Here are some sights from the parade.

These ear muffs speak for themselves!

Hey, you've got to be patient with me because I've been trying to get my blog back online for two weeks. Then when I didn't think it posted, it did. I'm starting my third week in Anchorage. This past weekend we attended the Fur Rondy celebration in downtown Anchorage. It was snowing to beat the band. The first real snow we've had since arriving. In fact, the temps back in Driggs have been colder than here. We've had some dreary and very sunny days. Everyone asks how I mind the cold and I told them there are colder places than Anchorage. It is more humid and the roads can be treacherous. I'm glad Ray got us some studded tires. On to the Rondy which starts out with three days of dog-sled races, including winter parade, outdoor carnival, snow sculpture and fur auction and a dog pull. Ray and I sported our Russian fur hats and were ready to mingle.

Here I am with the Bakers at Landon's Rollie Lane Tourney in Boise. Aren't they troopers?

 
Here we are in Anchorage and Ray has different clothes in different places; Alpine (North Slope), Driggs and Eagle River. He didn't have any lounging attire here so we went shopping. He picked out this outfit on the super sale isle (after after Christmas). How do you like the Just Say HO! shirt and matching demented snowman pants?

 
Going back in time, here are the Bakers at the Rollie Lane Wrestling Tournament I went to a while ago. I'm trying to get caught up with my blog. I'm also having trouble so if this gets published with unintelligent cost stuff, sorry!

 

We had a nice visit with Ray's family. Ray's sister and husband (Kay and Lynn), and their kids Erin and Megan plus their two-year-olds, Chloe and Molly. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed spending time with them. It was the first time they had been to our house in the summer. They didn't really know what it looked like under the snow, but were pleasantly surprised!

 

First Sisters' Safari (translation, a weekend just for us) -- We've seen the men go on hunting trips, golfing trips, etc. So we put our foot down and went on our own trip. Elko or Bust!! Why Elko you ask? Because our parents used to go to the races there over Labor Day and once in a while we would to with many fond memories.

Kilomenskoe - a park along the Moscow River was beautiful. Here Alexander the 1st had an estate. We attended an exhibition in one of the remaining buildings from the original palace. We saw a lot of young mothers with small children; something you don't see in Moscow much. Notice the puffy hem of the bride's skirt. We saw the puffy skirt (my term) all over the city. It reminded me of a parachute, but was very popular among Muskovites.

Cherie at St. Basil's Cathedral!

Here is Ray and I with a tiger cub at the Moscow circus. If you ever go to Moscow, be sure to attend the circus because it is cheap and very entertaining. Plus it is more intimate than the much larger Barnum & Bailey Circus you may have experienced here.

The yellow round building and grey attachment is the meeting house for the English-speaking Moscow branch. There is no easy access so you must walk between these apartment complexes to enter. Inside it looks clean and nice like any other meeting house.

This is Ray's apartment complex in Naryan-mar. His apartment is quite comfortable with modern features. Naryan-mar is north of Moscow; 2 hours 40 minutes by plane. The following pictures are from my recent trip there. Ray's typical day here starts around 5:00 a.m. It is either daylight all the time or dark all the time. I would find that the hardest thing to get used to. A driver in a Land Cruiser picks him up and drives him to the office or the airport. He usually makes two trips a week to the field for meetings and inspections. What a way to make a living!!!

Typical apartment block in Naryan-mar. The ground is very sandy and there is always a ladder (I assume to clean snow off the roof).

Ray refers to this complex as Walmart! Diet Coke was available in quite a few stores, but they never had more than one or two on the shelf. Most of the people I saw wore modern clothes.

Some of the shops in Naryan-mar. There is no central shopping area; housing and shops are just haphazardly put up. Most of the time, there is ice and snow on the ground, so they don't worry about parking areas or sidewalks.

Here I am getting a Russian shampoo and blow dry. It was fun to do, but the hair style wasn't that attractive. My hair didn't look like much during my whole trip, and after a while, I just didn't worry about it.

This nice building is where Ray works. The name of the company is Naryanmarniftygas (just like it is spelled). I got a chance to help Anna with an English class and then had lunch with Ray. I had to turn in my passport to walk through the door. If the Vice-President of ConocoPhillips came, he would have to do the same.

Orphanage we visited with about 36 children ages 0-3 years. The building was old but clean with bright colors on the walls. The children seemed well taken care of, but it was still sad for me to see. We played with the children two times. When you are throwing a ball and giving them a hug, they don't seem to mind if it is in English. Picture here is Anna who works for ConocoPhillips. She grew up in the area and was our guide while in Naryan-mar.

Yours truly with the Shaman and a reindeer.

This is the Nenet village I visited where we were treated to reindeer meet, broth and panini's (similar to pancakes). The Nenets live much like the American Indians did over 100 years ago as they follow the reindeer herds (in teepees).

Located just outside of Ray's apartment complex in the main square of town. It was the only church in town and I never saw anyone going into it, but maybe my timing was bad. Ray says it has been built since he started going there. It had a locked fence around it the night we tried to see it.

I don't think it takes much to be a bricklayer in Naryan-mar. Most of the bricklayers during the war were women, but I'm sure they could have done better than this.

This is what most of the brickwork looks like. Smitty could never have gone there.

Typical of Naryan-mar! New construction next to the old Soviet style apartments seen all over town with no infrastructure or landscaping.

Now isn't this a funny looking item? It distributes a fog that kills mosquitoes in Ray's Naryan-mar apartment. Now we don't know how toxic it is for Ray, but he says it does zap the little critters. The windows in Russia (and most of Europe) do not have screens like us sensible Americans do. The first day I arrived, the neighbor's wife helped me put up temporary screens on some of the windows so we could get a breeze going through the apartment. Naryan-mar doesn't have much of a summer, but the mosquitoes are terrible if the wind isn't blowing. Between the mosquitoes and the 24-hour daylight, it was an interesting trip.

Cherie playing the tunes. Believe it or not, Ray has a grand piano in his Moscow apartment. The deal was if he took the apartment, he had to keep the piano there. When I was visiting last year the piano was so out of tune, I didn't want to play. So I hinted that it would be nice to be tuned for my next visit. Ray was true to his word and it plays lovely. Now the piano at home needs a tune, so I'd better make that call.