22 Hours! Whew!

Well, it is 10:40 Moscow time and we are finally in for the night. The "Road to Riley" got a bit bumpy today. After our 5 hour layover in Washington, yesterday, we finally got back in the air for Moscow at 5 pm. Two hours into that flight, when we were over Canada, the captain announces that we have a hydraulic leak and that we are going to return to Dulles!!! So back to Washington we go!

As we started our decent to Dulles, the captain tells us that there will be emergency personel standing by...just as a precaution! Now, keep in mind that I'm sitting next to Mr. Happy. As we are about to land I notice that Mike is very quiet. He proceeds to tell me that he is listening to see if the landing gear is going to engage! We then feel the wheels touch down, and just as I stop holding my breath Mike then says..."Now, I hope the breaks work." Ha! That's my "the glass is half empy!" guy. By the way, kudos to our pilot, Captain Beck, who landed the plane flawlessly!

We finally leave Dulles again at 10 pm and land in Moscow at 4pm (which would be 8 am EST). That is 22 hours after we left Charlotte.

Our first impressions of Moscow are that Russians are not as cold and unfeeling as we had been told. There was a really nice couple that helped us out at the airport. (The wife is an adoption coordinater for Moscow, how ironic!) Our driver, Antonio, was like a Russian cultural expert and made our almost two hour drive from the airport, in horrible traffic, a pleasure. The hotel staff has been great and Michael, our Moscow adoption liason was quite nice and informative.

Now we are going to bed...we are exhausted! Sightseeing tomorrow...hope to have great pics.