Near the theater in Novosibirsk we stopped at a small arts & crafts fair. This sweet man was selling plates and boxes he had carved.
The WWII Memorial in Novosibirsk. Our cute guide, Lydia, kept calling it "World War Second."
On the back of the memorial pillars were the names of all those killed in WWII. We think that some of the names must have been painted white by friends/relatives.
The back side of the memorial, a weeping mother and eternal flame.
Our first bride and groom...
followed quickly by our second bride and groom!
Our guide, Lydia, who stayed with us for four days. She had been an exchange student in a tiny little town in the Oklahoma panhandle!
The "faculty club" in Akademgorodok, where we had lunch.
We made a stop at a train museum, and what did we see...
more wedding parties! This group was all dressed up like 1920s American gangsters--what a hoot!
The beach on the Ob River, from where we viewed the eclipse.
Many of the eclipse chasers had special set-ups like this to view and photograph the eclipse.
Some of our group with their glasses on.
But not everyone was looking at the sun--ha ha! Get a load of those bikinis!
Getting close to totality and almost everyone is on their feet.
And there it is! The "corona" shines around the moon--it's really beautiful, though it appears wider on film than it does in person.
A man came up to us afterwards with this "pinhole" drawing--this is actually the shadow it created. There were a lot of pretty whacky people on that beach, which made it all the more fun!
