Marc's Public Blog - Trips

French Goodies

2012-01-09T16:00:00Z

Return from France and luggage download successful :)

See more images for French Goodies

Pictures of Paris over Xmas 2011

2011-12-24T16:00:00Z

The first day, Jennifer and I went to visit a somewhat park in Bagnolet where I grew up just outside of Paris. It's not an awesome park, but for there, i's pretty good still :)

they had a stargate :)

When then took advantage of great sunny weather and unseasonably high temperatures during the winter to visit Paris:

Jussieu, one of Paris' main universities is being rebuilt from the ground up to remove all the toxic asbestos. Doesn't look shabby right now:

We then went towards Sacré Coeur to see if we could climb to the top this time, something I had tried 3 times already but failed due to chronic Xmas absentees, preventing staffing for ascent to the top. It was beautiful weather:

The views from the top were great that day:

Sainte Chapelle

Grand Palais and La Défence

After that we headed to the Panthéon, which I had never seen inside (bad me). Lots of famous people are burried in the crypt, and the foucault pendulum is cool:

[rigimg:1024:302"]

and we then went through the jardins du luxembourg towards tour Montparnasse:

We unfortunately got to the top a tad late, just as the sun was setting, but we raced to get some pictures while the light was fading:

Pont Alexandre 3 and Grand Palais

Notre Dame

La Défence in the background

Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries leading to l'obélixe

Centre Georges Pompidou and Tour St Jacques

The next day we went to the Musée des arts forains and Court St Emilion

After that, we walked the Champs Elysées from the Obélix up to see all the little Xmas shops, and then went to see some of the displays in the last section:

Vin Chaud, Yum!

Piggie!

We then went to the Grand Palais to see a computer game expo and the faire in the main hall:

and finished the night with Duck Choucroute and foie gras

A few days later, with another nice day, we went to the Sacré Coeur for some great clear views of Paris and seeing their own Xmas shops:

Centre Georges Pompidou

More piggie!

We then went to the nearby Place du Tertre:

Yet another day, we went to Musée Grévin:

Then, we walked through Passage Verdeau, Jouffroy, and Passage des Panoramas, and we finished at the Louvre's shopping gallery:

That's all folks. 'till next year. See more images for Pictures of Paris over Xmas 2011

Visiting New York 7 years later

2011-10-08T15:00:00Z

It had been 7 years since I last went to New York City. Back in 2004 I was able to go for 2 weeks of work in NYC and visit the building we had back then. I did spend the time to visit but of course hadn't seen it all back then and for the last years I had been trying to find a reason to see my friend Daniel who had since then moved to NYC.
In the end, it took for Jennifer to have a conference in DC for us to use this as an excuse for us to go to NYC after that. I went to spend the weekend with Daniel in Brooklyn where he hosted me (thanks Daniel).

Daniel and I went to visit the local Brooklyn Transit Museum, History Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The transit museum had the history of subways in Manhattan, and that was pretty cool.

the old ads were fun to see

We went to see the Brooklyn Bridge at night

I then worked at the Google office for the beginning of the week while Jennifer was in DC and we met up and used the rest of the week to visit Manhattan after she was done working. One evening before she got there, I went to see the new show from Blue Man Group: the new show was a nice refresh although it was significantly shorter than the old one I saw in 2004...

On thursday, Jennifer and I went for our touring. We did midtown first

Grand Central Terminal

Radio City Music Hall

and its rockettes

St Patrick's Cathedral nearby

Steve Jobs had just died

We had a nice dinner at Buddakan that evening and went to see Spiderman which was entertaining.

The next day, with clear forecasts of rain, we went to visit the Natural History Museum and the Metropolitan Museum (each of which take more than a full day to see entirely).
The Natural History Museum has an insane amount of things to see. Along with the special expositions, it's tough to do it in one day, never mind half a day, but we got the highlights:

who knew that birds come from dinosaures?

We then crossed Central Park to get to the MET. The MET is another insane place that is impossible to see well enough in one day, never mind half a day, but we did the best we could and at least saw their impressive Greek and Egyptian collections:

They had plenty of other things though:

That evening, we had a really good tasting menu at Boulet:

nice little desert to finish it up

The next morning, we went to the Southern Tip (Battery Garden, Wall Street, and World Trade Center) but we started with Union Square Market:

and then went down to Battery Park:

line of people going to the statue of liberty

We are the 99% were still demonstrating at Zuccotti Park

And we went to see the new WTC being built

After that, we moved on to Central Park where we rented bikes and went around:

Cathedral of St John the Devine

It's huge inside

Columbia University

That evening we had dinner at Asiate Restaurant, which was supposed to have a great view of Central Park, but due to a strict dress code that wasn't clear to us, they "nicely" seated us far away from where we could see anything and the food on its own was between average to disappointing depending on the dishes and considering the view-less price.

That evening, we went to see Addams Family at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It was entertaining, and we walked around Broadway after that:

The next morning, we went to walk on the new High Line park. It's a nice elevated walk between buildings.

After that, we went to the Rock to enjoy a nice panoramic view since the weather had finally lifted and cleared up for nice views:

I tried a couple of panoramas with my ICS phone

While I'm at it, a couple of other pictures I took from the google buildings:

After the Rock, we went to Greenwich, Little Italy, and Chinatown

This looks like a practical car for NYC

So is this one

the old St Patrick's

Little Italy is still there next to Chinatown

Chinatown was next

... and it was time to go back to the airport and go home. Despite the so so weather, we had a good visit. See more images for Visiting New York 7 years later

Visiting Italy Day 4-5: Bologna, Modena, and Maranello

2011-09-06T15:00:00Z

It was difficult for me to go across Italy without stopping at the Lamborghini and Ferrari factories by Modena and Maranello (and went to see Pagani while I was at it). Jennife was a good sport and tagged along :)

So, after seeing Milan, we took a fast train to Bologna and I have a different page on the supercar factories and museums.

However, Maranello and Modena had plenty of other things to see. Thanks to the fantastic folks from Hotel Locanda del Mulino who set us up with a visit of Parmigino Parmesan Factory, Da Clara Balsamic Vinegar, and the Castle Rocca Di Vignola.

On the 2nd day, after seeing car factories all day, we started the with a thorough visit of the Parmigino Parmesan Factory, and learned everything about how they make Parmesan from milk:

impressive!

We then got a tour of the very small Da Clara Balsamic Vinegar producer. Vinegar is moved to every smaller containers when it becomes denser:

and since we still had some time left, we went to see Castle Rocca Di Vignola:

Visiting Italy Day 3: Milan

2011-09-04T15:00:00Z

We spent our 3rd day in Milan. One day was barely enough, but we got to see most of the sights, starting with the very impressive Duomo di Milano which roof you can climb to and visit:

the crypt

We then went around a bit, and saw the Teatro Alla Scala:

and since the weather turned to worse after that, we saw the Da Vinci Museum:

the last supper

and we finished the day to visit the main pedestrian shopping street and Castello Sforzesco:

and we grabbed a night picture of the Duomo:

See more images for Visiting Italy Day 3: Milan

Visiting Italy Day 1 and 2: Lake Como: Bellagio, Varenna, Lenno

2011-09-02T15:00:00Z

As soon as we arrived, we got our "grand" rental car, I used my old trusty garmin and tried offline routing with navdroyd, and it got us there :)

just to be safe, I used double routing :)

After a pretty drive next to the lake, we got to the panoramic hotel I found. It wsa not walking distance from downtown (but ok since we had a car), and it had a fantastic view.

nice view from our hotel room :)

After checking in, we drove down to a parking lot (easier said than done) and walked to downtown, where we grabbed a boat to Varenna. We grabbed some lunch and hiked to the top castle.

it was more than time for lunch

yum...

We then went back to Bellagio for more touring, and had dinner by a nice vista point:

The next morning, we had a nice breakfast on the "porch" :) and we took a Ferry to go to Villa Balbianello:

After lunch, we headed back to Bellagio for some hiking around the top of the island (it unfortunately was not that great a trail with so-so views compared to the trail length and difficulty in places.

When we were done, we drove back to Milan where we spent the night. See more images for Visiting Italy Day 1 and 2: Lake Como: Bellagio, Varenna, Lenno

Visiting Vancouver

2011-08-17T15:00:00Z

Welcome to Vancouver Airport

I went to get a few pictures from Prospect Point at sunset. The only problem was getting a ride back to downtown was hard since cabs didn't quite want to come there to pick me up, but oh well, the view was worth it.

Jennifer was supposed to join me friday night for the weekend, but unfortunately United screwed up with her plane, so she never made it. As a result, I went to visit stuff on my own during the weekend, and started with Capilano Park and then went up Grouse Mountain.

they're known for their long suspension bridge

they also just finished a fully suspended path on the clifside

I then took a quick cab to the bottom of Grouse Mountain, and instead of taking the gondola up, I climbed up the grind in about 1h, which is a respectable time I'm told (but it does kick your ass, it's pretty straight up).

the top

Grouse Mountain is a ski resort during the winter, but they have lots of attractions during the summer, which are worth the visit (on top of just the view of course):

They had a nice bird show:

Their bears seemed pretty happy:

Their lumberjack show was quite good too, those guys knew their stuff and competed on multiple skills for our amusement :)

their tree climbing skills were impressive too

balancing on a log until the other guy falls off

When I was done, I took the fun way down, parasailing. It was way way overpriced (a lot of money goes to the mountain for the privilege), but it was definitely fun and a great view.

then it was my turn

we landed in a park in the end

From there, I took a bus back and a ferry across back to downtown to have dinner at the Top of Vancouver revolving restaurant.

you can see the restaurant

I got day and night shots while having dinner

The next morning I took my rollerblades to go around downtown's waterfront path via Stanley Park.

They had a nice little aquarium in the park, so I went there.

I then continued the rollerblade tour:

went to the Grandville Island Market:

back to downtown:

and on my way to the airport, I went to see the very nice Bloedel Conservatory, which was small, but a lot of fun:

I love the colors on that one

And just like that, the packed 2 day weekend was over, and the tram back to the airport.

That's all folks... See more images for Visiting Vancouver

Visitting Quebec City

2011-06-11T15:00:00Z

After a few days in Montreal, the guide book also had a section on Quebec City, and I realized that Quebec City was fairly close, and it'd be stupid not to spend a little time to visit too, so I moved my return flight to spend a couple of days there before flying home (Jennifer unfortunately had to go home earlier, so she wasn't able to join for that bit).

Interestingly, getting to Quebec City was easiest and fastest by bus: they had a bus going there every hour, you could just show up and be there in 3H door to door (actually faster than a plane), and enjoy power and wifi during the trip. The bus was clean and enjoyable, that beats greyhound by a little bit :)

So, Québec City is a wonderful little city to visit. I can all be done on foot, no car required (there are buses, but you can do without them).

Eh, let's do like Montréal, and start with the many churches. The difference for Québec City is that all the Anglicans have left, so the Protestant and Anglican churches have become empty, one has become a theatre school, and another one a library. The Catholic ones are doing a bit better.

The biggest/nicest church is Notre Dame de Québec, for which I got to visit the crypt which is still being escavated in hopes to find the remains of Samuel de Champlain, regarded as founder of Québec and father of New France:

Bibliothèque St Jean Baptiste:

Notre Dame Des Victoires in Lower Town:

Other random churches:

First, quick map of Quebec City and surroundings:

Ok, so like Montréal, it wasn't just churches. Québec City is most known for its Chateau de Frontenac (which is actually a fancy hotel, not a Castle):

staff at the Chateau wears clothing from the period

Fortifications are still around the city, and it still has its citadelle that was built to defend the city from further attacks (after the British managed to take it from the French, they had to defend themselves from both the French and the Americans and won several attacks because their resupply ships got there faster than the enemy's):

you can walk all around the fortifications, it was fun

they were prepared for coming ships :)

yes, they were ready :)

More random pictures from around town:

Maison Jacquet, dating 1677

La rue Couillard, je connais bien :)

I had a few crepes too many :)

The plains of Abrahams, which is where the British attacked from

Funiculaire between High Town and Lower Town

Rotating Restaurant

the citadel

Lower town:

more food, yeah :)

yet more yum :)

And after 2 days of intense visiting, it was time to go home:

That's all folks :)

had a nice dinner before leaving for the airport

See more images for Visitting Quebec City

A couple of days at Mt Tremblant

2011-06-08T15:00:00Z

After a few days in Montreal, the main point for the trip was actually go to to the Ferrari Experience Event at Mt Tremblant, so we used the opportunity to visit the place while we were there.

It's a quaint little ski resort town, and the first ski resort I've visited when there is no snow.

Nice view from Hotel Quintessence

Room wasn't bad :)

feels like something is missing :)

I guess they have snow during the winter :)

See more images for A couple of days at Mt Tremblant

Re-visiting Montreal

2011-06-05T15:00:00Z

Back in 2004, I did a too short but very enjoyable trip to Montréal. Due to a trip to go to Mont Tremblant for a Ferrari Driving Event, it was good excuse to go back and visit Montréal with Jennifer.

So, I should probably start by pointing out that they have a lot of very nice churches, more than in Paris for that matter.

The Basilique Notre Dame is absolutely beautiful:

Saint Joseph du Mont Royal was also nice, close to the Sacré Coeur in Paris:

but there were many others:

St Patrick's Basilica

nice inside too

Of course, there was more than just churches, but they were worth mentioning :)

First, quick map of Montréal and surroundings:

Food, yum :)

Place de Jacques Cartier is a bit like Place du Tertre in Paris

Bixi bikes (like Vélib in Paris), very handy to get around

Botanical Garden

After visitng the Biodome on Isle St Hélène, Montréal was starting summer festival season, and had an electronic music festival on Isle St Hélène, so we went to Piknicelectronik to see James Holden who was spinning around that time:

James Holden

We then went to tour the Island on bixi bikes, and went over to Ile Notre-Dame

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Ile Notre-Dame just before the Grand Prix

North of Isle St Hélène

Place de Jacques Cartier at night

The next morning we went to the Olympic Stadium and its tower, the biodome, and the botanical garden:

We went to the biodome next:

And the botanical garden was also quite a nice visit:

our cat would have been so happy in there :)

fleurs!

oui-euh :)

More random pictures form visiting the next day:

Rue St Denis at Night

Views from Mt Royal

Yum :)

Those birds are angry :)

picnic by St Patrick's Cathedral

We also had some nice meals :)

Foie Gras

Dessert

More Foie Gras :)

Many more pictures, but that's enough for this page, click on the link below for more :)
Long story short, though, we had a fantastic time in Montréal, it's a great city to visit. See more images for Re-visiting Montreal

Diving from Heron Island, South Great Barrier Reef

2011-01-30T16:00:00Z

Since Jennifer and I were in Brisbane for linux.conf.au 2011, I figured it would be a good idea to go to Heron Island on our way back and do some diving there.

To get to Heron Island, you fly to Gladstone, and either pay a lot for helicopter ride which isn't very useful for saving time since it can only carry 15kg of luggage, which is useless for a diver (the rest goes by boat, so you have to wait for it either way). The cat does go at 30kts, so it flies. It's however very pricey ($240 return per person) and the ride is difficult when the sea is rough (we had stuff flying off tables and people throwing up left and right).

Gladstone has a single runway for the daily quantas turboprops

Qantas Bombardier Dash 8

The high speed cat takes people back and forth to Heron Island

Those who can't deal with the sea, can get a shorter scenic flight

Heron Island

In a nutshell, Heron Island is a small island (2.3km around, I jogged it in 13mn in the sand), it is is situated 2H by fast boat from Gladstone, south of Cairns and north of Brisbane. It is a bit expensive to say the least, the basic rooms with food for two go for $400 a night, and go up from there. Diving is extra at first $65/dive down to $45 a dive after a few dives (gear costs extra). That said, if you add it all up, prices are comparable to being on a liveaboard for a week, except that you get 3 dives per day instead of 5 dives per day. On the flipside, you get to stay on land, although if you factor in the mosquitoes, lack of AC in hot damp weather, and stupid very loud mating birds that made a lot of noise all night every night, it may or may not be a win :)

However, I felt that seeing nesting turtles come at night, and baby turtles hatch at night and go to the sea, would be cool (it was). While I don't overly mind being on a boat for a week, it's also nice to be on non moving land and still go diving easily every day :).
My quick review of Heron Island is that the staff was fantastic, the island was fun to walk around, and accomodations were not bad, but it was hot and humid at night without AC and having windows opened meant more noise from the birds :-/ (while basic accomodations are already expensive to start with, there are even more expensive ones with windows and AC). Since we had the more basic accomodations (reef room), I was woken up every night by stupid birds with loud mating calls all night (this was because it was mating season). The upside is that it was also trail of turtle nesting season and the start of baby turtle hatching season.

A few pictures from Heron Island:

an old boat that got beached on the reef

our first reef room wasn't bad, just a bit far from the dive shop, so we moved to a closer one.

yummy :)

we had many good meals :)

The information center was quite good

going out of turtles at sunset, got us a few sunsets :)

Heron Island Birds

those sea birds evolved to trees and make crappy nests out of dry leaves and poo, their efforts were cute :)

Egrets (another name for Herons), which Heron Island comes from

The shearwaters which only come at night, sleep on the ground, and keep everyone awake with loud mating calls

The seagulls were very defensive of their eggs (and see the newboarn baby)

Turtle Nesting

Each night, big green turtles came out of the sea to crawl up the beach to a spot they chose to dig a nest for their eggs. The entire process can take around 5 hours, and one has to be careful at not shining light at turtles when they come up, or they dig as it will spook them out and they'll go back to sea without laying their eggs, which is bad.
We saw a video of the whole process at the nature centre, and that waa very informative on what to do and not to do, but it's also a lot easier to see highlights of the entire process already filmed, than to spend literally all night to watch it yourself (turtles aren't known for being fast :) ).

turtle watching: you're doing it wrong

tracks from the nesting turtles

they come after sunset close to high tide

and spend hours to make big holes

Lost Nesting Turtles

Unfortunately, from time to time the village we were in tended to confuse the turtles as they were trying to get back to the ocean. One got stuck in the garden behind our condo, and one got stuck in the smiming pool, which is easier to get in than to get out for a turtle.

trying to get back to the ocean (we helped it)

this one was more stuck

took a few people to get it out :)

and back to the beach

Baby Turtle Hatchling

Of course, the best part was the hatchlings. You had to be by the beach by sunset and be lucky: typically if you were at the right place at the right time, you may be lucky and see them come down the beach to the ocean but you had to be fast since it typically only took 2mn or so (it's easy to miss). In our case, we improved the odds a little bit by looking for holes that they were likely to come out of. Twice, we found an early hatchling that made it out outside but that looked stunned or not quite awake yet. From there, we were able to wait and see hatchlings come out of that hole.
Normally, they make their way to sea without help, but we helped them by protecting them from seagulls, and used our own lights to steer them to the ocean

this is what the eggs look like

aren't those things cute? :)

to the ocean

you can use a flashlight to help the hatchlings to the sea

another nest I found

once the top ones got out, it was a swarm

watch the video to see how fast they go

watch the one on the left that flips over itself :) (light is in front of them so that they go for it)

by then, we found some lost turtles that were lured by the jetty light, we had to hand carry about 30 of them back to the beach where they could go to the water on their own. They weren't big, but they were squirly, it was hard to carry just 3 or 4 at a time since they tried to get out of your hands to fall back on the sand and run in the wrong direction :)

hand rescuing turtles from the jetty lights

yes, it's tempting to take them home :)

Jennifer even managed to rescue one of them from an evil seagull, although we did see 3 more seagulls with hatchlings in their beak that we were not able to save :( (the sad truth is that their survival rate is actually one to one thousand from egg to not having been eaten by fish or sharks in the sea).

Diving

As much fun the Island was, we were of course there for diving.

The diving, well, was ok but not great. We did get to see critters that we haven't seen elsewhere (including my 14 days diving the great barrier reef higher north), but there were a few issues:

3 dives instead of 5 per day is probably not a huge deal to most, but still to note for the hard core divers who do 5 dives a day on liveaboards

they offered night dives every other day, but they were priced at $90 per dive, or double a regular dive, even when the night dive ended up being from the jetty because we couldn't use the boat the one night they did have a night dive with enough signups. Honestly, I think it's unreasonable and likely a reason why they didn't get many night divers the week we were there.

The diving visibility was poor more than 50% of the time, due to runoff from the island. It's apparently not always as bad for that season (which isn't the best one for vis), but for our week it was not great, and I heard the previous weeks were not much better. Some dive sites like Pam's point were quite good though, when you could actually see something.

The dive staff was a bit 'tense'. It's probably because they have to enforce what likely are the strictess diving rules in the world (courtesy of the state of Queensland which has become a bit of a nany state unfortunately). You're supposed to be back on the boat with 50 bars, and I've been sent back up with as many as 80 bars left :-/ (not that it takes 20 or even 30 bars to get back to the surface from 18 meters in good sea conditions). I'll put aside how they were so worried that I wouldn't be able to get to the 10 to 18 meter bottom without holding a line down in light current and even insisted once that I really had to take the rope down (it was totally unnecessary). If you add the fact that you had to follow the divemaster everywhere under water, it was a bit annoying compared to a liveaboard where you're trusted dive on your own with a buddy, and somehow find your way back up to the surface and the boat, even in current (!).

So, diving was a bit annoying at times with the extra rules and restrictions, and the vis being ok or good less than half the time, wasn't ideal. Yet, we still saw some nice critters as I said above, so it wasn't all for naught, pictures below should show that. Diving came up to about $1000 per person for 16 dives, and BCD/reg rental (on top of the $340/day to stay at Heron Island on a 'special' they were running).

They had several weird sharks and rays we hadn't seen before, like the Wobbegong Shark, or the Shovelnose Ray, not counting some pretty huge (man size) cownose and cowtail rays.

plenty of green turtles

very nice big rays

they were not scared

this one was 'not quite right' :)

lunch was right there :)

not too sure what those were

wobbegon shark

teamwork

We also did some diving by the Jetty and found a few rays and sharks that like to hang out there:

See more images for Diving from Heron Island, South Great Barrier Reef

Brisbane, Australia

2011-01-21T16:00:00Z

Jennifer and I went to Brisbane since I was going there for linux.conf.au.
Unfortunately Brisbane had just gone through the biggest flooding they had seen in about 100 years, so there was a fair amount of damage and cleanup they were still working on when we showed up 11 days later. Yet, we were there for the conference that was able to proceed despite the recent issues, so we went around the city.

waterfront restaurants didn't do well

Shitty Wok, may I help you? :)

A few night pictures:

On monday evening, we went to the top of Mt Cooh Tah for a nice view, but a somewhat poor dinner for the price paid (tourist trap):

not so good overpriced dinner, but good company

view was decent at least

I took tuesday off from the conference, and we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which was fairly fun:

Sheep dog at work

chicken tried to make a run for it

not quite a lorikeet

eating a mouse

and we spent the rest of the day at the Botanical Gardens:

On saturday, after the conference, we went to Mt Tamborine and had fun with a rope/exercise course in the middle of a forest. It was actually both challenging and fun. Even if you're supposed to be attached at all times (although you are responsible for that), I think stpuid lawyers in the US would never allow that.

We then had a little time left over to head out to their sister location, the Currumbinm Wildlife Sanctuary (after a drive through the mountain), and had about 90mn to go through the park before it closed (turned out to be just enough).

tasmanian devils remind me of puppy dogs on occasion.

those guys were roaming around everywhere

feet are sticking out :)

yummy insect you're eating there :)

We used the rest of the day to have a look at the Gold Coast:

And that was it for Brisbane and surroundings. In hindsight we should have spent a 2nd day visiting the gold coast since Brisbane itself didn't have that much to see. See more images for Brisbane, Australia

More Paris Pictures

2010-12-27T16:00:00Z

On our first day out, we went in the cold to climb the Eiffel Tower and hopefully have a slightly better view than we had last time. It wasn't great, but better than last time that was plain foggy :)

Pont Alexandre III and Obélisque

Snowy Paris

Overflowing Seine, almost at bridge level in some places

Trocadéro

Ice skating on the 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower

Oh yes, lots of snow meant that the Seine was a bit high :)

Then, we went back to Sacré Coeur since the air was better than last time, and I figured we'd have a better view than last time:

a few steps to go up :)

Place du Tertre:

Back for night shots:

On a different day, we went to Notre Dame to try and get to the top. Unfortunately at least one unachieving lazy frog could not be bothered to show up for work, and no one was there to substitute for him/her a whole 5 days, so we got up but not to the panoramic view at the top :( Still, it was nice to go up and see what we could.

La crypte de notre dame gives you an interesting view of ruins from very old Paris under ground level:

Speaking about lazy frogs brings us to the topic of La Sainte Chapelle. It's a very nice church that is unfortunately imprisonned in the middle of la Cour de Justice, which means that you have to go through a slow airport-like X-ray where they will make you get rid of your swiss army knife and so on. This creates a 1H long line which will then stop at 13:00 as they go out for lunch all at once for one hour.
The trick is to go to La Conciergery next door and buy a combo ticket that lets you skip most of the Sainte Chapelle line.

the ludicrous line that doesn't move much

We went to Boulevard Haussmann, and the top of Printemps for a nice view:

Piggies, kill the piggies!

Android dogs? :)

On a different day, I went to visit Opéra:

And some random Paris pictures:

water level was a bit high

St Marc

Os à moëlle.

See more images for More Paris Pictures

Trip to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas

2010-11-25T16:00:00Z

Jennifer and I flew to the Grand Canyon via Las Vegas (which we overflew on the way there, and stayed at a few days on the way back). Below I have pictures and links to the flights we did, the backpacking, and pictures of Vegas.

Here's a quick overview:

Flight from Palo Alto to the Grand Canyon

Arrival at Grand Canyon South Rim, Sunset

South Rim Sunrise

Backpacking down and back up

Flight to Vegas

A few days in Las Vegas

Flight back to PAO

Georef Map

Flight from Palo Alto to the Grand Canyon

Trying to fly over thanksgiving was going to be the luck of the draw, but thankfully we got great weather for flying to the Grand Canyon. We got there in less than 4h, including some slower flying and scenic loops (otherwise it would have been about 3H). The best part outside of the view, was of course not having to deal with all the TSA shit and being able to fly with gas canisters (which are disallowed both as checking or carry on, on airlines).
Here is a link to the Flight to the Grand Canyon through Las Vegas.

Arrival at Grand Canyon South Rim, Sunset

Jennifer got us a room at the Bright Angel, and right after checking in, we took the bus to Hopi Point on the South Rim Ridge to see the sunset:

Plateau Point, with view on the river

my nice google ski hat :)

and we went for a nice dinner after that :)

just the dessert I needed :)

South Rim Sunrise

One good thing about going during the winter was that sunrise was at a very reasonable 07:12, so we went to see it (on en prend une du lever, une du coucher, et on se casse :) ).

Bright Angel Lodge

Bright Angle Trail going down

Backpacking down and back up

I have a different page you can read for Out Backpacking down the Grand Canyon and back up.

Flight to Vegas

Then, I have yet another page with pictures of our flight from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas.

A few days in Las Vegas

Once in Vegas, we spent 3 days there to see some shows, enjoy food, and we used the time left over to visit some hotels and see what's changed. Below are a few choice pictures:

A few night shots:

The Wynn's decor is really nice

shot from the Effeil Tower

We also had a look at the Mandalay Bay Aquarium:

We also went to see one show every night (choice was limited due to sunday and monday being dark for most shows).
We first saw Criss Angel. The show wasn't bad, but it didn't feel grandiose either (and a bit expensive considering).

The next day, we went to see Le Rève. That was much better. I had seen it before, but Jennifer hadn't and we both quite enjoyed it.

And the last day, we went to see Penn and Teller. Their show was stilll really good and they get points for chancing their tricks over time, so that you don't see the same show every time.

Last, but not least, let's not forget about food. Jennifer tried to practise her buffet restraint skills. She's still working on it :)
We tried the Aria the first night, the Wynn buffet the second night (2 best buffets in Vegas), and we had the tasting menu at the Effeil Tower restaurant the 3rd night. All 3 were really great :)

We had just climbed up from the grand canyon that morning, flown to vegas, and seen a show Jennifer was hungry at the Aria ;)

The Wynn buffet's King Crab legs also 'got it' :)

And our tasting menu at the Paris was both good and reasonably priced considering.

Flight back to PAO

After 3 days in Vegas, it was time to fly home, a nice scenic flight past Bishop.

Georef Map

If you wish, here is a link to a big georeferenced map of Vegas/Grand Canyon Trip. See more images for Trip to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas