Our second day in St. Petersburg started very early. For some reason our alarm didn't go off so we were glad we also set a wakeup call. We grabbed breakfast in Topsiders before heading to Rockin Bar D for our shore excursion.

We were going to tour the palaces in Pushkin and Peterhof. We boarded the bus and headed first to Pushkin. The palace there is the Palace of Katherine the Great. It was a beautiful palace and is in the process of being restored to its full glory. One kilo of gold has been donated to complete the gilding of the outside of the palace.

After touring the palace and grounds we did about 15 minutes of shopping before going to our lunch stop. We ate lunch in a restaurant not far from the palace in Pushkin. Our meal started with pickled tomatoes, pickles, roasted pork, sliced beef in a sour cream sauce and halved tomatoes with egg salad on top. The next course was cream of mushroom soup followed by borscht and then ground meat in grape leaves and another in cabbage leaves. Dessert was a berry blini with ice cream.

Once we finished lunch we boarded the bus for an hour ride to Peterhof Palace and the Upper and Lower Gardens. The bus ride provided a perfect time for a nap. While we were on our way it also rained very hard for about 20 minutes but was perfect timing so that there was no rain when we arrived at the palace.

We walked along the upper gardens to the palace and then toured it. This was the palace of Elizabeth, the sister of Katherine the Great and Empress of Russia. It too is an amazing building.

The lower gardens are in front of the palace and are huge. They have a large number of fountains that all run without any pumps. The whole system is run by gravity.

After a quick tour of the grounds we boarded a hydrofoil boat to get back to the ship.

We boarded the ship and decided that we had a little time before dinner and since it was so hot in the palaces we all needed a quick shower. Then we were off to dinner in Parrot Cay.

Tonight was the night that they showed Toy Story 3 (in 3D) in the Walt Disney Theater. We watched the show, and then each of the girls ran off to their respective clubs and Nikki decided to do some laundry before we went up to watch the ship pull away and see the sunset which is scheduled for 11:20 pm.

Dinner

Ric: Bruschetta, Tomato with mozzarella and arugula salad, Beef Tenderloin with Lobster and a Fig pudding.

Nikki: Bruschetta, Salad, Pasta with scallops and asparagus and fig pudding

Regan: Fruit Cocktail, Tomato with mozzarella and arugula salad, Beef Tenderloin with Lobster and dessert trio

Kelsie: Shimp with goat cheese, Tomato with mozzarella and arugula salad, Lime Marinated Chicken and Pasta with scallops and asparagus and Lemon Cheesecake