Ismailova Market

Ismailova is a huge flea market with permanent stalls and structures. It's structure is meant to resemble the Kremlin. It's very cool and it's unbelievable how many vendors are here.

We headed out at 9:45 a.m. John had walked Kym over from their apartment to meet us. I could totally tell that John was an awesome guy from our brief interaction at dinner of Friday night. As it turns out, he is a Scoutmaster to his troop. Ah .. see, he is a great guy. Kym and John have two Eagle Scout sons and their youngest is a Tiger Cub. Good people obviously!

Toni and John and their driver, Slava, picked us up and we all headed to the market. In 2006 we had gone to the market with our good friend, Alex, and taken the metro. The metro is great but becomes more challenging with a baby.

Ismailova has a TON of stuff. If you're planning on getting Gotcha Day gifts or souvenirs, this is the place.

Mom and I bought some matroyshka doll sets, some paint-in-yourself matroyshka dolls, some lace hats (one for Mia when she gets older and one for me) for $4 a piece, Christmas ornaments, a Father Frost, some wooden bells with a fairy tale (sort of like our runaway pancake story) amongst other things.

We sat down at the Sheshlek place where they will make any type of shish kabob you want. As we waited, a local artist came by and drew Mia's picture in charcoal. He was very good so I asked if he could do Sasha from a photo he had. I know the kids will treasure these as they get older. I have one that I got in Paris that I really like.

We had dinner at the apartment and put a tired little girl to bed. At about 1 a.m. parades of honking cars, fire crackers, flashing lights and screaming crowds filled the streets. This craziness continued until about 4 a.m. We suspect that Russia must have won some sort of sports tournament but we have no idea.

We're a bit tired this morning.