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 !

Good food !

Switzerland's food might not be the finest, but it is excellent nonetheless. It was great again to taste all the specialties. First, the wild mushrooms and the vol-au-vent. So tasty!
Besides mushrooms, a famous Swiss specialty is cheese. This time it was the raclette. Do not get fooled by the nicely decorated plate, the interesting part is the melted cheese on top of the potato.
There is never enough cheese... The next dish was indeed heavy, but this is what is needed to survive in our cold mountains. Obviously, the bottle of white wine helps too...
Switzerland is also a land of lakes, and we have the best little fishes, the perchs. With a secret sauce and some french fries, it is divine.
Obviously, there is other "foreign" foods to enjoy. One of the best was this pizza calzone! Such a good dough and a diverse filling of cheese, tomato, ham, egg and mushroom.
Of course, a meal is never complete without deserts. The nicest is when there is a choice of delicious cakes in front of you. And the best is, when you do not have to choose, but you can have all of them! The chocolate cakes - black forest and truffle - were only slightly more delicious than the fruity cakes.
In the end, it can not only be about eating eating eating. There is also a time for cooking. So there I made this healthy apple cake (with some welcome help). If you want a tip, it is best to eat it accompanied with ice cream and whipped cream.
After all this, what is one of the first thing I did back in Washington? Buy a scale...! Let me not write here what it did tell me...

Switzerland/France - mountains

The one thing that strikes me when I go to the little villages in the mountains (besides the fact that the temperature is cold... especially coming from Washington), is how nice and neat houses are arranged, built and kept. In "les Diablerets", this feeling was again very much present. And even if the weather is not always at its best, there is always something to do. This time the village hosted the "mountain film festival". The funniest movie was about this French expedition team which had set itself the goal of crossing a mountain channel in Argentina in 45 days, and failed miserably as all the possible hiccups happened. I guess the psychologists who accompanied the team had their work cut out on assessing "leadership in difficult conditions"...
Next step was to try again to see the highest mountain in Europe, the Mont Blanc. There again, no chance with the clouds... No chance with the walking path either. We wanted to walk all the way down, but could not find the right path and ended up walking back to the cable-car to take us back down in the valley.
But, not everything was lost, since we got to see these magnificent bouquetins, our very own mountain antelope. It was a great sight, and a first for me! Would you believe it - i had seen all the antelopes in Africa, but not our own... Sometimes, getting lost rewards you.
In my little village, the door to the round church was open, for a change. Maybe the paintings and the statues needed some fresh air. A good opportunity to take a picture of the most special monument in the village.
Otherwise, nice to spend some time at our house. The newly painted roof, and the newly made square in front of the house, show that things improve. A particular thanks to the municipality for the new square. Next time, I will make sure to take a game of petanque with me, to make the best of the smooth surface.

Switzerland - Geneva

Fantastic to be back in Geneva! The lake with the jet d'eau is still a sight to behold. A walk along the shores is a must, and a dinner by the lake a treat. Maybe even a bit more this year, with the super strong swiss franc.
Geneva is August is also the time of the fireworks. I can confirm that they are the biggest and the best the world over. I already mentioned this in previous entries, but this year I managed to record the grand finale, and it is worth every second. For me, it was a first to be seated just by the lake. The view of the fireworks exploding over you and plunging towards you was magnificent. Be careful if you put the sound too loud while watching the video, the next door dog might howl.

As is the tradition, the Fetes de Geneve have a guest of honor, this year was India, or better put "incredible India". I suppose the choice was also motivated by the need to replace the absence of the traditionally numerous Muslim tourists (because of Ramadan). The Indians recreated this mini-Taj Mahal, which prove to be a hit amongst locals. Let's see if this event will manage to make Indian tourists come to Geneva, rather than the traditional Lucerne and Alps areas.
Not everybody is on holidays in August. It is the start of the football national league. After several years of languishing in lower leagues, the two biggest French-speaking Swiss clubs, Servette Geneva and Lausanne, found their way back into the top flight. They resumed their rivalry at the highest level with a very entertaining match, won by Servette 4-2. Going beyond Geneva, the lake extends into Vaud, and its beautiful vineyards. We took a little touristic train to meander on the sunny and steep slopes. Of course, there was a stop to do some wine tasting. A very good excursion indeed.

Summer in Washington

Summer in Washington DC is enjoyable for many reasons. The outdoor suppers are worth mentioning, maybe more for the ambiance as for the quality of the food... But let us concentrate here on the highlights. First on the list, the concert of the Black Eyed Peas!
A lively crowd to jump, sing and dance to the famous tunes, such as "don't stop the party", "i got a feeling", "big girls don't cry", "pump it". A great performance by Fergie. And also nice to hear that this group is conscious of its social role, and promoting education and research.
Having registered with the US Tennis Association, I decided not to be satisfied with only paying my fees, but also to register with their Flexible League. The first step was to assess my level. The guidelines on the website and a talk with one of my opponent made me opt for level 3.50 . The second step was to give my address. The third step was to fill out my availability calendar, within the allocated two-months time-frame. Finally, the Internet coordinator created a group of seven players. And off we go and hit the courts! Even though I had to play with an elbow brace, I made short business of all my opponents! I beat Philipp 6-0/6-3, Juan 6-3/6-2, Kevin 6-1/6-3, Jeffrey 6-3/6-2, Edward 6-3/6-2 and Charles 6-2/6-2. First victory in an official USTA tennis tournament. Well done! I will then move up to level 4.0 for the next round of matches over August-October. Of course, I will post the new results.
Even though the victories were easy, there was a lot of sweating, in the hot and humid conditions. Since the temperature rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (close to 40 degrees), it was good to also discover the beaches close-by. At Sandy Point, the artificial beach is convenient enough to swim in the Chesapeake Bay. The water was warm and still - perfect to relax.
Finally, the Legg Mason ATP tennis tournament hosted again some of the best tennis players. This is clearly another level than our Flexible League... On that day, the previous year's tournament winner, David Nalbandian, lost to local favorite, James Blake. These two players had their ups and downs in their career, and it was nice to see them playing again at a competitive level.

Well, on that point, time to recall that it is just been a year that I moved to Washington!

Chicago

Another long week-end, another city hop. This time Chicago. Let's start with the funny or curious things. First, at the airport, this sign for "animal relief area". Ever seen that ? Since it is the second busiest airport in the world in terms of passengers, I guess one could imagine it is also the second busiest for pets. Still about the airport, before checking back to Washington, they asked me to take my racket out of its cover, and put the cover in my back pack... When I remarked that I had no problem checking in at my original airport with the racket inside its cover, they said "it is the rule in Chicago"...
Chicago might be trendsetter when it comes to skyscraper, let's hope it is not when it comes to food. This ties in well with the results of the 2010 US census, which shows that Americans have on average become fatter in all the 50 states over the last ten years.
So instead of a McDonalds, we decided to go to the big open air food celebration called "Tastes of Chicago". There I opted for a much healthier Polish sausage roll... I guess it was in honor of the million Polish people who settled there.
But do not worry for my health, I still did some sport activity, like biking throughout the city. Great way to explore.
Chicago has a fantastic skyline, as can be seen from Lake Michigan.
By the lake, the Navy Pier, a local version of the "Waterfronts" is a great place to walk around, try various activities, and sit at an outdoor restaurant while fireworks go off.
The Millennium Park in the middle of town hosts a lot of special features, such as a modern music stage (where I got to hear the national anthem ... what else can you expect on the 4th of July), a AT&T cloud which reflects and deforms shapes and...
a ten-store high futuristic building, which spits out water. Welcome cooling in these hot days.
The iconic building is the Sears/Willis tower, which was built in 1974 and was then the tallest building in the world. It is so big that it has its own postal code. It is 442 meters high and has got a very specific structure to resist the notorious Chicago wind. The queue to get to the top was quite long. Time also to note the Swiss expertise, since the elevators are built by Schindler. The view from there quite magnificent. Not sure I saw the four US states one is supposed to see from there. The glass balconies where we are supposed to walk and get afraid of the high are definitely not as impressive as the glass promenade on Shanghai's tower.
An architectural boat tour on the Chicago river is the way to discover all the different styles of skyscrapers. But first it is quite impressive that the flow of the river, which naturally went towards lake Michigan, was reversed by engineers to flow towards the Mississippi in 1900. This was done so that the sewerage would not flow anymore into lake Michigan but towards St.Louis...
A few years after the great Chicago fire, architects started building skyscrapers starting in 1885. There are many style, like classic, modern, avant-garde, art-deco.
These two corn-like towers have the additional characteristics of having a marina directly by the river. So you can park your boat and take the elevator home. There is also no interior right angle and the apartments are all pie-shaped! The most recent Aqua skyscraper from 2010 (see below) has the specific feature that the size and shape of the balconies vary according to the wind pressure.
Still it is strange that with all these nice skyscrapers, the population of Chicago has actually dropped dramatically since its peak of 3.6 million in the 1950s to "only" 2.7 million in 2010.

Outer Banks

It was a long and slow drive to the beaches of North Carolina, probably because it was the beginning of the summer holidays. It felt like going to the Mediterranean. The road led us to Kill Devil Hills - that great name is owed to the fact that ships transporting rum (called "Kill Devil" by the English!) would often sink of the shallow coasts and sailors would then hide the rum casks in the hills. These days Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and the barrier islands of the Outer Banks are famous tourist resorts. Finally, a place where the Atlantic Ocean is warm enough to swim in it !
The lighthouse at Cape Hatteras is a major landmark in the area. Many will remember it because of the strenuous 268 steps needed to climb to the top of the tower. The lighthouse was built in 1868 and is still the tallest in the USA. What is also very impressive is that in 1999 it was moved by 870 meters to safer ground, because of the erosion of the coastline. Most houses are actually built on stilts to better resist against the hurricanes and other weather-related damages.
The sandy area, steady winds and remoteness were decisive factors for the Wright brothers (Wilbur and Orville) to come here during three consecutive summers to try and build and fly the first airplane. They collected lots of scientific evidence and had to correct many features of their models. This certainly inspired them more than their bike shop in Ohio.
Finally on the 17th of December 1903, Orville managed to lift of the first plane for the whole of 12 seconds. The rock on the picture marks the first "lift off" of the plane.
Unbelievable how twelve seconds - and few meters - did change mankind. For the Wright Brothers, they patented their product and went on a sales' tour, which brought them success in Europe. Still, it is very obvious how their technology was then rapidly overtaken. Even those flying Boeing can notice an improvement...