Day twenty-four of the 47th loop

We woke up unusually late in the morning, around 9:30. Unheard-of luxury. I made an excellent breakfast, we all got together to eat and pick a time and route for a boat ride, and then Sonya staged a teenage protest. In short, we ended up bickering and fighting, as usual, over nothing. I bought the tickets, but due to stress I made a mistake and for some reason bought Leah a ticket even though she did not need one, and on top of that I chose the wrong time. Sonya flatly refused to go.

We got ready very slowly—my Mashulya suddenly needed to go to a store for a dress, so we missed the departure, which for some reason also turned out to be fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled—some kind of glitch. I called the ticket service, and miracle of miracles: they refunded Leah’s ticket and moved ours to another time. In the end we made it to Zaryadye, walked around a bit, and found an amazing pond with water lilies right under the floating bridge—stunning. We boarded the boat and sailed toward Sparrow Hills. It was Leah’s first boat ride, and she loved it, especially spitting into the water from the stern. Every spit was accompanied by explosive laughter. Pure joy. I took a photo from the boat of the building whose rooftop Masha and I used to celebrate my birthday.

After the boat ride we walked across Red Square to Manezhnaya, and there we decided to go to Lapino and grill meat with the Igoryans. We agreed on six o’clock. We stopped at the McDonald’s near the house for a quick bite, then went home, got ready, and drove to Lapino. We arrived at the dacha before the hosts; only Matvey was there, playing upstairs. We started the fire, then Igoryan came with Marinka and the girls. The children played on the trampoline while we chatted pleasantly and grilled lamb. A very warm and soulful evening.

We headed home around 10, but the drive took a long time because the Garden Ring had been closed for some reason, and we had to detour along the embankments. We got home late, and I carried Leah home in my arms.