Thursday, January 15, 2009

holidays with Sarah for Christmas and new year 2009

It was snowing when i left Genoble.

it is as simple as that: i would have missed the plane if my 6th sense had not told me to take one train in advance from Grenoble to Lyon. Indeed, the train that my booked ticket was refering to was simply cancelled... look at the last line in the screen, i discovered it once arrived in the waiting room in Lyon station: OUFTI GAMIN, J'AI EU CHAUD!



The situation was more tense than that in Paris airport that was ultra crowded! I was lining for almost all the extra time i had planned for the train and plane booking schedule.

The trip to USA:
Unexpected step on the plane trip was the visit of Groenland, and we could almost wave at the cold feet pinguins :) i was tempted to ask the hostess if we could land to make a snow battle but i was afraid my special request would be denied, unfortunately.



The never ending sunset: (i was on the right (although it was the left) side of the plane fortunately :)






Detroit int'l airport:
Landing was acrobatic, they do not salt the tracks and there was a few cm of snow... glups

Sarah's favorite fountain in Detroit.

Nashville, Tennessee:
Sarah was there as nice and great as usual and we made a couple of things related to xmas : shopping! we found a shop specialised in apples... everything you can do with apples in a supermarket! amazing... from candles to soap, puree, perfumes,....
Sarah wanted to do an ice thing based on a story from the grinch... i was a bit ignorant about the story and i asked her not to do it... i think she was very disappointed and i apologise.
after, we went to the big hotel that has a big tropical inner park. Sarah and i are "aficionados" of that park :)



the magic fountain :



Lexington, Kentucky:
We joined the family of Sarah on christmas 'eve. I was more comfortable this year compared to last year because i did not have my flight arriving the 24th!
They absolutely wanted to show me what a basketball match looks like in Lexington, so we went to see the cats of lexington play, or should i write exterminate their opponents since they scored more than 100 points and more than 6 times 3 points shots (which made us win a bottle of windshield cleaning liquid from each game entrance ticket :)


Max, Sarah, Sarah, Rebecca, John, Joyce, John-Michael.




Max is a good friend of Pongo :)... the Scarpet

Thank you all for the nice Christmas time.

Crested Butte, Colorado,
The longest car round trip of my life: 4600 km (+/- 2900 miles) 22-24h both trips. On every trip at least one problem must happen: this time it was the transmission of a car in front of us that kind of blasted. Some pieces flew to the frontshield of the car.



A guy we met told us the most amazing story i ever heard. He and some friends found a non-exploded rocket in the mountains, probably it was standing there for a while. They brough it down town. When other people heard of it, they had all the neighbourhood evacuated by the police and the rocket removed!



The fall:





The golden cities?



New year 2009 in a bar in Crested butte, it was funny to have to show my passport at the entrance (to check if i was more than 18). The guard was taller and larger and looked confused for a few seconds looking at the passport. In europe, New year had happened 8 h ago... Americans are always sooo late.... ;)


We stayed at the parents of Katy's (huge) house and discovered this method to heat a house: through pipes running under the floor. Sarah claimed she did not have her feet cold during our stay :)

Leaving:
(oh nooo, we are never going to get rid of these bloody mountains! look outside!)


ouf we are safe! :)


Close to Colorado Springs

the fascinating transit through Kansas:


We passed by Metropolis on the way back, and we did not see Superman flying in the sky, maybe it is just a legend...

Back to Nashville,
Sarah had to begin school early but we still managed to do lots of things, she invited her friend Meghan for 2 days, we went to practice wheelchair basketball, went to swim, play racketball (kind of squash but softer), cinema, ...

We went to one of Sarah's professor house on thursday evening as students had to present their summer project's results. Sarah had a bit of stress when the computer refused to open her most recent presentation file (thank you powerpoint!). She had an older file on her laptop (that she brought by chance!) that she managed to modify in less than 10 min with all the changes that she had made during the afternoon. i was impressed. Her presentation was very clear and she was successfull. (also youpii for the free dinner).

I finally had to let Sarah study some...

By the way, This time again i was placed in the glass box and fully searched at the security check of Nashville airport... they don't really like me there.

I found Grenoble with snow when i came back.

Main actors:


video compil HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beM24CjhczY
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Once back home, things have to be organised, and sometimes you forget some have to be fixed when you are jet lagged...



i shall not go to the mountains nor cycle my bike for a few weeks ... and the best is that people ask me if it happened in the mountains!