Lausanne/Geneva, Switzerland
August 3 - 5, 2007

We woke up casually and went down to the docks and the spectacular Lake Geneva. Katie and Ashley rode the carousel and we walked along the lake for a while before we met Fabienne and Pascal, a couple who are colleagues of my dad, for lunch. We had a wonderful meal, although Heather and I spent most of the time entertaining Katie and Ashley, so we didn’t get as much of a chance to interact with the other adults. I know my Uncle Bryce had a great time discussing the various French plant species with Pascal. I spent the few hours playing My Little Pony with Ashley to try to keep her occupied. Considering the time we were at lunch, the girls did great, although we did have to take a couple of walks for a change of scenery. This was actually interesting as the restaurant was up above the lake surrounded by vineyards, so the landscape was wonderful to view. We left lunch late afternoon and we immediately made the drive to Geneva. We did stop briefly back at the coast of Lake Geneva in Lausanne since my mom promised Katie a ride on a park ride that was closed in the morning, since she had been so good during lunch.
Geneva is less than an hour from Lausanne, so we figured it would be a relatively quick trip. We got there rather quickly, stopped off briefly at the UN European headquarters, but then hit serious traffic trying to get to the lake and the fountain. By the time we got there we were all too tired to get out and enjoy the lakeside festivities that were going on. It turns out the traffic was so bad because they had blocked off many of the roads that led to the lake to make room for the different booths and stands. We already regret not getting out and participating, but at the time it was late enough in the day all of us were ready to just get back to Lausanne and go to bed, which we did.
We woke up, packed the van and checked out of our hotel, and went to church in Lausanne. Of course it was all in French, so it was hard from that perspective, but it certainly was the friendliest European ward that we have come across. It took my parents and my Aunt and Uncle ½ hour to get out of the lobby because everyone was so friendly! After church we spent a lot of time debating what to eat for lunch. We decided on Chinese and put a restaurant in the GPS but once we arrive there we found out it was closed. We saw Ali’s Pizza and Kebabs next door, so we figured that was worth a try. It turned out to be quite good and one of the few Swiss items that was not that expensive. We continued back towards Zurich but not before stopping at Oberneuenforn, where my great great grandfather lived. He was working in Zurich where he met the missionaries and was baptized. We saw his house and took a few pictures. I had visited there with my dad in 1989 or 1991 (can't remember which), but it was nice to be back with my children. We went back to our hotel in Zurich, cleaned out our stuff from the van and loaded our car back up prepared for an early departure for Paris in the morning.