Ice, Ice, Baby

Ice, Ice, Baby
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71.

There hasn't been a lot of news lately, which I suppose is the inevitable result after the holidays (even though our holidays weren't even that exciting!). I did want to report on a Sunday outing last week, though.

We went out to brunch at the famous Vlad Motor Inn, and it was such a crisp sunny day that we decided to take a walk afterward out by the beach. This is basically an area full of recreation points and "sanatoria" in the best Soviet style (hence the fact that the electric commuter train stop there is called "Sanatornaia").

The little park by the sea has an ice rink and little windows where they sell tea and snacks and things. And then just steps away is the Amur Gulf, which in summer I assume is lovely to take a dip in. This time of year, especially when we've had several good days of temperatures in the -5-10C range, it is covered with a thick layer of ice.

Last Sunday when we went, there were just people everywhere, skating at the rink, walking along the paths that run parallel to the shoreline, stopping for a sandwich and a thermos of coffee or possibly something stronger, playing with their kids (the preferred mode of transport for anyone under about 8 and over about 1 seems to be the sled, dragged by a parent), etc. There must have been people out on the ice fishing, too, but mainly it was peppered with people out strolling and having a good time. It was cold, but the sun warmed us, and there was no wind at all: just perfect. We had Anya in her stroller (see Flickr photos for a dissection of how bundled she can get for these outings), and she slept most of the time. I guess I am having trouble coming up with much detail beyond this to convey what a great time it was, but maybe I have given a flavor of it: just a simple day out in the sun, feeling good, having fun with the kid and with each other, and seemingly enjoying something that many of our fellow Vladivostokians were also happily partaking in around us.

Of course, we forgot the camera, which was a real annoyance -- we could have conveyed it better with a few thousand words worth of pics. And we could have snapped photos of the interesting ice textures that had been created by freezing and thawing so far this season, as well as the hood of a truck that was sticking out of the ice about 50 yards out from the shore. And the interesting high Stalinist architecture of the main sanatorium building in the complex for the Ministry of Defense, complete with many columns, arches, and reinterpretations of Greek athletic statues.

But we didn't, so we couldn't. I took this photo today, over a week later, because the natural scene here on the Gulf right near downtown Vlad resembled what we had seen out at Sanatornaia, although it was much less populated since it was already Monday morning. Hopefully it won't be the last Sunday stroll we'll have out there, though, and maybe we can catch all the ice activity on film at some point soon.