Zurich, Switzerland

In Zurich, Switzerland, we spent some time visiting the local Google office, including some fun lunch food.

A happy eater

Google ice cream looks a lot like Ben & Gerry's

The game room has plenty to recommend it, including a foosball table, an old-fashioned Star Wars pinball game, and old-school Street Fighter.

Daughter versus mother!

Two games at once!

Pinball happiness

Brothers fighting each other!

The day was rainy, so we went over to FocusTerra, an exhibit at the ETH Zurich. On the way, we crossed the Limmat River that runs through Zurich. 

The river runs through it

A fancy building along the way

FocusTerra starts with a long hallway with almost everything in German! I was worried the kids would be extra-bored.

A lot of information

Inside, we discovered a fountain. As if we had not seen enough water with the rain and the river! It actually perked up the kids.

Indoor fountain

The geology exhibit focuses on the formation of the Alps. The European continental shelf intersected with the African, forming the mountains. Earthquakes do happen in the Alps, though not many people are impacted because of the lack of population density.

Strata coming together

Samples of rocks from different strata

More rock samples

A nearby display shows a Martian lander called InSight that is studying the geology of Mars. It is measuring core temperatures and recording marsquakes (I guess they can't have earthquakes there). The scientists in the building work with NASA to analyze the data that comes back.

NASA InSight Martian Explorer

Another exhibit goes through the formation of the universe, from the Big Bang to star formation to planetary formation.

Universe formation

As a last treat, we took the Polybahn up the hill to get a better view of the city. It was a fun ride for our youngest.

The funicular station

The train

Riding inside

Getting to the top

The other train on the tracks

View of the street below the train

Safely back on ground, we crossed the river again and headed to the train station to get back to our base of operations in Bern.

Pretty much the same view of the river

The Bahnhof (train station)

Weird art in the Bahnhof

Cub Scout Day Camp 2015--Day One

J went to his first Cub Scout Day Camp, a week-long, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. extravaganza of activities, learning, and fun. I volunteered to help out three days--Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Happily, Granny and Grandpa were visiting and took care of N and L while J and I were at camp. On Tuesday and Thursday I dropped J off and got back home to play with the younger ones. But back to the camp!

We started the first day by signing into the den and getting our gear--hats and ID badges. This year's theme is CSI--Cub Scout Investigators. A lot of science and spy-like stuff could be found all over the fairgrounds.

J geared up for camp

Daddy and J together

The first two stations were the two most awesome stations--BB Rifles and Archery. On the first day, the station managers gave us the safety instructions that we'd use later in the week. The rifle range also had the boys try out lying down and aiming the rifles. They loved it.

The third station was Geology, where the scouts learned how rocks have been forming and reforming over the years. They were given buckets of sand to sift through and find different types of rocks, including the highly-coveted obsidian. J found four or five pieces of the precious stone in his bucket.

Learning about rocks

Searching for rocks

We had lunch next, followed by a station devoted to diversity awareness. They had some interesting activities, including trying out crutches and wheel chairs, as well as designing a type face to help dyslexics read more easily. Later, J said it was kinda boring.

Another popular station was Water Games, featuring a massive slip and slide that was the hit of the day. It was fun. It was cool. It was wet. The boys got to take off their shoes! What more could one ask for?

J on the water slide

After the water, things heated up with Ga Ga Ball, a popular Scouting game where the boys have to hit a ball with their hands to hit the other boys in the leg. At first, with twenty kids in the pit, chaos ruled. Once the group was whittled down to a manageable number, the game became more skills based. The kids loved it immensely. And the ball pit was the most polished and professional-looking one I've ever seen!

Ga Ga Ball arena

Our last station was Whittling. The boys sharpened their own wooden knives with a sanding block and then practiced good whittling techniques. They started carving a bar of soap by removing the brand-name logo. The knives, soap bars, and cleaning sticks were put in zip-lock bags for the next Whittling session later in the week, where they'd learn more techniques and make something even fancier.

We went outside for the closing ceremony and then headed home after a great day.

More to come in the next post!