[ncturtle]

We were in Moscow for 2 days.. we arrived early Monday morning.. checked into our hotel, showered, went to the medical clinic and then went to the embassy to get our appointment for the following day. After that we pretty much crashed in the hotel. We did put DS in a stroller and walk around a bit.
The next morning our driver picked us up and we went to the zoo in the morning. Then out to lunch. Our translator met us there and we then went to our embassy appointment.
After the embassy appointment, the driver and translator took us to Red Square and a couple of other sites.. We also had visions taking pictures for the sites with our DS - but he slept in the stroller the whole time.. so we have a TON of pics with DS sleeping in the stroller in front of St. Basil's, in Red Square, etc..
and the kicker - DS would only go to the bathroom in one of those little kiddy potties.. SO we had to lug one of those around in a plastic bag hanging off of the stroller. Looks lovely in the photos!
We flew out the next am really early..
We did get out a lot in St. Petersburg with DS, but mostly walked around and went to parks..

[hopeful_in_Wi]

THis is TOTALLY OT and I'm super sorry but Lisa... in your siggy, it says DTC and LID ... what does that mean?


(totally sorry to hijack but I'm super curious!)

[GCS]

We went out all the time with our two. DD was only 5 months and she was such a peanut (10 lbs) that I carried her on me in a baby bjiorn carrier. We did not bring a stroller so we had to keep that in mind when walking around. Big boy was only 3. We went to the outdoor market everyday and walked the park. We went out to dinner at nice restaurants every night (to the horror of our facilitator! We just figured they may as well get used to eating out. We do all the time at home! And it was fine. We have some of our best memories from those dinners.)
We napped during the day and went to bed early every night, but other than that we were rarely in the hotel during our 7 days in region with the kids.

We never went to Moscow - there was a courrier who flew back and forth with our paperwork so we stayed in Vlad the entire time.

[momraine]

Gosh I feel like such an oldie here. I went way back in 2000. Things were sort of shut down so I did things a different way and choose my child there. I was there a month, but only one trip. I stayed the entire time in Sergey Posad, my daughter was in Vladimir, I visited when I could, and then I only had her with me the last week. We were driven to Moscow for appointments and one day of site seeing, my dh got dropped off to take pictures of Vladimir and that was it. I did get to walk all around Sergiev Posad with my 10 year old escort.

[mschweber]

Originally Posted by hopeful_in_Wi

Obviously I can't comment on the original topic but I did want to say that I have this romantic idea that I'll get lots of photos of my child near/in various landmarks. I intend to do lots more sight seeing on trip 1 and less on 2 but it seems like it is such a great opportunity to get pics of the child in what could be their final days ever in their home country (who knows if we'll ever go back, though it would be great to do).

Am I crazy? Part of course depends on the child and the circumstances at teh time ... if its a scary time, we'll be hunkered down for sure!

The photos we have from our quick visit to Red Square and the immediate area are treasured and some are prominently displayed in our house.

[MamaChinch]

We went everywhere! I did do the more "formal" guided city tour on trip 1 and the guided Kremlin tour on trip two before we flew to the region for court.

But the day we picked up the children, we walked to a mall and back and went out to dinner to celebrate. (The waitrees wouldn't let us order rice for the girls, she insisted we order buckwheat! The kids ate it, but they also ate rice!) The seond day we had to go back for the passports and my mom and the other grandmother took the kids out for a walk and pizza!

We were in Moscow from Friday-Wednesday and only had doctors and embassy Friday and Monday, so I took Delaney everywhere! We went sightseeing, walking, to parks, to Red Square, Arbat Street, that big Children's World Dept.Store, the Gum, out to eat everywhere, taking tons of pictures of her and me everywhere! We had great expereinces with Russians and talking to folks while we were out! Everyone at the hotel was wonderful.

It was Aug. 2006 and the weather was great and their were lots of tourists from everywhere. I ended up meeting a couple from Brussels with a little girl who was two. (not adopting, just visting) Delaney and she rode all over Moscow singing to each other and playing, we went to eat together. I am still friends with this family.
I am so glad we had the chance to do this, I have pictures and video of Delaney in her hometown and Moscow with people we met and the families of the kids she was with in the BH. Delaney loved going out and was just great.

[ncturtle]

DTC - dossier to China
LID - Log In Date

We started with China but while the wait has gotten longer (we're predicting that we will wait 3 years) we had an opportunity to adopt a little boy from Russia and we jumped at it! We are so glad we did as he is the light of our lives!

[Drazil]

We adopted in 2004 and as our 10 days were waived at the time we were able to enjoy many of the parks and sites once we received our son (granted we had already done the museums and churches on trip #1 in St. Petes). The weather was beautiful and we had our stroller so off we went walking everywhere, DS loved being outside and in the parks. In Moscow our agency provided us with a driver, translator/guide and car so we had a couple of days to explore Moscow with our guide. We of course did Red Square and all the trimmings that go along with that particular tour and then the next day I opted to stay at the hotel (Marriott Grand) and DH was taken on a fabulous private tour with our guide of the ins and outs of Moscow, he saw and was was to document so many sites and life in general in Moscow (it was a photographic tour basically for a book he was compiling at the time) and he thoroughly enjoyed it (he was gone about 8 hours). Meanwhile I took DS for a couple of walks near the hotel in his stroller and just enjoyed some mommy time with my new son.

[NCFamily]

We also did our sight seeing and walking around on trip 1. It was a good thing too because trip was mid-march and it snowed almost everyday. It was far to cold and snowy to be walking around with an 11 month old child.

[Bcelli]

We went everywhere. I stayed in the hotel one day while in Saratov because I had terrible blisters, but after giving them a rest, we hit the streets. We took our older son (6) with us on the second trip so we spent a lot of time walking the city (he was also born there). We took a bus once - just for the experience and to find the glass factory (we never did), but we tried to see as much and do as much as we could while still staying sensibly safe. We went to the museum, the water circus, Internet cafe (every day), Gnome Park (every day), some icon shops and boutiques, a carnival, the pharmacy, the grocery, the electronics shop, restaurants, etc. There was a single mom there at the same time whose idea of safety for herself and her child made me very uneasy. When we hit Moscow - we had one day where we could just do stuff so we went to the Arbat, had the boys' portrait painted, had lunch at McDonald's, dinner at Hard Rock, went to the grocery store, did some souvenir shopping, had dinner at our coordinator's flat the last night. It was great. Luke (2 1/2) slept a lot in the stroller. I would have liked to have gone to the zoo, but it was closed and we weren't staying near Red Square on the second adoption, so we didn't get by there with Luke. We're hoping to go back when the boys are older - Alli are you listening? - so they can visit and make a memory of their birth nation.

[randloar]

Well here is a vote for staying put........
We were bummed at not being able to get out (other than the fact it was truly winter and walking on ice was getting old!!!!), but, we got custdoy of little girl right away but had no paperwork to verify who she was or that she belonged to us........we were too chicken to push it since on trip one we got hassled by the police our first night there (in Red Square). So, to have troubles with little girl in tow were just too much of a chance for us.

Oh, the day we took her to get her passport photos, and all the scolding comments we got from the babushkas..........(she wasn't wearing a Russian style snowsuit, just normal warm clothes)......we stood out and didn't want to bring more attention to ourselves, so this was her only trip outside our apartment the 3 weeks we were there other than going to the play area they had at our complex.

SO for those of you that haven't traveled yet, SEE ALL YOU CAN ON TRIP ONE since you really don't know if you will be able to get out as much as you want on trip 2!!!!

[Bcelli]

I have to add that with our first adoption in 1998, we did one day of sightseeing in Moscow before we went to Saratov. They waived the 10-day wait so we were in and out of the country in like 7 days. After we took custody, I was pretty much tied to the room since it was early November and blisteringly cold and since our coordinator declined to allow me to come to dinner with he and DH because he said it was not a suitable environment for the baby because of the cigarette smoke. I had to agree with him on that issue. They brought me a plate of "Bush legs" and bulgar wheat. Yummmm. (not) Thank the Lord for beef jerky and summer sausage (we packed for contingencies!)

[Ktates]

Alli-
You aren't the only ones...we were only there for like 2 days but it was winter and DD was already screaming bloody murder any time DH came near - so we started working on attachment stuff right away instead of braving the cold weather and sightseeing - I felt that was more important.

[MominPA]

We didn't stay in our hotel. We adopted from Moscow City so we had plenty of time to sight see. We went to Red Square and Arbat Street numerous times.

We were there in 1999 and security was tight at the US Embassy due to an incident. Also, the president of Russia was going through impeachment trials. We walked around and didn't have any issues and the same in 2006.

[marjo]

We did all our sightseeing on trip one which I highly recommend to people. We were so tired and sick by the time we got Maddie that we were glad we didn't plan on doing much once we had her with us.