Garry and Clay go to the sea

The Kherson region is famous for its watermelons and they found a big one

 Garry and Clay are off on their 5th annual post-SEI trip to the Black Sea. Sometimes I go, sometimes I don't and of course this year I am in New Jersey. Last year Clay's wife Maggie came to Ukraine and got to see Crimea and Clay's favorite place, Alupka. Of course, this year they cannot go to Crimea- you would need a $500 Russian visa, for one thing. Many people in Ukraine have headed to the beaches of the Sea of Azov, where we were last September, but it is too close to the Donestk region for comfort and apparently has a number of refugees living there and filling up the accommodations.

swimming in the healthy mineral water

I wonder who took the photo? Maria, Clay, Garry and Marina

Odessa and area beaches are very popular this year, but they decided to go to the Kherson region. Maria found a resort area famous for a mineral spring pool, and she and her friend Marina (from the gym) are the back seat passengers and translators for the trip. Garry tells me that it was discovered after an unsuccessful oil well had been drilled, someone had removed some of the pipes for scrap, which caused the water to flow and created the pool opportunity. They went out on a powerboat today, for swimming in the Black Sea. When I talked to him today while they were waiting for dinner to arrive, he said that they have been playing volleyball too.

 I have downloaded some facebook pics to show you what they are doing, besides eating lots of good food. They will drive home to the village Thursday, as Clay is flying out to Kiev and beyond Friday morning. The drive is shorter than going to Crimea, but the road is a little rough, it will still take several hours. At least they have air conditioning, summer driving in the Lada was like baking in the oven.

No Austrian airplanes are flying into Dnepropetroesk because of the Malaysian air crash, everyone else got their flight changed for free to go out of Kiev- they have been flying a regional jet from Dnepro because they are still flying from the city. Unfortunately, Clay had to pay extra for his flight to Kiev, he had used his air-miles to book his flight. Hopefully cheap-o air gets me back on August 20th, because I flew Austrian Air, too!

The boat at the island/sand bar