thesun – Page 19 – Roving Sun

August 24, 2023August 19, 2024

Montmartre and the Arc de Triomphe

After arriving at CDG in the morning, we headed over to La Defense to drop off our bags before heading to the Arc de Triomphe. We briefly took a look from the across the road before queuing to enter. We enjoyed the view from atop the monument before getting lunch from a nearby restaurant.

Afterwards, we took the Metro to Montmartre followed by the funicular to the top of the hill. Once there, we visited Sacré-Coeur and adjacent Saint-Pierre church. After walking down the hill, we took the Metro once again to Canal Saint-Martin where we walked around a bit before getting dinner near the Gare de l’Est.

We ended the evening with a quick stop at Les Halles where we got some dessert and walked around near the Saint-Eustache Church. After a debacle at the hotel involving wet carpets, we cancelled our stay and instead checked into the Le Méridien Étoile by the Porte Maillot station.

August 17, 2023

Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapples Two and Three

Our second Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple seems to be more or less done growing after about three months. But recently, we discovered that we have a third one! It is currently in the flowering phase.

August 13, 2023

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

We were extremely surprised to find a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird today! While they’re not supposed to be uncommon, particularly if one has the appropriate feeder in their backyard, they certainly are hard to find due to their extreme speed and tiny size. Today, we saw one on a branch of a tree right in front of us while walking around the neighborhood! And even more surprisingly, we saw it fly away and return to the same branch again and again!

August 12, 2023

A Hot Summer Morning at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

It was hotter than we expected today as we arrived at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens when they opened at 10am today. We didn’t spend too much time there as it only got hotter throughout the day. It is always enjoyable to see how the flowers change over time and of course to see what is going on with the local birds.

July 25, 2023August 4, 2023

Leaving Berlin

We headed out relatively early in the morning, though still after sunrise. There were a variety of options to get to Brandenburg Airport. We decided to take the U-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof where there were more frequent options rather than going to some other station that could potentially be faster but required better timing. It ended up taking a bit more than an hour to get to the airport. Ultimately, we had a good amount of extra time but not too much before boarding.