We arrived at the Geneva Airport in the afternoon of the 2nd and were greeted by our hosts.

Snow capped peaks over Geneva.

Our Welcoming Committee (from left to right) Michel, unidentified smiling man, Yvette and Raymonde.

Arriving at our host's beautiful home in Vandoeuvres, a short distance outside of Geneva.

We were shown ‘our’ room and stowed our gear, then went out for a walk around the neighborhood to stretch our legs and get our bearings. For being so close to Geneva (a 10 minute drive straight into the heart of the city) Vandoeuvres is very rural!

A local farmer mulching his field.

A pony in a neighboring field.

A path from the park to the Vandoeuvres 'city hall'.

A garden at the city hall complex.

Decoration on a city hall building.

We returned and took a tour of the house before we settled down to a light meal.

The back of the house and the flower and berry garden.

The view out back from the open dining room 'wall' window.

The dining room opposite the open window.

A small part of the living room.

The wine cellar!

The first of many gourmet meals - a cucumber aspic salad with mustard vinaigrette dressing, followed by spaghetti with tomato sauce. Yum!

And finally, falling asleep under the chandelier in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

After months (actually years!) of planning we were finally on our way to Europe for a month long adventure! We will be visiting with our friends in Geneva, Switzerland, then traveling on our own to several areas in France and Italy, then back to Geneva before heading home. This post will begin recounting the first 15 days of the trip. I will post the last 14 days in the near future. I hope you enjoy the selection of photos (from over 3000 we took!) and get a sense of the fun, adventure and awe we experienced!

Our friends dropped us off at the Redmond airport the afternoon of Sept. 1, a beautiful, warm, sunny day in Central Oregon.

On the long portion of the flight, from Salt Lake City to Paris, we were upgraded to First Class! Those were real cushy seats and gourmet food!

Back in the Black Rock Desert on June 7 we were camped out on the playa, and saw a cloud of dust in the distance. Over time the mirage of blobs floating above the sand materialized into a horse-drawn wagon train that slowly passed our site. It took them enough time that we could walk out and say hi to the teamsters. They were on their way to Silver City, Idaho from somewhere in California. I was even offered a job as ‘swamper‘ for one of the wagons, but I have our own ‘wagon train’ to take care of!

The 5-wagon train appears out of the mirage on the desert.

Close enough to see some of the teams are mules, some are horses.

The train continued into the distance towards their destination.

We headed back to our 'wagon' to return to Bend.

On August 16 we loaded up all the gear for a beautiful day up in the high lakes. We stopped at Davis Lake, unloaded the canoe and headed out on the calm waters. It was a very warm and relaxing day.

On August 15 we organized all the necessary tools and proceeded to spend the day tending the smoker and pressure canner to can 15 pints of wild caught Alaska Sockeye Salmon. Unfortunately we can’t brag that we caught the fish ourselves, we just caught the really good sale at Albertson’s!

A total of 5 fish, each over 3 pounds, two racks, completely filled up the smoker!

One hour of smoking and the fish looked and smelled great!

After skinning and removing big bones (and of course tasting delicious bites!) it was time to can.