124. Visitors from Chicago

One of my sisters and her fiancé visited St. Petersburg at the end of September. They were here for two weekends, and visited Moscow during the week in between while I was at work (unfortunately, I did not have enough vacation time to accompany them). I had a great time showing them around the city and we had a full schedule of fun activities on both weekends.

While they were here, we visited Kazan Cathedral, the Bronze Horseman, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Savior on the Spilled Blood, the Hermitage (the Winter Palace as well as the General Staff Building), the Peter & Paul Fortress & Cathedral, and the Erarta Museum. They also visited the Faberge Museum, Stroganov Palace, and Yusupov Palace on their own. Altogether, they were able to see most of the top sights in St. Petersburg and definitely experienced everything that the city has to offer. The weather was beautiful the first weekend (low 60s Fahrenheit and sunny) and a bit colder and gloomier the second weekend (low to mid-50s). Autumn has definitely arrived.

We spent a fair amount of time looking around Nevsky Prospekt and also went on a river cruise. And we took a culinary tour of the city. Of course, we tried lots of Russian food, and also ate our way through the cuisines of the Caucasus, with stops at Georgian, Armenian, & Azerbaijani restaurants. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy that I was able to share my new city with them.