Hike les Ecrins: Col du Vallon

Total day hike was 20 km from Refuge de la Muzelle over Col du Vallon down to the river valley and back to Bourg d'Oisans.  400 meter rise to col and 1,700 meter descent.



Below shows path up to Col du Vallon from the Refuge (hidden by shadow near the lake).

 Edelweiss, above, along the trail.

Kirsten, Michelle and Bryan celebrate at the Germany-France World Football game.

Alpine Flowers, July 2016

Zurich; July 2016

Zurich Switzerland is thriving.
Below are storm clouds and construction cranes.

Turn of the (last) century architecture, statues and opportunities for street life during the summer.

The Swiss pay attention updating infrastructure to accommodate modern business and growth.  Isn't this a beautifully crafted water main?

Vitra Visit

The Vitra company outside Basel Switzerland produces famous furniture by well-known designers, both classic and contemporary.  Vitra welcomes visitors to the campus to a display of the most important chairs of the last century, a museum of temporary exhibitions, and a gallery of the Vitra products. Here is link to Vitra website. 

 Buckminster Fuller dome, factory warehouses and storm clouds above.
VitraHaus shops by Herzog & de Meuron, 2010, below.

 Vitra Slide Clock Tower by Carsten Holler, 2014, above.
Fire Station by Zaha Hadid, 1993, below.

Roof Coating Project

The first step was to replace and widen the fascia and flashing at the roof line.
Chuck and Chris cut pieces to install; second photo shows the clean finished look.
Fascia is wider, flashing is fabricated steel and comes coated with color on.

Chris, Alan and Chuck confab about roof section repair.

Yellow base coat has to be applied by hand at the edge.

Interior was rolled on.

Final coat is silver polyurethane epoxy.

8400 Hull, South Planting along Drive

After spending a month preparing the soil and clearing, the site looked like this,
(note the old turquoise flashing below the roof line):

Plugs of baby plants were ordered from North Creek Nurseries and New Moon Nursery:

The site was about 400 square feet so about 400 plants were installed, 10-12 inches apart.
Floating row cover was put on to protect from deer and give the plants a little extra support.

Rochester, 2016

 The Rochester skyline to the west above.    Times Square building on the left from 1930 has four metal wings that weigh 12,000 pounds each.
Quote on the Rochester Main Library below to right.

Dinosaur B-B-Que

 George Eastman Museum (of Film), where we attended the Nitrate Picture Show.

Bike Ride: Rochester east

Main Street in Medina, NY.
Above left is Bent's Opera House, 1864, made of Medina sandstone.  To the left is Main Street just off the Erie Canal, trying for a revival.

 The highway south from Lockport to the NY Thruway looks like this:







But, sunset transforms it into the scene below.

In Niagara Falls on the American side, near Love Canal.

The Falls

Going, roughly, north to south upstream.
We biked from Niagara Falls on American side to Niagara side on Canadian side and then down the river on Canadian side south toward Buffalo.

Buffalo Buildings

Buffalo City Hall, 1931.

City Court Building, 1974, next to the City Hall.

Both buildings front on Lafayette Square, below, with memorial of Pres. McKinley.