Mich's visit (2) - At the Pumpkin Patch

October 21st 2011

A tradition in the US that we do not have in France is to get pumkins for Halloween, and I found out you could actually go to a farm and pick it yourself! I now understand better the "Pumpkin Patch" episode of Charlie Brown from my childhood! For the "real" farm experience, you can even ride on back of the tractor on a hay bail to the field and back...

Look at the amazing colors of the field!

And if you don't have time to go pick it in the field, just take one of these!

My sister's visit in October - 1

Still catching up with what happened since October...

Michèle came to visit for a week and the first place we went to was Kansas City! I was told that there was a nice view from the Liberty Memorial on the city skyline so we had to go check it out...

Liberty Memorial

Also I had read that Kansas City is home to a very special building...made of books!

Its actually the parking lot of the Public Library...

Public Library front door, massive!

Close to the library, there is another monument that is easy to miss since it surrounded by huge buildings : a massive bronze eagle statue (built in 1890):

Kansas City is full of surprises, on one side it can seem like a deserted town, and then you turn around and there is a colorful wall painting or a lively district...

Country Club Plaza is a more recent part of town build in a Spanish style :


and of course to finish the day, the famous Kansas City BBQ (with the cousins) was a must!

By the way, did you know Kansas City is not in Kansas but in Missouri??!! (at least most of the city including downtown)

Colorado Mountains

Got lucky on this trip and got to fly above the mountains and see these beautiful views!

Colorado - Lory State Park

Another beautiful place right next to Fort Collins that Christina made me discover is Lory State Park, with on one side the view on Horsetooth Resevoir and Fort Collins (pictures) and on the other, the view on Rocky Mountains (for my next visit!).

On our way back, the town was light up with Christmas lights and we saw some Christmas Carollers sing!

Colorado - Hike up Cache La Poudre Canyon

One of the best things to do in Fort Collins is to go for hikes in the mountains closeby. My Uncle Steve knows all the good spots around and he took us hiking up Cache La Poudre Canyon, named like this when the French settlers had used this part of the mountains to hide their gunpowder.

On our way up we saw some big horn sheep, the symbol of Colorado!

 

Fort Collins scenery

Why is Fort Collins such a great place? You are at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, you can see them wherever you are and you can always know which way is West! And this time of year you can see hundreds of wild geese on lakes all around the city.

The big Thanksgiving meal!

I now understand what Thanksgiving is all about: food, food and more food! But the best part is to spend it with family and/or friends...

A real traditional home-cooked Thanksgiving meal takes a very long time to prepare and is usually made of these dishes:

The main piece is, of course, the TURKEY! this one was 16 pounds (7,2kg)!!
some can even weigh 25 pounds

and it always comes with dressing, (bread, onions, green celery...) which tradionally is cooked INSIDE the turkey, but its easier and not as messy to cook it on the side :

....always with sweet potatoes...

....green bean casserole (with fried onions)...

.... topp it off with mashed potatoes and gravy...

... and you've got the real thing!

Congratulations to my Grandma Marilyn and the ones who helped for making all this delicious food!!

Wait, don't forget the desserts...

Pumpkin pie... (made by Uncle Jason)

... and Pecan Pie...

Enjoy!

Happy Turkey Day!

As a really important holiday over here and time to be with family and friends, we not only get the Thursday as a holiday but also the following day! So I am off to Colorado for this long weekend to celebrate with my grandparents and spend my first Thanksgiving in the US ... Will be back next week!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Sunflowers...

In order to start this blog and name it the way I wanted to, I first needed a good picture to illustrate it, but it took me a while before I got one (which is one of the reasons why I started so late). I actually had only seen one or two sunflower fields close to the Colorado border along Highway I-70 but none around Lawrence yet, until September when I heard of a farm nearby which growed sunflowers. The farmer's wife keeps a blog about it and was nice enough to let me know I should hurry up because the field was starting to fade out... Luckily I still had a few of them in full bloom and got a perfect illustration for my blog title!

Next year I will remember to check her blog in advance and not miss the best time to see the sunflowers!

First Fridays in Kansas City Art District

On October 8th, I went with my cousins to First Fridays in Kansas City Crossroads Art District.

Every First Friday of each month, the art galleries in Kansas City Crossroads Art District open for the whole evening, many of them have music, drinks and food for the occasion. The streets are packed with people and there is lots going on in the area. When it's nice weather like the Friday we went, its a great place to just walk around from gallery to gallery, stop at the different places and enjoy!

Some were giving out flyers for Halloween parties... and dressed for it already!

Kansas meets Spain

Having taken flamenco classes back in France for many years, one of the first things I did when I knew I was moving to Lawrence was to look up for flamenco classes... and that's how I found out about Michelle Hayes at the University of Kansas and started taking her classes in August. She is a wonderful teacher and dancer and loves sharing her flamenco passion - a passion so strong it has kept her teaching and dancing until she was 8,5 months pregnant!

And then on September 30th, something very rare happened in Lawrence : a genuine spanish flamenco company- la compania Jose Porcel - came to give a stunning performance...


As a pre-show, Michelle gave a little talk about flamenco with a dance demonstration, accompanied by Franck, an amazing spanish guitar player who also accompanies all the flamenco classes.