Nashville

Nashville, welcome to the Music City. It is similar to New Orleans, but this time it is country music. You indeed know you are in Nashville, when Madonna is remixed in country music!
Nashville is not only trying to be like New Orleans, but also like Hollywood. They have their stars as well. I only know one (see picture)... Should this lack of knowledge about country music make me feel bad ...?
More worrying for Nashville, it imitates Athens too. One of its most famous building is a replica of the Acropolis. Let's hope for them that they do not imitate its economic fate.
At the moment, it does not seem like Nashville will. The typical suburban life flourishes, with for example a meeting of greyhound dog lovers... The properties are huge and tidely kept - some have even deer grazing. My friends' family son was playing in a pre-school baseball game. Needless to say that they were all nicely dressed, and cheered up... but no trace of black kids.

scary Kings Dominion

When visitors decide to come and visit, you sometimes have to agree with their wishes and go along. So this time, following my visitors lead to the Kings Dominion "amusement" park.
On the map of the park, the names of the rides are already scary, such as the anaconda, the grizzly, the rebel yell, the volcano blast coaster, the schockwave, the drop tower, the skyflier and lastly the intimidator... Next to these rides, there were also signs indicating their degree of madness.
But what is worse than names on a paper, it is experiencing them!! Obviously, I was distraught when I saw that the volcano blast coaster was closed. It was the only level 5 ride I wanted to do... Kidding, I was already whiter than usual on the level 4 rides. And I cannot tell you the color I was, when I did a ride after the lunch break. And you will not see me either, because I did not find it appropriate to get any of the "photo finish" that are taken while you are on the ride.
Fortunately, there are also quieter things to do, like trying to win big stuff animals, listening to some music, and especially volunteering to take pictures. I am quite good at the last one!

US Open

There it is - the biggest tennis stadium in the world: the Arthur Ashe in Flushing Meadows, New York. On that day, there was a record 64000 spectators, including 20000 on the center court. Everything is well organised, including the arrival by metro. The staff is friendly and I surprisingly had the impression that there were less shops than at Roland Garros. The only annoying thing was the super long list of things that were forbidden to bring into the stadium, which included "no flags" and "no backpacks". This is America for you. So this time, I had to leave my Swiss flag at home.
It is a beautiful stadium. The night match is a great experience. Even placed a bit high up (we had to take an escalator to reach our seats), the view is clear - we could very well replace the "challenge" system with our own eyes. Still up there, there is a bit of cold wind. In the evening session, Murray easily beat Lopez, who did not seem much committed to his match. Maybe sweating is not part of his vocabulary. We had to admit that the women's match was a better contest.
The next day, the day session was even better. Great seats on smaller courts to watch Ferrero-Tipsarevic. Very intense rallies with good speed and a clever use of the angles.
Back on center court, Tsonga was battling against Fish, the top seeded American player. The crowd was supportive of the home favorite, but not as bluntly as in other countries. It surprises me that nobody brings flags in the stadium. And it cannot be said that it is because Americans are not patriotic - the presentation on the big screen of eight American soldiers sitting in a special box got a long standing ovation by the crowd.
The big name on that day was Serena Williams. Although she played against another ex-number 1, Ivanovic, she was clearly superior in all compartments of the game. Her serves were accurate, her ground strokes powerful and she was even moving surprisingly well...


Finally, a video of a nice rally between Ferrero and Tipsarevic. So nice to be so close to the players - who cares that we were not on our allocated seats... I should also manage to put a video of me hitting such a good backhand !