travels with my sons

My older son is going to graduate school in St. Petersburg, Russia and will graduate this summer. My younger son and I will be going to visit. The three of us traveled together in Ireland two summers ago and it was a kick. Joe (the older) has emailed to give us advice on how to survive. He says that the White Nights is a period when the police may actually be more dangerous than the the pickpockets and other thiefs because every one is drunk and looking for a mark. His advice: pretend to be drunk. Travel with a can of beer in your hand and look russian. Reid (my younger son) and I have shared some amusement about this plan, though I privately have some worry. Joe has described twice being accosted by russian police for bribes during the last year and once being robbed of his wallet. I talked to a co-worker who spent a summer at a different college in St. Petersburg and he says Joe is pretty much correct. The professors were always losing their wallets to pickpockets because they looked like tourists, especially in the metro. Reid has already shown himself to be somewhat absent minded. When we were going to meet at the Russian consulate in SF to apply for our visas (I'm in Eureka, CA and Reid is going to school in Davis, CA), I met him at the train station in Berkeley after he had missed the first train (overslept) and forgotten his passport. He had to go back later on his own. Joe was amused by the story and expressed some doubt whether Reid should come along. Reid replied that he has a "nearly 100% survival rate" from life threatening events in his life. Reid is going over the week before me and Joe is trying to decide whether to give up his poker night to meet him at the airport.