Today...

Russia apparently doesn't buy into coin laundry or do it yourself laundry. The hotel will do laundry (dry cleaning)...how about $3.00 for a pair of socks or $13.00 for one shirt. So we revolted. We did it ourselves in the bathtub. Fortunately, I had purchased liquid tide in travel sizes.

Imagine us with a unmentionables hanging all over the room and jeans stretched out over every suitcase we brought with us. We put the do not disturb sign on the door so we would freakout the poor floor maid. After we got up, some things were dry so we redistributed it around the room. Only the jeans and big sweaters will take two days to dry.

We didn't get out of the hotel until about 1pm and took it easy as was suggested to us. We took the metro over to Novy Arbat and Old Arbat which are basically shopping streets. I bought a cute little Russian dress for Alina that she will get to wear once and we can have pictures that everyone can say....'Awww' and then we will mothball it...but I couldn't resist. It's the traditional style and it's much cheaper here than at home.

We ate at TGI Fridays...I know...cliche...but we were hungry and it was right there. They had a great mushroom soup, a nice salad, and the nastiest cheeseburger I've ever eaten. Andy had a Quesdilla which he enjoyed. I just did the salad and soup and the cheeseburger remained...um...you know uneaten.

We came back to the hotel and called it an early night. I ate peanut butter sandwich...Andy had another Crapdog...he loves them. I can't quite stomach them.

We won't be blogging for two days because we're going out of town for the weekend to a town called Yaroslav. I have a friend who has parents there and we were invited to stay with them. Apparently we're going to a Russian Jazz Festival on Saturday. That should be fun and a great distraction from the waiting.

Love to you all and we'll blog on Sunday to let you know we're okay and back safely.