Tsaritsyno and the Honey Festival

Friday was the most beautiful day! It is looking like autumn here now, with the leaves changing colors and falling from the trees, and we had the most perfect weather! Though it has been in the 40's lately, it got up into the 60's on Friday! I think God blessed us with the most beautiful and sunny day in which to enjoy our outing.
It has been advertised for several months now, and I thought it would be fun to go to the Honey Festival. Since we are about to leave our beloved city, it seemed like a fun outing to attend. Then, the weekend it started, Dougle brought home a newspaper in English that had a little piece about the festival, but mainly about Tsaritsyno park next to where the festival is held. So, we made plans to visit both the festival and the park.
When we arrived, we found the beautifully, recently restored grounds and palace of Catherine the Great. Because we arrived near lunch time, we immediately found some good sharuma (chicken with cabbage and various veggies wrapped inside a thin tortialla-like burrito with sauce). We ate on a park bench just inside the entrance, looking out at the small island in the middle of the lake. There was a bridge to the island, and on the island was a large "musical" fountain. I expected the music to accompany the fountain's water display, since it was a "muscial fountain," but it really just had classical music playing all around the fountain. In fact, from our bench where we ate, we were able to enjoy the music, yet it wasn't too overwhelming right up at the fountain either.
As we ate, Canaan ran around and entertained some of the other park-goers: mainly an older couple sitting next to us. And, if you didn't know, Canaan LOVES little girls! While at the park, Canaan was sitting on his stroller, eating some potatoes when a little girl (about 4 years old) ran by. Quick as lightening, Canaan jumped up from his seat and ran after her! They played together for a while and then her grandmother took a picture of the two of them holding hands!
After we ate, we walked to the island and watched the fountain up close for a bit. Then we walked to the other side of the park and looked at the outside of the palace and home of Catherine the Great. We opted not to go inside to the museums, since it was a beautiful day and Canaan does better outside. So we walked around the grounds and found a large, nice, green grassy area where Canaan ran around for a bit and we took some pictures. We also traveled to a place with a few trees and lots of leaves. We played a bit in the leaves and took more pictures before deciding to end our time in the park and head off to the honey festival. On our way out, we enjoyed a nice little icecream while we looked over the still, lake water at the colorful trees.
The honey festival was hundreds of booths from all over Russian the former USSR, selling all types of honey. Every booth had from 4-10 different honeys, and you could take a taste of every honey. Some just had name labels while some had the various pictures of the flowers that were used in the honey making. Let me tell you, honey is very sweet and it doesn't take too many test tries to be sweetened out! We tried honeys from various booths and bought the best tasting we could find at three booths. Even Canaan tried some before he fell asleep, but he wasn't impressed! So, now we have 3 small tubs of honey to consume in the next week before we leave! It was a fun experience and a great day overall!