Tacoma, the second largest city in Washington State, hosted a magnificent event for the Fourth of July celebration with tall ships on parade. The hit of the show was Russian 356 foot sail ship Pallada.

Thursday, June 30, ships came into the bay firing guns, and were welcomed by 3,000 pleasure boats and 200,000 people – quite a crowd for 1 o'clock on a business day! Over the weekend you could run into Russian sailors and students from the Russian Marine Academies at the mall, local restaurants and parks. Please visit The News Tribune newspaper website to read more about this amazing event and see the pictures.

Pallada is one of the two largest sailboats of the Russian fleet; its hometown is Vladivostok, located on the Eastern Coast of Russia. As a Russian I could feel only pride and excitement watching Russian flags waving high in American skies on Independence Day.