Day trip to Savannah, GA

I've known Kathleen for seven years. Kath has dreamed that she's known me all her life - at least she says it seems like a lifetime. I'm not sure that's a compliment. I've been going to Hilton Head, SC with her maybe 5 years. It seems like each year we say we're going to Savannah for a day trip. This year we finally did and it rained all day. :( Because of the rain it wasn't much fun to do anything.

We did walk to see a little bit. From near the river - the Savannah River - we walked south down Bull St. It runs north and south through the middle of town. We walked to the south side to Forsyth Park Fountain. Along the way we passed through several squares. These are parks about one block square. Each has some center piece like a statue with very old and very large trees shading everything. Very southern looking. They would be especially nice to see on a sunny spring day with everything a bloom. There are something like 24 squares in Savannah with one just a couple of blocks from another.

Kathleen and Payton in front of Forsyth Park Fountain

Walking back up to the river, we stopped and had lunch at Gryphon Tea Room. We had a sandwich, coffee and tea and a little dessert. It felt right nice having lunch there.

Closer to the river we took Payton to see Santa. I had called his office to check his appearance schedule and we got lucky that we were going to be in the same place at the same time. We had a picture taken but I don't have it just yet. I will post it later. Outside the store Payton and I gave our best 'Boston Legal' pose in one of those white chairs Denny and Allan sat in.We next walked down to the river front, looked around, visited a candy store, watched the candy being made, partook in some of that fine candy, pulled our jackets up around our necks, walked back to the truck and headed back to the island. Savannah will just have to be visited again on a nicer day.

A drive through the Swiss countryside

Today I put my camera on the tripod, set it to take a picture every second and anchored it inside my car. Then I took a 15 minute drive from our house through the town of Corcelles and out into the countryside for a bit. At Rochefort I hung a right and headed back to the house. I took about 1800 pictures to make this video. Check it out. I think it is kind of cool.

Matterhorn

We had decided earlier in the week to take a road trip today. We thought driving down to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn would be a good trip. We woke this morning to a gray and raining sky. :(

"Should we wait until tomorrow? It would be a shame to drive 3 hours and not be able to see anything. No, let's go. The weather will clear and may be completely different down south."

Anybody want to hire me as a weatherman? It was beautiful in Zermatt. Very sunny, clear skies, no wind and in the upper 30's. We're sure glad we went today.

Zermatt is a skiing and mountaineering village in southern Switzerland. It's about 10 km from Italy. To prevent air pollution, which could disfigure the town's lovely view of the Matterhorn, the entire town is a combustion-engine car free zone. I think is it a great idea. You can drive towards Zermatt but go no farther than Täsch. From there you take a cog train up the valley.

We spent the afternoon taking pictures, looking at some shops and had lunch at McDonald's. Parker pretty much slept the whole time.

We drove down one way and came back another. Going down we went by Lausanne and over to Zermatt. Going back we headed pretty much north towards Bern. We got a surprise on the way back. We zigged-zagged up into the mountains and came to a toll - $25 CHF. It wasn't a toll road though. The next leg of the journey turned out to be by car train. We drove our car onto a train, put it in park and shut the motor off. We rode in our car on a train through a tunnel in the mountain with hardly any light for about 15 km (10 miles). It was so cool and such a surprise. How often do you do this sort of thing?

From a chocolate factory to a castle - all in a day

Today we sought a little sightseeing adventure. Kathleen had the idea of going to the Cailler Chocolate Factory. Cailler's is owned by Nestlé. They offer free self guided tours and rumor has it that at the end you can taste free chocolates! Payton and I needed little convincing. We packed up the family and headed out.

We found the factory with little problem. Thank goodness for GPS! Those little gadgets are indispensable in a foreign place. Sure enough they had tours. A tour of the factory? Hardly. At best it was a quick walk through a few museum types displays. We didn't care though because the rumor was true! Free chocolate awaited you at tour's end.

We don't know how much you can have (a candy cop was on duty), but we had plenty each. How good was it? It was free so of course it was just the best. Just like any museum you get hustled by the 'gift' shop before leaving. We had no problem buying a box of chocolates that we tried out.

Before heading to our next destination we hung out in our van. Parker needed a change and Payton had chocolate milk to finish. We finally got Kathleen's new car. It took forever - 6 months and should have only taken 3. We love it. The panoramic roof is so cool.

After Cailler's we headed to the town of Gruyère (Groo-Yair). Here they make a cheese named the same. It is said to be good, but I wouldn't know. I'm still looking for my Kraft American cheese slices, extra-sharp cheddar cheese and Velveeta. They are no where to be found. Above the town is Gruyère Castle dating back to the 13th century.

The walk up to the castle wasn't hard, but you knew your ticker worked by the time you reached the top.

Looking down the trial we just walked up.

Here is the plaza area just outside of the castle. As you can see it was foggy and just a little misty. No blue skies today. At the far end of the plaza is the castle.

Through the archway lies the outer grounds of the castle.

Just inside the archway and on the right was a museum with a weird exhibit. Note the banner on the wall. The exhibit was like all this 'Alien' stuff. To the right in this picture was the museum bar. It too was decked out. You sat in alien skeleton chairs and the walls and ceiling were done up like the ship the Alien was first found in.

Before heading into the castle, we first walked around it.

Nice ceiling work.

These gardens are no doubt really nice when in bloom.

A self propelled wheel chair. Each wheel is independently powered by turning on the handles. They're lashed together so that visitors can't mess with them. There wasn't any information provided to date the chair, but I'll bet who ever used it had a very strong upper body.Ahh, the rich always have the best views.

We ate an early dinner at a restaurant on the plaza. Kathleen had been wanting to try fondue. For me I have yet to find a Swiss dish that appeals to me. I am not looking to hard. Fortunately the restaurant Kathleen chose had fondue and spaghetti - which is what Payton and I had. And Parker? He had milk. Kathleen liked her fondue and is looking forward to having it again. The cheese tasted okay, but it stunk.

Well, that's about all the pictures. We were somewhat disappointed with the weather. The views are supposed to be great from the castle. Gruyère is said to be at the foothills of the Alps. South of the castle they frame the castle beautifully - at least that's what we saw in the postcards. Oh well, the place isn't far and we can always go for another chocolate tour. We'll just go again in the spring.

The Roman Town of Aventicum

Today Payton and I went on a walk back in time. We traveled about 30 minutes to Avenches - an old city built upon an even older city - Aventicum, the capital of Roman Helvetia. We started in town and walked to see some of the ruins around town. We even searched for and found a Geocache!

The first site was right in town - the amphitheatre. Quite a bit of it remains and it can still be used for events today. In its day it's estimated to have seated about 16,000.

Our stroll took us past an ancient temple, Roman baths and at the far end of our 5 km walk to the east gate to the ancient city.

North of the east gate was a reconstructed tower. It was pretty cool with a great view from the top. It was at this tower we looked for and found the Geocache. Do you see the square holes in the wall either side of the tower? The cache was hidden in one these. Payton kept a key chain from the choice of goodies and I left a 2 franc coin. We had walked for quite a while when Payton spied a bench and had to take a break.

The east gate was on the high ground so the walk back to town was downhill. Our last stop was at the Roman theatre.

This was the end of our hike. Payton was a real trooper and I enjoyed my day with him. One last look at town from the theatre and we headed back...

...not to home, but for some ice cream and a soda. Payton was parched and darn near drank the whole soda himself. Dad wasn't a good hiker - I didn't take any water with us. I'll do better next time.

PS... While Payton and I were out having fun, Kathleen, 'Jack-Jack' Parker and Grandma went to town shopping. They bought baby clothes, chocolate and a purse. Go figure.