Recent Vacation

Saturday we took a little vacation after my language lesson.  Where did you go?  You might be asking, considering that I made no mention of us going anywhere beforehand.  Well, we took a little trip to America, while never leaving the comforts of our own apartment.

This little adventure was prompted by a few special finds at a store that we recently found, though it's been there for a long time.

Any guess what this is?

I'll give you a hint:  It goes well with what's in the frying griddle, so that the food on the griddle doesn't taste like it's from the griddle but rather from somewhere else entirely.

Now can you guess?  Hmm, I'm so tempted  to make this a contest of some sort to see who can figure out the mystery of the Russian product that sat on our kitchen table.  If people want to guess, I promise to come up with a fun prize!

The next "find" didn't come from the store near our apartment, but rather via the Internet:
Yes!  We got to watch BASEBALL!  Real American baseball.  And even though the Braves lost, it was still fun.  (and we're enjoying a month of baseball thanks to mlb.com, though unfortunately I receive no benefit by mentioning them here)

Naturally, we couldn't eat our hotdogs and watch baseball in our kitchen!  Oh no!  I set up a couple little tables in the living room while Thomas cooked the dogs.  Isaiah was wondering when he was actually going to see something on his plate.

And when everything was complete, Thomas brought in the guest of honor:
After almost 2 years of searching this country (wherever we happened to be in this country that is), we finally found Dr. Pepper, not more than 100 yards from our apartment!

Here's a closer look at the beautiful cans containing that delectable beverage:

This was the first time since moving to St. Petersburg that we have been able to buy Dr. Pepper in this country.  We've bought it in Finland.  We've bought it in Germany.  Friends brought some to us on their trips to Finland.  Our parents thoughtfully had a supply in their fridges for our trips home.  But we had never, until Friday, bought Dr. Pepper in Russia.  And. It. Was. Good.

So, the table was set; the game was cued; and we enjoyed every moment!

It's meals like this that make me proud to be an American!