The family all assembled at the breakfast table by 800h and we were out the door by 915h.
Stopped for supplies (including a bunch of large pork cuts for BBQing) and headed south down the Volga to Elya's mother's family dacha. 
Arrived around 1130ish and had a quick tour around the grounds. It's a fantastic, old two story wooded home, with a large multi-level garden planted with lots of delicious vegetables and herbs, and fruit trees abound. 
Cut up the pork and had a marinade of salt, pepper, onion, herbs and yogurt (the yogurt was new to me!). The fire was started in the shashlik grill, while the rest of us chatted about academic pensions (Elya's grandfather was a civil engineer prof/administrator as well as a Stalingrad vet!) and various differences between Russian and North America.Ate dinner accompanied by beer and vodka toasts (loved the delicious pork marinade!) and then went for a slow amble along the roads and stone-skipping waterside. Back at the Dacha, we all rested in the warm sun, until the time to depart. We headed back to the city in time for me to have my Skype conference call to the SEP meeting in southern California. Lazed around in the evening watching Paul McCartney in concert and then went to bed contentedly happy.
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