I remember my first Mother’s Day very clearly. We had traveled back to Chicago from our home in Michigan because it was so shortly after our first visit to Russia. We were so excited to share video of AJ with our family and show them all of the pictures (an entire photo album) that we took of our trip to both St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk.
We all met at my parent’s home for brunch and my parents recognized that this was, my first Mother’s Day, as I was finally becoming a Mother. They gave me a wooden mother and baby sculpture …read more

One of my favorite places on our tour in St. Petersburg was the Hermitage Museum. I am typically not a big museum fan because I get tired of walking in big crowds but because we were there on a Sunday it was not very busy with school tours (and we started our tour there).

The Hermitage, is by tradition, one of the most prominent museums of art and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to have visited and toured with a guide who knew so much about the museum and the works of art it showcased.

Touring St. Petersburg on Saturday, we stopped for a photo shoot at the Neva River. Despite some jet-lag we plugged along because we wanted to get in as much of the sightseeing as we could.
The Neva River is an essential part of St. Petersburg’s charm. Many generations of locals and visitors to the city have been completely enraptured by long, evening walks along the banks of the Neva during the city’s famous White Nights. Very few things can be more romantic than strolling along the Neva’s granite-clad embankments and admiring the city’s open bridges, the …read more