Hey everyone!
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve moved my site! Yes. I have finally retrieved my own domain woop woop! So please head over to my new site lerenardbleu.me and check out what I’ve got going over there! You can subscribe for my posts to show up in your reader or by email too! Jut click the Subscribe link on the right side of my new site.
Be sure to go on over there so you don’t miss any of my new posts! Thanks. See you soon
P.s. There are already a couple new posts waiting over there for you about my USA road trip!
So this is technically day 6, but I literally took 0 pictures on day 5 so I’m just going to pretend like it never happened. We drove from Seattle to Portland that day then basically became zombies from driving so often. We immediately checked into our hotel. 
Hello all!
I’d like to make a confession: I am obsessed with Sasquatch. And if you know anything about Sasquatch a.k.a. ‘Big Foot’ you will know that he resides in the Pacific Northwest – Seattle. This was basically my dream. We found statues, murals, newspaper covers – all with his beautiful face on them! I may have also snagged a t-shirt and magnet pertaining to the subject of Sasquatch. He Lives!
Pike’s Place Market was like a farmer’s market on steroids. The most famous part of the market is the Pike’s Place fish market. If you wait long enough and decide to buy some fresh fish they tend to throw the fish around to one another and may even through the slippery fish to you in you ask. Not for me, but fun to watch! When we were there I bought a blackened salmon fish sandwich with rosemary mayo. OMG. It was delicious. Coastal seafood is disgustingly better than the ‘fish’ we get back in the midwest. We walked through a bit more and looked at all the fruits and vegetables and the home made pasta. Nom.
Hello!
So I just realized that the same day we visited Yellowstone. Yes, we drove. Yes, we are crazy. On top of that neither of us had slept well the night before so we were basically running on zero by the time we got to Yellowstone and had to drive through the foggy, snowy mountain at an elevation of 10,000+ ft. Let’s just say we were a bit stressed. After that debacle, we thought we were in the clear. However we were not, as there was another mountain between us and Old Faithful which was also about 2 hours away. Within the park! Along the way we were greeted by a few different types of wildlife including some bison! We finally made it to the beautiful geyser at about dusk, although we did need to speed past a few of the other attractions which was a shame.
Hello All!
The next tourist attraction we stopped at was the largest Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Now this thing was HUGE. They even had steps for us to take pictures underneath his legs. Beautiful. He stands at only 55.5 ft tall! Crazy.
Lastly, we stopped at a statue park that we assumed to be a collaboration of many different artists in a public park, In actuality it turned out to be $8 for adults to walk through these statues that one man made. They were very creative and interesting, but the whole set up was a bit creepy/sketchy. At least I got some bomb photos out of it. 
A few people I studied abroad with an I decided to make a weekend trip to Brussels! The main attraction of the weekend, however, was the crazy party called Sensation. You can see a shot I took at the concert/rave/party above. This was not until Saturday, though so I shall start with my arrival in Brussels. Lindsey and I arrived a day before the rest of our friends so we had the pleasure of finding our hostel. In the rain. Usually this is not a problem. Unfortunately for us, Belgium speaks French, Dutch and English. Some people speak multiple, others only speak one. This in addition to the fact no one we knew had heard of our hostel created quite the challenge for us.
The next day we decided to take a look around Brussels. Obviously, we needed to stop for some authentic Belgian fries and waffles (gaufres in french). And yes, they were just as delicious as you are imagining.
After some bad dinner, we improved our game when it came to drinks. First we went to a bar called 
Next on our list of bars was the Floris Bar. Which was conveniently located right across the (very narrow) street. Here, we decided to give a try to absinthe. This is the kind that is illegal in the U.S. for some reason. Taking shots of absinthe is an art. First you prepare a shot of absinthe, next you place a slotted spoon on the glass and set a sugar cube on it. Next, you take a lighter to the sugar cube until it melts into the shot. Finally, you take the shot with the melted sugar inside. Unfortunately, the sugar does not mask the intense black licorice taste enough for me. 
On to Saturday night. Sensation was held in the neighboring city of Hasselt. Luckily, there was a free train for all Sensation goers. We boarded the train after a bit of pre-gaming and headed to the party! P.s. this party requires you to wear all white which is pretty exciting in my opinion.
The program I studied abroad with offered some seats to the Orchestra des Jeunes with Gustav Mahler. I don’t know much about the orchestra, but I do know that they were German and that they were amazing! I’d never been to a professional orchestra concert before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I used to be in band myself when I was in high school (I played the flute!), but that was the extent of my knowledge. It felt so fancy inside the theatre. We all dressed up and were led to out own tiny box to watch the performance. 
The theatre was enormous and beautiful. It amazes me that buildings like this are still in use rather than set aside as its own tourist attraction.
La Garonne runs right through the city and there are some very convenient areas for cool kids to hang out near the shore. We were ridiculously lucky that the weather turned up while we were there. (I even wore shorts one day!) I know we went in April so it shouldn’t have been too crazy, but they were having an off season and it had been unusually cold. 
lerenardbleu 