February this year so far has been quite crazy. Two dance performances and a trip to the West Coast. The dance was Louie performing in the West Chester Alumni Dance Festival and then two weeks later he had a dance recital with his dance studio and he was doing four dances in back to back shows...yup 8 numbers and in both shows he had a solo and that was choreographed by him as well. The grand summary is pressure and tiredness and he did so well...in the end it was me feeling it and panicking and he was brilliant and not at all phased! On the recital shows we had the added help from Isaac! doing the music and making sure all the right tunes were played in the right place and time. He did so well, he did the dress rehearsal and shows...so he also deserves a round of applause and I didn't have to break bones to make him do it, he volunteered!
So here's the pics....
This is a sweet picture of Louie and Elizabeth, his dance buddy. They have managed to find a quiet corner of the Green Room, at West Chester University and are managing to just settle into waiting for the show and believe me I couldn't take a picture of the rest of the room, as there were literally naked girls all over the shop!
This is the pep talk, Look at the serious faces and Louie is really listening!
This is the section of the dance that he was performing along with these girls, in grey as bystanders. It was a cool dance about bullying and there were bullies dressed in black and victims in white and grey for the bystanders, A very hard hitting dance and they performed it so well.
And here is our performer, make up, on and ready to go!
And just like that we are onto recital..as I said two weeks after the performance above. This is the dress rehearsal dance of the Wizard.. Louie was the wizard and I love this picture. He told me all about how he thinks about holding his body right and bending his back, there is a lot involved..wow
This is the dress rehearsal for another dance that he was in, they were ice men tap dancing to the beginning of Frozen...it was very good and let me say tap dancing will the pole is a lot harder than you would imagine.
Dress rehearsal complete, dancer and sound crew ready for home.
Day of the performance and two shows back to back managed to get this picture with Margaret...aka Elsa...we love Margret such a pro!
And here is Louie and Andrew, hanging out waiting to perform. Love Andrew, such a cutie!!!! They always struggle to find change space for the boys, so I rigged up a pretend area...just for boys...as per the rest of the room was filled by girls!!!!
I know this picture is a bit blah but this is exactly how Louie wanted to spend time after dress rehearsal and then two dance performances the next day, he comes home dressing gown on and starts to program, he didn't even take the time to take make up off! It was funny.
San Fransisco
For our 21st Wedding Anniversary Damian did a surprise Christmas present and it was this, a trip for us all over the Presidents Day weekend and holiday to go to San Fransisco. It was a complete surprise but so eagerly waited for once we knew we were going. So he had planned it all and off we went. Going from minus figures in temperature and ice and all of that stuff we get in WC to 70 degrees....just divine!
This is us arriving 11.00pm. I managed to get this shot from the plane..Such a super air traffic control town. It is one of my favorite pictures of the trip, the anticipation was bubbling.
The lovely hotel that we stayed in and the one below is a close up of the pillars outside at the entrance. Again my favorite thing of reflection in the glass....love that. The tower building reflected so different architecturally from the one we stayed in.
This is view of the street from the hotel window and me playing with a new feature on my camera phone...rather cool I thought.
The hotel is at the top of a hill and wow the views. This is the view towards Alcatraz, that is the land directly behind the tower in the middle of the picture and this is first thing in the morning. Look at the angle of the street!!!!! This is literally from the hotel window. I love the morning light it just glows pink.
Now this may seem like a pretty boring picture, well let me tell you this is the cavalcade of Mr Obama motor bikes. They were in town as he was staying at the neighbouring hotel and the security was complete! These were the out riders that secured the streets in the vicinity whenever he went out. Of course we didn't see him, but maybe a car he was being driven in. Yes I know quite lame.
This is an evening picture and the setting sun was so lovely, the advantage of being on the West Coast. The sunsets were just glorious.
We all know those streets are crazy angled...just look at that gradient.
This was a great shot on the precipice of a pretty steep drop!
Moss on the trees there is quite amazing. The next picture is the Muir Woods. These are coastal Red Woods and this area was preserved and thank goodness it was. It is a huge area and we were lucky enough to have a trip here. We loved it, so peaceful and beautiful just the most breathe taking thing ever. My pictures really don't do it justice and I was feeling quite down about how they didn't reflect the majesty of the trees, until I looked at the calendar that Damian gave me for Christmas as a clue to the trip and every month is a picture of Red woods...well that guys pictures look like mine! The moral is you actually can't take a good picture of the trees. they are so big and tall it is hard to convey. But this gives you a taste. As well as seeing people next to trees to give scale, then you realise these are exceptionally tall trees.
OK that's us, our tour guide insisted on the pose.
Little birdy hopping around caught my attention.
See what I mean..tall
There were just so many
But as you can see Isaac looks quite small next to them.
There were these spots where the trunks are formed like this and if you stood inside this area it was so quiet.
Can't even see the top of this one!
I really liked the gnarly trunks!
This was a higher path that we took and still the trees towered and of course Mr F decided that he looked like a forest ranger..well the beard at least!
I love this picture of Louie. We are in the forest and he is totally at ease and just reflective and I think that I caught that.
Then our guide took us to the ocean! That would be the Pacific.
The coast line is so impressive
These are some house boats that were originally hippy homes but now have been cleaned up a bit. Louie wanted to live here. This is Sausalito over the Golden Gate bridge. We ate fish and chips here.
I couldn't get over the fact that there was blossom out and flowers on these succulents.
It is a very crowded city and where they haven't got forest that they fought to protect they have houses...lots of houses.
I had to include this picture, just so you know that it was San Fransisco...and here is the bridge, in all it's glory.
This is the bay and the bridge in the background. The nice thing about being there was lots of hills and great views.
This is another Ocean shot and some old ruins of baths that someone built...sorry folks have completely forgotten the story about them..
These are Monterrey Pines and they are behind the baths on the hillside and they cope will all that onshore breezy stuff.
So we are driving along and what do you know a windmill...yup someone built in 1800 something and here we are and it still works. They imaginatively called the small area around it the 'Tulip Garden' and they have actually planted tulips there.
Just another breathe taking view, bridge, city and bay.
I wanted to show some examples of architecture in the city. It was so varied but this is typical of San Fransisco.
Think this row of houses is often pictured and this is Alamo Park.
The other amazing thing about cities is graffiti and I thought that the following pics are just stellar. Beautiful and creative. Some of it I am sure is commissioned.
So this would be commissioned and maybe even the one below
This is not commissioned but rather fun and just in the middle of the pavement
This is absolutely fantastic, San Fransisco architecture and the fog!
This wall was in the area called Hayes Valley up and coming trendy spot and this was the back of some of the garages.
There was so much on the wall I took these shots to show the detail
This beautiful door was literally next door to the graffiti garages.
This amazing wall art was opposite...just stunning
It must have taken an absolute age! to do.
Further along the street a garage has been converted into a coffee shop. There was always cue outside this when we passed.
This is another example of random graffiti on the pavement.
This one must have been commissioned...totally awesome
These two pictures (taken through a fence..can you tell?) were of wall art for sale.
More pavement graffiti and you may begin to see some repetition of images in the graffiti
Just loved the pig and the name of the diner
This wall was opposite the pig and the bike
More random street graffiti..it says in pink 'plant me'
Again the same area and this is not a garage but a plumbers
This was commissioned art installation that moved with the wind.
The Hayes Valley where a lot of the wall art was, was a very vibrant part of the city. San Fran is lots of pockets and it took us a little while to work that fully out. But this area was wonderful, coffee shops, interesting boutiques and of course the coffee shop in the freight container was brilliant!
So California style
Fantastic frozen yogurt fab place
Coffee shop in a freight container
As well as this bike shop! it even has an office upstairs.
So here we are Hayes Valley feeling like real holiday makers that are hip and groovy...Damian loved this cafe, it was so authentic...really the coffee came in a bowl. At first Damian didn't know what to do,. I explained this is how it is done in France lovey! So he tucked in and boy was that nice smooth coffee....
Time for a sit down and for Mum to go shopping again!
So this is a cute one...they still do this from time to time it is getting rarer...but still very sweet and also note how Louie is catching Isaac up!
This is the new symphony hall but I like this picture as this is a great reflection picture
These columns I spied and they are just wonderful
Aren't these guys cool!
This lady is a top a pillar in Union Square, the main shopping place Macy's etc is located there.
Think we know this dude! He had just bought this super new hat!!!!
So much architecture and shows all the decades here...loved these tiles from the 20's
This building caught my eye every time we passed, so bold in black and white and then the accent of red! Very thought out.
The Drake Hotel has the door men dressed like this .........
Fab shot of the hill we had just walked down. I can't exaggerate how steep the hills were.
I managed to persuade Damian to take me to one of the best independent bookstores in the US and along the way we saw these wonderful buildings.
Love the old and new in this, so wonderful the triangle and the cylinder.
This was the bookshop and it didn't disappoint. It was wonderful and we came out with a big bag of wonderful and hard to find books.
Down the side street we saw the washing, I couldn't resist taking a photo! At least it is clean laundry.
Wouldn't be San Fransisco without the tram pic. They have more than one type of tram and these reminded us of both the trams on the Island and Blackpool!
This city has one of the largest and oldest China Towns in the US and we hit it on the Chinese New Year. It was too crowded for us but managed to get the dragons tail :)
This was a shop in China Town..so to all the Linda's in my life, I was thinking of you :)
and back to street art. Remember me saying that I saw the same style ie artist in more than one local...well here is something that is totally the same as the man lying down in the Hayes Valley area a few blocks away. It is a massive picture. This time it was above a consignment furniture shop called Leftovers...great name for the shop.
But these are my favorite graffiti. The ones above are from the Mission area and it was quite rough there. But did have a few interesting shops.....but not a place I felt very comfortable in. I found these on the pavement.......They were a bright splash in such a rough part of town and then in another part of the city I found some more. I can't remember exactly where these other fish were but it was quite far away. I love them.
There was a lovely park in the city and we managed to stroll around and avoid the huge crowds everywhere
Just so peaceful.
So they have a mini Chrystal Place and they also have an art museum in the park..both too crowed for us to tackle.
and here was another surprise.. our address in another city! Just a bit of fun and we even found tulips in bloom in this lovely window box.
I love these pictures of the boys...this is what holiday is all about.........
The last day we were there the fog rolled in and what a difference it made to the temperature and feel of the place. Windy and quite cold. It was actually rather spectacular to see and feel.
These are pictures from the plane and the fog from the coast stretched in quite a way...I would say at least half an hour on the plane ride and then it came to a stop.
and then we flew over more mountains and more plains and eventually arrived back home.
To ice....burrrr but what fun we had had. I do hope that this wasn't boring. I managed to cut down the number of pictures...I had over 400 on the camera and so many on the mobile phone.......I think that you might have an idea that we did a lot and saw even more,. what a trip, we will never forget it.
