California trip 3 - More of San Francisco

December 17th to 20th 2011 -
Here are more places and things we liked in San Francisco,

View of the city from Twin Peaks:

Union Square, ready for Christmas, and always packed with people!

Some of San Francisco's distinctive buildings:

Wild parrots on Telegraph Hill

Northeast of San Francisco, Sutro bath ruins and Seal Rocks:

China Town by night:View of the Bay Bridge from the ferry building:

San Francisco is such an amazing city!

California trip 2 - Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco

December 17th 2011 -

If you keep walking in San Francisco, you eventually get to the water. Fisherman's wharf is a nice place to get seafood...

...try (or just look at) fresh crab...

... see nice views of Alcatraz...

...take a nap at the photo spot...
... and my favorite part, watch the sea lions on Pier 39, so cute!

California trip 1 - Strolling in San Francisco

December 17th 2011 -
On our first day in San Francisco, we decided to just start walking around the streets, but it ended being walking UP and DOWN the streets! But we were rewarded by beautiful views at each intersection...

Typical buildings dressed up for the holidays...

Is it the car or the house which is crooked??

We passed the famous Lombard street, also known as the crooked street and so steep they had make it a switchback street!

Happy New Year 2012!!

Just got back from California! Will be posting the pictures of the trip soon, just need to sort out the 1400 pictures taken...

Wishing everybody a wonderful New Year 2012!

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!