great mother’s day

Tsaritisno today was a major check off the list!

First we rode the metro out…if we'd driven it would have taken hours. The metro goes super fast.

Then you have to wear these airport-style booties to protect the newly-made Catherine-the-great-deserving palace floors.

You have to sneak in a photo of the interior before you get called out by a guard. And that will happen, don't worry, that is their job. But you can take as many pictures as you want outside.

After you tour the museum, which was totally recreated by the mayor of Moscow in the last ten years, based on 18th century sketches–and what a great use of space, I must say–each room of the palace is filled with arifacts from all corners of Russia, from classic heavily embroidered costumes to Lapland papooses.

Afterwards, you have to pick your favorite Lomosov pattern in the gift store.

Amazing day, seeing some of Catherine's huge collection of painted urns and mechanical birds in pretty little cages and 100-year-old-postage-stamp-sized books brought from Kazakstan and palace-sized rooms filled with Mongolian yurts

Then, for a dramatic time-travel juxtaposition, we went to the mall and bought Camille clothes at Zara.

I wish everyone I know as weird and wonderful a Mother's Day as this.