Sunday

Sunday is the perfect time to relax a little bit from hard work during the week enjoying a beautiful sunny day at Charles River. And if you look close, even then I do not stop working - reading Spanish texts that I do not feel completely lost in Spain in December.


And in the evening it was again time for another of the great Bigelow Parties, celebrating the birthday of one of my housemates.

Waterfire in Providence

Once again, nearly one year after the first time, I went to the Waterfire in Providence, Capital of Rhode Island.
Stacks of wood are burnt on the river in the city center, and performances of musicians help to create a beautiful atmosphere for a warm summer night.
We had a great night.

(malicious tongues could say, maybe it is the only thing that makes that little city interesting for tourists ;-), but indeed it's beautiful)

Yes, we can

Nearly one year ago I arrived in Boston, right at the start of the primaries for the US presidential election in November 2008. Now I am even so lucky that I will still be here to see what's happening in the end.

In the beginning, I was not sure which candidate of the Democrats I would like more as a president - for the first time in US history a woman or for the first time in US history a black person. But during all the ongoing debates, from news in German TV and news in American TV I got more and more inspired by the charisma of this man who will hopefully decide the right things when they are needed.

Today it was finally officially decided: Barack Obama is the Democratic Candidate for President.

Exactly 45 years ago, on August 29th 2008, Martin Luther King Jr. held his famous speech "I have a dream" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVxaYz0SRMY

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today (Martin Luther King Junior 1963)



With the nomination of Barack Obama, the United States came a little closer to the 45-year-old dream of Martin Luther King.

Last day of vacation

Too soon the last day of our vacation came, but we had a last beautiful day in Vancouver, enjoying the sun, enjoying the skyline of Vancouver from Stanley Park, having an awful lot of fun ;-)

Vancouver

....probably the world's most beautiful city. But decide yourself:

And I could not describe the reason why I like it so much better than New York Times:
Vancouverism is an urban style characterized by tall, but widely separated, slender towers interspersed with low-rise buildings, public spaces, small parks, pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and facades to minimize the impact of a high density population.








We spent a couple of calm hours at a Chinese Garden in Chinatown, experiencing life of former Chinese people of the high society.


Afterwards we rented bikes to give our feet some rest. A beautiful afternoon long we biked around Stanley Park, visited the famous poles of the first nation (the Indians) and enjoyed for the first time during our trip the Pacific Ocean and beaches in sunshine.




And in the evening we saw for the first time racoons (or "wash bear" like we thought they were called literally translated from German ;-) ). They were fed by some people in the park and therefore did not run away when people were around.

Seattle

Only the bad weather at the coast was the reason why we decided to drive to Seattle earlier and spend nearly two full days in this city.
It is maybe not the nicest city on our trip, but thanks to Daniel, we found the city's best secret spots and enjoyed a beautiful time.
And one of the best parts was of course to meet Daniel again who was one of my best friends in Boston before he moved to Seattle months ago.

The space needle is the city's landmark.

One of the reasons why Klaus and I did not like the city as much as the others on our trip is maybe that it is too American - meaning there are too many big streets that make the city uncomfortable for pedestrians because you have to search pedestrian-friendly bridges to cross the highway that cuts the city in two parts. On the other side the buses within the city center are for free during the day.


Thanks to Daniel (a specialist in finding cosy coffee shops. In Boston we had met again in my favorite coffee shop after we had lost track of each other for a couple of weeks) we had a wonderful break in one of the best coffee shops I've ever seen.

Most of the day we spent in a park and the botanical garden there..... perfect playground for nature and flower lovers as Klaus and me!

Pacific Coast / Redwood National Park

Eureka, at the border between California and Oregan, a tiny sleepy city at the Pacific Coast, was supposed to be a beautiful place to enjoy the ocean. But unfortunately it got foggy and rainy and the waitress in the Italian Restaurant where we had dinner - born and raised in that city - did not encourage our hopes that the weather might improve by the next day.
Therefore we only had the chance to see the famous historic wooden houses and the ocean in the fog.

Mystic is often a description of Redwood National Park, with a great diversity of coast line (rocks and sandy beaches) and the tallest trees (the Redwood Sequoias).

San Francisco 3

Stadt der Herzen........