Fun Sunday which ended nicely with a walk through the President’s park full of blooming lilacs and spirea. I asked Marielena to join me which she readily did to go to the Intercontinental Hotel to pick up a map so she could navigate around the city better. She lives near me and so after we took pictures through my favorite park, I went to her palatial flat for a drink of water. Fun to have about 12 of us gather earlier at a restaurant with about 6-7 different nationalities represented: 3 Americans, France, UK, El Salvador, mid-Atlantic (since Rachel has a British mom and American dad), two Kazakh, one ethnic Kazakh and other Russian Kazakh and maybe another from South Africa. I was on one end of the table and didn’t get to talk with those on the other end. We had our token male who helped us celebrate Mother’s Day. He roller bladed in from what would be an hour of walking. The photos of the Kazakh scenes I took at the hotel from oil canvases on the wall. I hope my own mother had a happy Mother’s Day in the U.S. which is also celebrated in New Zealand and Australia but not in the U.K. 
Happy Mother's Day in Almaty
