Do you think they'd care if I slipped through this gate and wandered the grounds of the White House?

I didn't get out of bed until 12:30 yesterday because we didn't have to work... again... yay Defenders of the Fatherland...

When I did get up, I met up with Aaron, Ryan, and John and we decided to go to Dunkin Donuts (seriously, I had donut cravings like you'll never know... also, I still haven't had pizza or a burger).  Normally you would need to leave through the gate nearest my apartment because it's closest to New Arbat... BUT Ryan had to leave his license at the gate on the OTHER side of the compound so we had to leave that way.  We ended up walking all the way around the back of the compound to get to New Arbat, which was definitely longer than normal.  We did get to see a Michael Jackson shrine just randomly nestled off the sidewalk.  It said "Michael Jackson is alive" on it... I couldn't help but laugh.

Once we made it to New Arbat, John took us on a short cut through alleys and back yards to get us to Dunkin Donuts.  It was crazy busy because everyone had the day off so I just ordered donuts and then we left.  I wanted to get two, but it was confusing enough to try and order and she only got the last half of my order.  I was pretty proud of myself though... I was able to order and pay on my own :).

After Dunkin Donuts we decided we wanted to take the long way back to the Embassy (ok I decided this for us seeing as I had been dying to see the White House from the Moskva River).  We walked from New Arbat down to the River and then crossed in front of the White House.  It was SO cold being along the river... the wind was almost unbearable.  But I was still able to take pictures.  Not sure if you've noticed, but I am obsessed with this building.  I think it's mostly because it's THE White House and I live right next door :)  Honestly, I was so tempted to slip in between the gates at the front of the White House compound, or climb them if I couldn't fit.  There were no guards in the front, only on the right side of the front of the grounds because all access goes through the back... they wouldn't have noticed.  lol. But the guys wouldn't wait for me. Oh well, next time :)

This is a view of the white house from outside my door...

After the guys decided that I took enough pictures, we continued around the White House and came up on the park behind it.  There were quite a few people there, again, it was a holiday.  Outside the park there was this memorial type thing from 1993.  We didn't take a lot of time to look at it and I only got a picture of about a third of it, but we're pretty sure it has something to do with the '93 coup seeing as that's the area where Yeltsin brought in the tanks.

I then bid the guys farewell and continued around the skating rink across from the Embassy before heading home.

It actually was a decent walk, in my opinion, and super super cold.

That is a map of my walk, just you can kind of see how things went.

When I got back to the apartment, Olivia's family was there so I sat and visited for a bit and then we all kind of took a nap (well I watched Law and Order, go figure).  Then we went to Shesh Besh for dinner... I had a potato, chicken, and mushroom dish... AMAZING!  I will so go back there.  And the waitress was really nice and patient, considering only two of the six of us spoke any Russian at all.

I pretty much went to bed right when I got back from dinner, it was like 10 PM. 

So far today it has been slightly frustrating and it's almost time for lunch, so I should get going...