenskoe Park
View from Kolomenskoe Park
Kolomenskoe Park
Our overpriced *($400/night!!!) Moscow hotel!
Novodevichy Convent
Novodevichy Convent
Novodevichy Convent
Gorky's House
Gorky's House
Tolstoy's House
Cokie kept a journal throughout the entire trip
Gorky Park!
Che Burashka
Our pile! WAY over the luggage limits!
Our cabin for the next four nights
Our local translator!
The upper bunk
Cokie's nemesis
Basically our roommates!
Life in Russia from the Trans Siberian Train windows
Each stop - go get some snacks!
Our Moscow hotel
Moscow Grand Central Railroad Station
What blew my mind about the Trans Siberian Railway was how vast and endless Siberia is. Not just hours, but days passing through the Russian Steppe grasslands and birch forests and Taiga. Wow! Small villages with their wooden homes broke the grasslands up...
Very cool how virtually every home in Russia had its own veggie garden
Loved these towers - every town had their own style
Ussuriland & Primorsky Russian Far East
One of Victor Ludin's captive Siberian Tigers. Victor had several in soft release enclosures with the goal of releasing them eventually. Victor was a very eccentric man to say the least. He allowed only ONE image of the animals in a natural setting.
Victor on the right - he was totally in to Som. Actually inappropriately so...
Packed and ready to go!
Working our way through the dense vegetation in the wetlands leading to Lake Khanka
Lake Khank sunset
Cokie discovered a VERY fresh pug mark of an Amur Leapard that was made just hours before our arrival!
Hmmmm
Kedrovaya Pad park superintendent, Irina Maslova and our guide, Ekaterina (Katya) Nenya
Trekking was always a blast for Cokie
Lazovsky!
Car trouble!
UAZ 452 - killer cars!
Camp America in Lazo
Cokie with a Siberian Roe Deer skull leftover from a Tiger kill
Antiques in the forest
Massive ancient Poplar tree in Lazo
Cokie being "one" with the butterfly. I will never forget he went from fear to acceptance to joy in a matter of a minute or two
We trekked and trekked and trekked Lazovsky
Scanning for Goral
Roman in a Asiatic Black Bear hollow tree!
Our beach hut
Scanning for Goral
Getting stuck in the beach sand!
Quality bridge!
Sveta and our ranger
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Zhupanova River
Zhupanova River
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge
"Utinie" Lakes (Duck Lakes) at the base of the Vochkazhets Mountains and Topolovi Ridge. Our guide was a PhD in Russian Literature - brilliant!
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP - Whale rib bones
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Zhapanova River
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Kronotsky NP
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva - Cokie getting to operate the ship's crane - really!
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Avacha Bay
Avacha Bay
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
Life aboard the Marina Tvetayeva
This bloke sailed from Bering Island all the way to San Francisco back in the day!
While we were on this voyage, German PBS was making a documentary of the Commander Islands. I would love to see it as we did get quite a few sound bites in.
Deck party at 90F in the Commanders! IT is never this warm there - the entire time was absolutely spectacular
Vodka with the captain!
Nikol'skoe - our only civilization on this voyage. This is the only town in the Commanders
Som getting the Bering Island Polar Fox!
Our bunk!
Researcher's camp - cool talking to two English-speaking scientists who were studying the Northern Fur Seal colony on Bering Island
Cokie practicing his Tai Chi
Contrary to the Commanders, the Kuril Islands were freezing!
Captain! Great guy! We shared many shots of vodka during the voyage!
Irkutsk's claim to fame as a city was the number of old wooden houses still in existence. But with the number of burned out ruins we saw during our stay there was a testament to the arson there - getting rid of these old dwellings in favor of development....very sad.
The Decembrist movement is memorialized in this old house/museum
Supplies in Irkutsk fresh market!
Harlampiyevskaya Archangel Michael Church
Epiphany Cathedral
Our first view of our Yaroslavet!
Bad belly from rotten chicken kebabs!
Waiting for the worst ferry on earth - nearly six hours waiting our turn - even though we were in the front of the line! Locals and trucks were given the right of way over tourists
Buryat Culture everywhere!
Yes Cokie, that is exactly what you think it is!!!
Kuzhir village dinner!
Our lodging in Kuzhir village
Our first of many UAZ-452 Soviet vans! Nothing stopped these little beasts!
Buryat Totems
Ruins of a Soviet era Gulag on the shores of Lake Baikal. Literally in the middle of nowhere, I can only imagine the hellish conditions of the prisoners who perished there. Evidently nearly all of them died and this place was haunted!
Buryat totems everywhere
Kuzhir Village on Ohlkon Island
Lake Baikal
Life on the Lake - 9 Day Expedition on our Yaroslavyet
Never got the name of our Yaroslavyet fishing boat but here was our first sight of it!
Vova was our English speaking guide - he was just in high school! Son of one of the richest Russian Oligarchs
This vehicle is worth a long story one day!
Just amazing - so much fun. Ir we wanted to see something on the shore, we'd just steer the boat at good speed and roll in over the rocks on the shore! Pop goes the ladder and we're on shore!
Preparing the Arctic Char that Cokie caught! He caught over 80 fish! The crew had a technique of starting the engine props of our beached boat, the faster the props the more the Char tried to "swim upstream!" He didn't even need to bait the hook!
Just slam the boat on the shore! Let's camp here!
Vodka thirty!
Our 9 days with our Russian crew was awesome - we became family with everyone.
Hung over 555
HOT!
Lake Baikal
Ulan Ude City, Buryatia Autonomous Region
Lake Baikal
Datsan Temple, Buryatia Autonomous Region
We were invited to be part in this ceremony of the "unburying" of a monk who was buried 75 years earlier. His corpse was soft and fresh as the day it was buried - truly amazing.
Our Buryat Guide
Our few days in the delta were spent at this small, simple lighthouse. We stayed and ate and drank with the lighthouse keeper and his lovely family. Our stay with this simple and kind Russian family is an experience my whole family will cherish always.
Most of our time on the Russian mainland was spent with Russian families - very hew hotels. Two only actually!
Lake Baikal Lighthouse
Kvaas!
Buryatia is Russian Mongolia
Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve
A trip to the south of Moscow for some nature and to see semi-wild European Bison or Wisent!
Flooded forest caused by European Beavers
