I spent last weekend in San Francisco, visiting my sister, eating good food, drinking great wine and enjoying a little milder weather, before spending the week working in San Jose. One of the things I love about San Francisco is the enthusiasm and dedication to micro-trends from design to food.

Everyday I was in SF, I saw people waiting in line for bread. The bread line went around the block and started forming hours before the bakery opened. Now, these were not people desperate for a little nourishment, this was a line of trendy youngsters waiting outside the french bakery, Tartine. How could bread be worth it? I didn’t brave the line, so I can’t say, though this video is persuasive: http://www.tartinebread.com/

Besides bread I learned a new food concept, biodynamic. As best I understand, it is half the science of extreme sustainability and half a kind of earth religion. Reading the website, it actually started in the 1920s but seems to be gaining popularity recently. I’m sure I’ll be hearing and learning more about it, as their national conference this year is here in Madison. Whatever it may be, it sure produced some wonderful California wines.

Finally, I visited the garden center, Flora Grubb, whose photos had inspired me to start a new succulent arrangement and where I captured the planted bicycle pictured above. The store was every bit as inspiring as the photos had me believe. It made me long to live in a climate where I could grow giant cactus, palms and waxy leafed beauties.

I couldn’t have asked for a better mini-vacation, or as some call it, weekend. Thank you to my lovely hostess.

I had four good days in Paris. Here were my favorite Parisian moments:

- Black: When we boarded the metro in Paris, every single person on our crowded train wore black. It was like a parody of Paris fashion. With the exception of a couple white scarves and a gray coat here and there, everyone was clad in black from head to toe. After the initial shock, I noticed many clothing stores, racks filled with black and only black. In Amsterdam women wore tweedy skirts, tights and boots. In Paris, women work skinny black slacks and point black boots, all sleek and monotone.

- Art Nouveau:In addition to the fabulous No. 29 Avenue Rapp building, the Art Nouveau wing of the Musee d’Orsay, filled with nouveau furniture, made me itch to get back to furniture making. The furniture had a whimsy and simplicity of form that I would like to try to capture.

- Language: In our little neighborhood of Paris, hardly any shop keepers spoke English at all. I visited an Italian deli for take-out. The proprietor started with French, I asked for English, he came back with Italian, I settled for Spanish. It was tricky, but I ended up with a fantastic vegetarian lasagna, marinated mushrooms and a mozzarella tomato salad. Yum!

- Eiffel Tower: It is such an icon of Paris and yet for all the photos I’ve seen of it, I still found it compelling. I loved the finer details of the metal work and the great, side slanting elevators.

- Cousins: SB’s cousin lives in Paris with her husband and three children. They invited us over for a driving tour of the city and a home-cooked meal. It was so much fun to see their home and be taught some lessons in cultural differences between Americans and French. For instance, Emeric (14), told me that while I may think it is polite to keep my hands in my lap when at the table, in France, it is most polite to keep your hands in plain view, with your forearms resting on the edge of the table. Arnaud, the husband, gave me a tour of some “uncooked” cheeses of Normandy. William (10), presented SB and I with bird drawings. See below.

Besides being run-down with sickness, I did find some joy in my Amsterdam visit. Here are some highlights in no particular order.

- Knit wear: On the tram, for sale in the markets, being worn on the streets, everyone seemed to be sporting, large, chunky, colorful, whimsical, knit items from head to ankle. To be a knitter in Amsterdam, seems ideal, not only can you wear the crazy knit things you made, there is a constant audience in friends and family, as everyone seems to have some.

- Bicycles: Yes, yes, everyone knows Amsterdam equals bicycle, but it was still fun to see all the kids being hauled around in the giant front bucket bicycles. My favorite bicycle moment was watching an old man bike by with three large potted palm trees, one in each back basket and one precariously angled in the front basket. No problem!

- Yogurt: My culinary experiences were limited, but I did have some fantastic spiced pear yogurt. Creamy and delicious.

- Scaffolding: All the major attractions were closed and/or buried under scaffold. The Rijks museum, their large art institute has been closed for 10 years. Ten! And it is not near completion yet. The modern art museum, the ship museum, the royal palace, all closed and under construction. What city would make the decision to close all their most famous public museums at the same time? The absurdity of it, puts this on my favorites list.

- Svart Pete: In November, Sinter Clause arrives on the streets of Amsterdam with his side-kick, the trickster Svart Pete. While Sinter Clause poses for photos, Svart Pete runs around, causing mischief. At Central Station we witnessed a bombing, a candy bombing. While waiting in line for train tickets an unruly gang of Svart Pete’s came running through, bags overflowing with hard candy and small cookies. Tossing sweets and yelling, they left a carpet of candy and a lot of laughing happy people in their wake. The station employees hardly blinked an eye. Eh, it happens all the time.

January skating in Chicago.

More from Zion. My new camera takes nice video, so I tried to remember to shoot some “reel” while I was National Parking. Here are a couple shorts:

Zion Waters above and Zion Rim Tunnel below