APRIL IN PARIS

Charlie and our friend Geoff King have been working together for a long time.  Geoff had given us an open invitation to visit whenever we could.  With Spring break at the beginning of April, and Charlie on sabbatical, the time seemed right to go.  We left on Saturday, arrived on Sunday, and stayed until the following Thursday.  Trips to Paris are always interesting, often fun, this one was, without doubt, perfect.  The weather was good, Geoff and Charlie got some good things done, and I had a chance to meet up with my teacher buddy Sadie Medina.

Sunday was Easter, and we did very little but sit around and eat.  Geoff decided we needed to experiment with food.  That night we tried goat.  It was delicious.  I don't know what I expected, but it really was nice.  Monday was a French holiday - Easter Monday.  Lots of people were strolling around.  Geoff's flat in in the Marais district which turned out to be very popular to stroll through.  We wandered out in the crowds.

This old carousel was on the plaza in front of the Hotel de Ville.  You can see the Pompidou center in the background.

One of my favorite French towers - Tour St. Jacques.

We had coffee across from the Palais de Justice.  Had my chance to order some coffee in French.  Oo la la

Geoff was looking for flowers for his balcony.  He opted for geraniums.  Here I am near the shop.

Geoff's flat is only a few blocks from the Pompidou center in the Marais district in Paris.  Not only is it located in a great place for my stomping around Paris, it's a beautiful place as well.  Geoff was born in Uganda, and has a lot of wonderful African art around.

The view from our window in the room we stayed in at Geoff's

The interior of Geoff's flat

Tuesday, Charlie went to the university with Geoff, and I wandered around a bit by myself.  Here are some of my adventure views

Place de Vosges.  Beautiful area  and lovely building

The Bastille memorial.

Notre Dame seen from the Seine on my way to the university to meet up with Geoff, Charlie, and Harsha for lunch.

View of the Pantheon from the same bridge.

After lunch, Charlie joined me for some sightseeing.  We wandered into Notre Dame.  We tried to get into St. Chapelle but the lines were too formidable.  We went instead to the Musee des Artes et Metiers.  The Museum of Art and Measures.  I originally went because the description said it had Foucault's original pendulum.  The museum turned out to be much bigger than I thought it would be, and much more interesting.  Here are some views of our sightseeing tour.

Notre Dame from across the river.

Stained glass in interior of Notre Dame

This building struck my fancy - the building to the right is a church.

The museum had Lavoisier's lab equipment.  I was totally impressed.

This is for my brother.  They had lots of displays showing how different types of industrial materials were produced.  This was a glass mold.

In the main hall way of the building was this wonderful flying machine (non-flying machine) designed around the structure of a bat.

Whenever I've shown this picture to anyone they always think I've got a picture of batman.  Too bad it didn't really work.  It looked great.

Wednesday morning, I met up with Sadie. 

We stopped first and had a cup of coffee - une creme - and managed to get the waiter to take our photo.

We decided to visit the Musee de Orsay. 

On the way over to the museum Sadie told me that lovers would place a lock on bridges over the Seine, then throw the key over the edge into the water.  Here are some locks, and Sadie and me

 We waited in line to go through security.  We then waited in another line to pay.  We were next in line and we heard a siren go off - everyone had to clear the museum, there was a fire. 

Above is a view of the smoke from the fire.

People waiting outside - and a firetruck.

 After we got sent outside, Sadie and I decided to walk around instead.  We had a wonderful walk.  I don't think there's anywhere in that city that doesn't provide amazing views.  

Sadie's maiden name seemed to be part of the boat's name.

We could see the Eifel Tower from our stroll

Lots of house boats on the Seine.

Place de la Concorde and me

Ste. Madeleine in the background.  

Basilique de Sacre Coeur.  We really stomped all over Paris.

A lovely fruit and vegetable stand.

By the time we wandered back near Hotel de Ville Sadie was worried she'd be late for an appointment to meet up with her brother.  I got back to Geoff's in time to have a great quiche from a local patisserie near Geoff's flat.  

Thursday, we went back to Pompidou center, back to Charles de Gaul airport, through Chicago, then back to LAX.  I'm ready for another Paris trip - poor Geoff - he's created a monster.

MAUI IN OCTOBER

In October, 2012 Charlie had a meeting in Maui.  I couldn't pass this trip up, so we both spent a few days.  What a great idea to go.  Charlie had a little extra time, so we had a chance to travel around and re-visit some of our favorite places on Maui.

One of our first stops was Lahaina.  Not only an interesting old whaling town with great Banyan trees, it was also the closest place to shop at Hilo Hattie's.

Here are a few photos of Lahaina:

Charlie is standing under a few of the Banyan trees in the center of town.

I'm sitting on the sea wall.  Behind me is Molokai.  We didn't have a chance to ever go there.  I'll definitely try to get to Molokai on another Hawaii trip.

We had a chance to sign up for a sunset, sailing, dinner cruise.  What a great success.  We haven't had a chance to sail in years.  The food was good, we met some great people, and the scenery was amazing.

Apparently, the weather on several previous trips had been too severe to put up the sails.  Everybody, even the crew was happy to get the boat under sail.

Me on the boat

The aforementioned dinner.

Our sunset.  

As I mentioned Charlie had a little time to do some touring around.  We decided to loop around the larger Maui piece.  Our first stop on our trip was Makawao.  It's one of the weirdest towns I've ever seen.  Kind of a Hawaii-meets-the-old-west.  Very Hawaiian looking, but with cowboys, cows, and western gear.

Charlie outside of a western gear shop.

Makawao's main street

Another view of the western gear store.

After playing around in Makawao for a time, we started our trip to Hana.  We were lucky that October isn't so crowded on Maui.  The last time we tried this trip, we were in bumper to bumper traffic.  This time, we had to deal with fewer crowds. 

We went on a little side trip to see a water fall.

When we got thirsty, we stopped off for a drink.  We ended up with a chopped up pineapple.

Why the road to Hana is so popular.

We decided to continue on the Hana road all the way around.  There were loads of signs warning us that there was no help on the road, that rental cars would have their contracts pulled, all sorts of stuff.  We decided to go anyway.  The photos below are scenes from the ride.  

Some of the road isn't paved.  Even though they were a bit rough, not at all impassible.

Loads of beautiful views.

A fellow back road traveler.

The Maui sugar factory/museum.

The only silly thing about our 'round the island trip was that we had to loop all the way back to the center of the island to get back to our hotel.  Our hotel was located at about 6 on the circle - we had to go back to 10, then loop back around to get to the hotel.

The last night we spent in Maui, we were sitting around the hotel, and an alarm went off.  A voice on the hotel loud speaker announced that a tsunami warning had been called for the Hawaiian islands.  We were to stay in our rooms.  A short time later, another warning alarm followed by a voice announcement came.  The second one told us to fill our bathtubs with water.  If the tsunami hit, we'd need water.  The bathtub filled with rust-colored Hawaiian soil-colored, yuk, water.  We turned on the TV to find out what was going on.  A 7.something earthquake had occurred in British Colombia, Canada and Hawaii was directly in the path of the waves.  We called Glenn and Krysty, and then, when they picked up the phone exhausted, realized the time difference made our call a bit cruel.  They were OK, or would have been if it hadn't been for our phone call.  The earthquake had been further north.  Eventually, and fortunately, the tsunami warning came to very little.  Only about a meter lift of the ocean.  Whew.  It made for an interesting last night.  

Then back to LA, work, and the usual.

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME - HERE'S AN UPDATE

At the end of the summer, Charlie and I drove up to see Ian, Sarah, and the kids.  Harriet's birthday is September 5 and Sean's is August 20.  Sarah's is in between. We went to a local park with a lake for a picnic.  In the evening we went to a "take-off-your-shoes" Japanese dinner.

Here's a few photos at the park

   Ian, Sarah, Sean and Harriet visited at the end of Christmas vacation.  Right after they got home, Ian began his job at Google.  I found really long silly straws for stocking stuffers.

We checked out the South Pasadena Rose Parade Float.

Apparently, Google has a sculpture garden.

Harriet

Ian

Sean

Unfortunately, Sarah took the photos - so she's in the garden unseen.

We also traveled to Vancouver to see Glenn, Krysty, and Kayley.  At that time Nathan was not available for visits.

We went to see Kayley at her gymnastics class first.  Clearly a hit for her.

We then went to the Vancouver science museum.  Really a great place

Multiple Kayleys

We went to Vancouver again in February to meet Nathan.  He was only two weeks old, but good to get to meet him.

Kayley with Glenn in the background.

Nathan on his floor gym.

We all took a trip to the music store in Vancouver.  I should get the name of the place from Glenn.  It is really one of the niftiest music stores I have ever seen.  You name an instrument - they've got it - or can get it for you.

We had to stop at a Tim Horton's for a quick coffee and donut pick up before we got into the store.  Here is Krysty and Nathan decked out for the cold.

Nathan's bear suit was adorable.