Verkehrshaus der Schweiz

After Lausanne, we headed the the other direction into the German-speaking side of Switzerland to visit the Swiss Transportation Museum (that's what the title says...). It was huge and a bit crowded, but full of trains, planes and automobiles. Tom and Ellie were most interested in the aviation section :)

Since trains are have been used for so long and are still a big part of transportation here, the train section was extensive. This was just one example of an old engine.

My favorite train - the chocolate train!

As Tom's dad is in the process of building a Volksplane, Tom was excited to find a small exhibit on them.

The entire museum was interactive. Here, Tom got was able to simulate flying one of the Wright Brother's planes. The controls were linked up to a computer program, and he did well - not crashing at all!

Yet another interactive exhibit; this one simulated paragliding.

Here, Tom got to drive a race car.

Lausanne

Tom's sister, Ellie, came to visit us again this year. Her first weekend here, we took a day trip to Lausanne to visit the Olympic Museum and see the town. It was a beautiful, sunny day so walking around Lake Geneva (and finding a gelato stand) was a great way to spend the day.

Lake Geneva, a water skiier and the Alps.

The Olympic Museum had a large park outdoors with various sculptures and exhibits. Inside they had information on each of the Olympic games as well as the medals and torches from each. It even had old uniforms, shoes and gear of some of the athletes who competed in the games.

This is the world record for the high jump. It's crazy, I can't even reach the bar and someone has jumped over it!!

The area we were in was called "Ouchy." I thought Le Chateau d'Ouchy was amusing and that the building was very pretty.

Lausanne has a gorgeous cathedral. It was worth the uphill hike to see it. Right outside there was a market of some sort (maybe their version of a communal garage sale?) so I enjoyed poking around and looking at the stuff.

Via Ferrata

A few weekends ago, Tom and some co-workers decided to climb the Moléson by way of the via ferrata. (You may remember that Tom took me and Ellie on this last year.) Anyway, I wasn't about to do it again, even had I not been pregnant, so Lu, her 3 kids and I took the cable car to the top and met the guys there for lunch. It was a great view from the top and there were even para-gliders preparing for take off so we got to watch a few of them walk off the mountain and take flight. Then after a lunch of rösti, we all hiked down the mountain together.

Via Ferrata means "iron way" in Latin, and you can see the metal ladder type rungs that the guys are climbing. You are attached to the mountain via a harness and a connecting strap to a metal bar next to you, but it's still a challenging and daunting climb (at least it was for me).

On the top after a successful climb (Dave, Olivier, Michaël and Tom)

Kacey was super-excited to see her Dad and ran out from the restaurant to meet him.

Later after hiking over to watch the para-gliders take of, Kacey took time to pick some flowers. This picture conveys her "joie de vivre" to me - I love it!

It's a...

Girl!!

We went for our 20 week ultrasound back in June and found out that we're going to have a little girl :) Everything looks good - 10 fingers, 2 kidneys, and all other body parts were accounted for. She's kicking up a storm most days and I'm enjoying being in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. Here's another belly shot for you... It was taken right after I had a much over-due haircut in which the stylist spent 20 minutes fixing it. I wish it would look like that every day!