Friends in Faraway Places

Hello! I'm writing today from the rainy Swiss/France border, just a few kilometers away from Geneva, temporary home of the Kenny family, and close to the birthplace of the world wide web. It's a wonderful place, seeing my old friends Lauren and Pat has been a blast, and  hanging out with their kids Rowan the Goozmont (9 months) and Declan "Big Handsome" Kenny (4 years) has been an entertaining couple of days indeed.

I want to tell you something.

But first, let's go back to the event of the Quad-copter back in Erlangen...

When I last posted, I bid farewell with the exciting anticipation of Aaron Webster's homemade Quad-copter, a flying machine that kind of looks like a super Lego dream. 

A Smile Brigade first! Videos!

It flies! After testing out the calibrations in the backyard we rode our bikes out to a field and Aaron flew it around, entertaining us for a good 7 minutes before gloriously crashing it into one of the bikes. A resounding success.

This is not of the crash, but a more successful flight. Alas, I stopped filming before the carnage.

All in all, my time in Erlangen with Sequoia and Aaron was fantastic. I failed to get photos of our ICBINS game or of the delicious wurst and kraut meals, but I assure you they were just as colorful and futuristically interesting as the copter. Did I mention Sequoia is super pregnant? It's awesome.

Whoa! Pregnant friend!

Then I took a train...

A picture from the train on my way to Geneva from Germany.

So now I find myself hanging out with the Kenny clan. 

Whoa! Friends with kids!

I've known Lauren since grade school and Pat since high school. I was the best man at their wedding. He's currently finishing up his doctorate program in physics at KU, part of which is participating in an experiment at CERN (the aforementioned home of the world wide web). It's been fun, going to the pool and throwing around little people is always entertaining, and staying up too late with Pat watching Judge Dredd or Rollerball (the original with James Caan) is a favorite past time. 

Yesterday Lauren and I took the boys downtown to Geneva on the train. This has been a fun stop in my travels for multiple reasons. Not only is it great to see old friends in a place so out of context, so far away from where we are used to meeting, but also to go from being surrounded by 20-something backpackers and couchsurfers in major metropolitan areas for months on end to living the family life with two people who frequently drool and fall over while trying to walk across the room, Lauren, and Declan (bada-bing!). So instead of wandering around aimlessly, taking pictures, seeing the sites, and listening to music or a book on "tape" for hours on end, I had a four year-old on my shoulders telling me story after story of adventures while I simultaneously chatted with Lauren about life back home. We walked along the river, saw the famous water jet (I didn't know it was famous until I got here, but apparently it is) and functioning clock with a plant face. And back home on the tram, the highlight of it all for some of us.

I'm off to tour the CERN site now, and tomorrow I begin my trip up to Paris to meet up with monsieur Remi so that we can camp out at his friends place after road tripping through France on our way to.... Geneva. Hmmm. Come on, it's the journey, not the destination. 

Talk to you later.