The 4th of July vacation!!

Wednesday, July 3th 2013

It's eve before one of the most important American celebrations, the 4th of July. With my host family, we were about to celebrate it in Meeker,CO (Colorado). Our flight was pretty early in the morning in order to be there before dinner time, since Meeker is 1 hour and half away from the border with Utah (5 hours away from Denver, the capital of Colorado).

Even though it took long time to get there from Denver, I enjoyed the scenery, and especially the North Canyon with the red rocks and cascades. Finally, we got in "Bed & Breakfast Rambulin", which is a very lovely place with cosy and friendly atmosphere.

Thursday, July 4th 2013

After waking up and having breakfast, it was time to go at the parade. Going there, I noticed all the people wearing  blue, red and white clothes or having painted their faces with the same colors in honor of their symbol, the USAmerican flag! Then, the parade started, and many kinds of chariots were participating like Harley Davidson, 4x4 Jeep etc., decorated with American flags or horses with people dressed as Native Americans (Indians) and Cowboys, cheerleaders, while children were throwing candies in the audience!

When the parade was over, it was time for lunch! The foods for the whole day are hamburgers and hot dogs! Nothing else!!!

At the end of the day, it was time for the famous fireworks. The whole "show" lasted for an hour!! It was amazing all these colors and patterns on the sky.

Friday, July 5th 2013

The "adventure" of the day was a day-trip to a cabin in the woods, close to the White River!! It looked like being on Alps! A small wooden cabin close to a small pond that is used for fishing! It was so peaceful till the kids started to learn how to shoot and being supervised by their parents.

Saturday, July 6th 2013

It's the fourth day in Colorado, and everyday I was visiting a new place, like the ranch of the family! A huge land on the foothills of a mountain, a perfect place to grow animals. On the flat part of the land, there was a cabin, which hosts every year hunters. The adventure of the day was hiking on the mountain and the view from the top was breathtaking!

On Sunday and Monday, we spent our time in Vail and Golden where my host mom's family lives.

Weekend of June 22nd & 23rd!!

Saturday, June 22nd 2013

We planned for this trip a week ago! Our destination was Mt Rainier, which is located southern of Seattle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier_National_Park, almost 3 hours from downtown by car.

As I have said before, every single trip without an adventure is not fun! So, there couldn't be an exception for this trip. After experiencing taking the exact opposite exit, finally, we got on Mt Rainier National Park.

We chose to do the scenic drive and end up at Paradise point. Our tour lasted almost 4 hours, passing by many falls, like Christen Falls, and admiring the Mt Rainier with the extremely "blinding" snow on it. It felt little bit of winter, again (!!!), around there. And what can prove it??? The fact of playing on the snow and throwing to each other snowballs!

There is nothing else to refer apart from the fact of having such a great time with my friends!!!

Sunday, June 23rd 2013

That day's trip was about wildlife-search, and, especially, whale-watching close to San Juan Islands and Victoria (of Canada).

The ferry was about to sail away at 7:45 am. First destination was the Friday Harbor for the passengers who were not about to stay for the wildlife search. After the disembarkation, everybody on the boat was "up" just in case of seeing a whale and letting know everyone else about it! 

HOWEVER, we were unlucky and we didn't see any whale! :( Everybody was upset, but we couldn't do anything about it! At least we enjoyed our time at Friday Harbor for lunch and walk around, after such a long trip! 

At the end of the day, we found ourselves in downtown eating some comfort food... 

San Francisco # Memorial Weekend # June 24th-26th 2013

My Fast & Furious Memorial Weekend

PROLOGUE

Thanks to my Italian friend, Viola, of telling me about her visit in San Francisco and New Orleans, I thought "why not me either?"  ... So, I asked my host family when I could get my weekend-off in order to go in San Francisco. They liked the idea and told me that I could get 3 days instead of 2! It was done! My trip to San Francisco was scheduled for the 24th till the 26th of May, the Memorial Weekend! 

During searching for the air-tickets and a place to stay,I asked few people who may know information about the city. One of them was an au pair, who to one of my questions about a "decent" place to stay, she came up with 2 options : a hotel's name and her place. She could host me for the weekend! I accepted the invitation and I couldn't wait for my trip. BUT, something unexpected happened! Another au pair who read my post about my trip in San Fran, she asked me if she could join in! We talked and we agreed that we were going to have such fun! A!!! I forgot to mention that both au pairs (Anna and Kiki) are from Greece and we are from the same agency (www.anixi.eu)! So, at least, we had 2 things in common! Hahahhahaha

FRIDAY, MAY 24TH 2013

It was the day for my trip to begin. I couldn't wait to meet the girls. With Anna, we had agreed to meet up at the airport, and from there we would go to Kiki's house. There is no trip without a little bit of adventure! And I can prove that by telling you that it took us a lot of time to find each other at the airport after some phone calls, texts and chats on Messenger! [Peek-a-boo/Where are you?].Plus, on our way to Kiki's place, we missed the right bus stop. Finally, we met each other, talked little bit and an hour later, Anna and I were heading to San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf. We took the BART (train) and got off at the Union Square station where we realized how the weather is going to be the next couple of days : humid and windy! When we arrived in Fisherman's Wharf was already late, so we took a walk around, but we both agreed of coming back again. 

SATURDAY, MAY 25TH 2013

We woke up early in the morning, because we had to see a lot of things. After loosing time to find a rental car, we took the BART and got off at Civic Center. From there we took a bus toward Golden Gate Park. Going there, we passed through a "known" neighborhood the "Haight-Asburry", which reminded me a lot of from Seattle's Capitol Hill and Fremont. Anyway, the weather was getting warm and we decided to have picnic at the park. We had  a really good time and we made a new friend, even though it was difficult to identify his name. The only thing that we understood is that he really liked our company because of the food! (WOOF-WOOF!) Hahahhahahahahaha

In the park, we saw the Japanese Tea Garden, the California Academy of Science and the DeYoung Museum from OUTSIDE, of course, because we couldn't waste our time. We should have seen other places in short time! Therefore, after the park, we were on our way to Golden Gate Bridge! It took us 1 hour to get there-30 minutes of walking and 30 minutes in the bus-and we stayed for 5 MINUTES! (Just to take photos and hit the road!

NEXT STOP-----> Lombard Street! We got off the bus and started looking for our destination. At this point, I would like to say that we got some workout after so much walking, running to catch up a bus and doing inclining! Yes, INCLINING! To get to the Lombard Street, we had to climb up 2-3 very steep hills! But, it worth it, since the neighborhood around was pretty nice and the view was amazing. As we were standing on the top of the Street, on the left, we could see the ocean and the Alcatraz, in the front, the Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge of Oakland and on the right, a cable car full of people hanging on it!

Looking at people hanging on the cable car, I wanted to do it too! Anna agreed with me and we went to catch up the next one! The ride was fun and we ended up at Fisherman's Wharf (which would be our destination for the next day) from where we were ahead to the Chinatown!

The Chinatown is very popular in San Fran, and especially its gates!The streets are colourful with bright colors and smells of chinese cuisine, and full of the known red paper lamps on the wires! We admired all the facades, and we didn't omit to visit the souvenirs shops and "play" with the hand fans!! Hahahahahaha

                                                

SUNDAY, MAY 25TH 2013

According to the title, you can imagine that the time was precious and we didn't waste any minute of it! So,  early in the morning, we took the BART and got off close to Embarcadero Center and Ferry Plaza (Pier 1). We headed to Pier 39-41 at Fisherman's Wharf, where we admired the Alcatraz (from far away), the Pier 39 with the seals and the whole square with the famous fish restaurants and small stores.

But, anything comes to an end, and our trip came to an end as well! It was time to pack our things and go to the airport.