a few weeks later i finally managed to book the flight with the crappy bugs occuring on my dad's internet connection. Since i usually am distracted and do stupid things, i forgot about the eventuality to have to go to a probable interview before Christmas, exactly at the time that i was supposed to be in USA with Sarah. Murphy's law is always applicable in such situations.. so i had to delay the departure flight.... the flight that my host accepted for me to choose was on the 24 th december ...
Sarah and her dad picked me up at the airport and we arrived at her parents' place 5 min before midnight :S (again sorry Sarah for the delay)
We visited a Bourbon distillery in kentucky: Can you believe that they claim healthy properties for the beverage due to the presence of calcium in the water of Kentucky? (i thought the calcium ion was not volatile under these conditions and thus remained in the bottom of the distillate) funny anyway to have seen the huge distillery flasks as well as the strange process consisting in burning the inside of the wooden barrels to make it more hydrophobic and avoid extracting too many of wooden molecules & substances during the long rest of the barrels with the young bourbon. (but does it also extract aromatic molecules from the burning like anthracenes ?)
at the end of the visit we had a chocolate and a little sample of bourbon to taste ... :)
They showed us the room where they keep the barrels of ageing bourbon and we saw the guard of the place which is a .... cat... apparently mice like bourbon a lot and used to dig holes in wooden barrels :)
The train museum... it only runs during the weekend, anyway, we could climb on the locomotives and waaaaaaaaaaa
Sarah and her dad picked me up at the airport and we arrived at her parents' place 5 min before midnight :S (again sorry Sarah for the delay)
We visited a Bourbon distillery in kentucky: Can you believe that they claim healthy properties for the beverage due to the presence of calcium in the water of Kentucky? (i thought the calcium ion was not volatile under these conditions and thus remained in the bottom of the distillate) funny anyway to have seen the huge distillery flasks as well as the strange process consisting in burning the inside of the wooden barrels to make it more hydrophobic and avoid extracting too many of wooden molecules & substances during the long rest of the barrels with the young bourbon. (but does it also extract aromatic molecules from the burning like anthracenes ?)
at the end of the visit we had a chocolate and a little sample of bourbon to taste ... :)
They showed us the room where they keep the barrels of ageing bourbon and we saw the guard of the place which is a .... cat... apparently mice like bourbon a lot and used to dig holes in wooden barrels :)
The train museum... it only runs during the weekend, anyway, we could climb on the locomotives and waaaaaaaaaaa
Walking in Lexington more or less randomly, Sarah was surprised to find a museum about her birth city... like i always said, guests can help discover things even in your area :)
(judge sarah trying to free a poor blue-hatted belgian slave)
When you see things like that by sunset you are less surprised that some people actually believe in UFO "unidentified flying ships"!!
on the way back to Lexington, we made a few detours to some places with nice panoramic views :)
Cave run lake & DAM
In the bottom of the Sears tower: apparently the biggest building in Chicago and the world... nice if you have a deltaplane and jump from the top of the tower :)
Lake Michigan: have you ever seen it frozen? our attempts to break the ice by throwing huge snowballs was unsuccessful :S
Ed's restaurant: atypical mood there... the waiter took us to a free table and congratulated us... that doesn't happen often :) so since we are very naive, we were happy to have a table :)
we went to the museum of science and industry in Chicago.. it is so huge that we could not see everything! but we learned a lot.
we discovered a belgian ... christmas tree ... uau!
The house of Frank Lloyd Wright, an architect whose styles consist in aligning rectangular shapes but not only.... it was fun to see that the guy was not a big fan of victorian architecture to the point that he replaced the windows of his house facing his neighbours' house by a wall..
Me driving an automatic car, look it is so easy that i can do it the eyes closed, anyway there was not much to see outside : everything was white :D
Nashville
Can i go to the capital of country music and not buy a typical cowboy hat? don't think so...
the parthenon (another copy) and a squirrel
the steam engine and a "sabre"
Visiting Franklin: a cute little town not so far from Nashville and most of the interest stands in the fact that we found a play ground :)
The first flight to come was cool, no bumps, no hurricane... i crossed my fingers so that they would change the movies available in the plane for the return flight :) .... i saw all of the available ones while coming. :)
Thank you so much for the nice time Sarah :)
AMAZING
the traffic signs along the roads in the usa sometimes are funny!
can you imagine... on the way we could have slid on ice, gotten blasted, met fallen rocks, met bikers that do not want to share the road, and been covered by ice!
the blue-hatted belgian slave later offered to share a mango juice to thank the nice judge.
When you see things like that by sunset you are less surprised that some people actually believe in UFO "unidentified flying ships"!!
concerning my addiction to train models, it is not over yet... so i decided to look for other hobby shops while Sarah was working. My first shot was an address apparently less than 2 km from the apartment. So i went by foot to the given address and oooh surprise, i found a beautiful house in a residential area... boooo not the fault of the gps this time :S
in the mountains of West Virginia:
The snow is artificial... not as good as that usually around Grenoble, but nonetheless allowed to show these local people all the skills of an european surfer ;) (i crashed marvelously (not that marvelously according to Sarah) several times!)
on the way back to Lexington, we made a few detours to some places with nice panoramic views :)
Cave run lake & DAM
Walking in the city of Chicago when it is breaking-stone cold? not a good idea...
while going to Chicago we had snow on the road... it was amazing. the temperature was so cold that the car's windshield-wiper fluid froze!!! i believe Chicago is more tourist friendly in the summer
while going to Chicago we had snow on the road... it was amazing. the temperature was so cold that the car's windshield-wiper fluid froze!!! i believe Chicago is more tourist friendly in the summer
In the bottom of the Sears tower: apparently the biggest building in Chicago and the world... nice if you have a deltaplane and jump from the top of the tower :)
Lake Michigan: have you ever seen it frozen? our attempts to break the ice by throwing huge snowballs was unsuccessful :S
Ed's restaurant: atypical mood there... the waiter took us to a free table and congratulated us... that doesn't happen often :) so since we are very naive, we were happy to have a table :)
we went to the museum of science and industry in Chicago.. it is so huge that we could not see everything! but we learned a lot.
we discovered a belgian ... christmas tree ... uau!
The house of Frank Lloyd Wright, an architect whose styles consist in aligning rectangular shapes but not only.... it was fun to see that the guy was not a big fan of victorian architecture to the point that he replaced the windows of his house facing his neighbours' house by a wall..
Me driving an automatic car, look it is so easy that i can do it the eyes closed, anyway there was not much to see outside : everything was white :D
Nashville
Can i go to the capital of country music and not buy a typical cowboy hat? don't think so...
the parthenon (another copy) and a squirrel
the steam engine and a "sabre"
Visiting Franklin: a cute little town not so far from Nashville and most of the interest stands in the fact that we found a play ground :)
The first flight to come was cool, no bumps, no hurricane... i crossed my fingers so that they would change the movies available in the plane for the return flight :) .... i saw all of the available ones while coming. :)
Thank you so much for the nice time Sarah :)
AMAZING
the traffic signs along the roads in the usa sometimes are funny!
can you imagine... on the way we could have slid on ice, gotten blasted, met fallen rocks, met bikers that do not want to share the road, and been covered by ice!
And the winner is:
We could also drown on American roads....
AND I SURVIVED! :)
what is this car doing?
it is being pulled by the truck!
We could also drown on American roads....
AND I SURVIVED! :)
what is this car doing?
it is being pulled by the truck!
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