Saying good-byes to my friends in Washington

Tomorrow early in the morning I am flying to Los Angeles for another month. And that means it is now time to say good-bye to my new friends here in Washington. I will definitely miss them, especially my friends Jon (on the picture above) and Samuel. We had a lot of great times together, good interesting converstaions and just a lot of fun. Sad, sad...But maybe they'll visit Moscow one day or maybe we'll just meet somewhere else. With all this globalization process you never really know:)
It was definitely great to get to know you, guys!

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The most FABULOUS ride of the summer!

Marcus (our tour-guide), me and Rick after a never-forgettable ride on the Seattle Duck

Rick, Kerri, Alex and me decided to go on a tour on the Seattle Duck. It's not very cheap at all, so I was wondering what will be so special about this tour. Well, first up, we had a fabulous, and when I say it I really mean it, tour-guide Marcus (on the picture above with me), aka Captain Chaos. He is really amazing, he was very entertaining, joking all the time, totally breaking the ice and definitely rocking it. I seriously doubt artists on Broadway shows in New York are half as good as our Marcus was. Very cool performance, not just a simple tour around the city.
We were going on this crazy bus-transformer-boat, and having music super-loud at times, and dancing and singing and just really having tons of fun. Plus Marcus also told a lot of useful and interesting information about the city.
Well, hold on, that's not even the main thing really. Imagine this, Marcus actually let me drive the boat with all the people in it for about 5 minutes when we were on Lake Washington, and I really felt so very special driving the Seattle Duck. Honestly, it was the most memorable and amazing ride for me during this summer. Rick took some pictures of me driving the boat with all the passengers in it, so maybe I will have those pictures later. It was really so cool, I can't even express, I am still so excited, it's really not that easy to make me that excited:)
Anyway, the 90 minutes that me, Kerri, Rick and Alex spent on the Seattle Duck were a blast! Thank you, Marcus:) I got acquainted with him personally, so now he has a friend from Moscow:)
Well, I guess it's time to share some pictures with you now:)

Our fabulous tour-guide Marcus, Captain Chaos

Me, Kerri, Rick and Alex having fun on the Seattle Duck

Alex and Rick

Music Art Museum


The most hard-working man in Seattle in front of Seattle Art Museum. He works 364 days a year. The only day off is a Labor Day Holiday. By the way, this year Labor Day is really early, it's this coming Monday, September 1st.

The first automated car-wash built in USA. In 1963 Elvis was often washing his car at this wash near Seattle downtown.




Qwest Field

Lake Washington





View on Seattle Space Needle City Center from Lake Washington


Views on Seattle from Lake Washington



This is a famous house with a green roof from 1993 movie "Sleepless in Seattle" starring Tom Hanks and Meg Rayan. Right now it's on sale for 2,5 million $.

Fremont Bridge

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Starbucks No.1 and visiting with friends

Alex, Kerri and me enjoying the coffee from Starbucks No.1 in the world


This summer is really very special to me, as while I am in the States I get to meet a lot of my friends that I regularly hang out with in Moscow. Coincidentally they all go to same places as me at some point, and so we have wonderful opportunities to meet and spend awesome time together:)
Today I was spending day with Kerri, who arrived here in Washington to visit with her cousins, and Rick and Alex. Later on we were joined with Mandi, also my friend.
In the morning we drove to Seattle and visited the first Starbucks ever, founded near Pike Place Market in 1971 by 5 teachers. It was really special to get a cup of vanilla latte from the most famous Starbucks in the world.
Later on we hopped on the city-water tour on the Seattle Duck. This is a very significant attraction in Seattle and gives a great impression of the city, especially a great option if you don't plan to spend too much time in Seattle and still want to get a taste of it. It was fantastic experience, and more about it in my next post: we had a fabulous tour-guide, and of course I took tons of pictures; but again, that's the next post.
After fabulous tour around the city we met with our other friend Mandi and then drove to Kent, where Kerri's cousins live. It was amazing visitng with them and getting to know a little more of Kerri's family. We had a great dinner and fellowship together.
It's so great, that Kerri will be back in Moscow in February, when we will be planning the Spring English Camp again, and we will be able to spend several months together again. She is an amazing friend. I am really glad we got to hang out together today. It was a fanatastic day.

Starbucks #1



Rick, Kerri, Alex at Seattle Waterfront

Alex and Kerri

Kerri and Pike Place Market

Alex, Kerri, Rick

Alex, me and Kerri in front of the Space Needle

Kerri, Mandi and me

I look forward to meeting you again in February, Kerri!

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Seattle Woodland Park & Zoo

Seattle Zoo is a world-known place and is significantly different from one in Moscow. The main difference is that the zoo almost looks like a forest, and all the animals are put into close to natural conditions and have a lot of space to themselves (vs. Moscow where most of the animals are in considerably small barns). The only disadvantage is that because animals have so much space to themselves, in most cases it's really hard to get a good close picture of any of them.

Here I am, milking the cow:)




















Near the park


Not the most typical American cars

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