Warm Adventures: July 2014

Like I mentioned I am working my way backwards a bit to catch up on the last 3 months of absentee blogging. In late June/early July we finally had real visitors. Yes I know we've had family visit and that is always great. But everyone knows they come to see the grandkids. Really, we could be anywhere in the world and I'm pretty sure they would come. But we had dear friends fly all the way from Florida to visit us (I think) and not so much the kids (I'm sure). But also to see some of this beautiful country.

We (J, L & me) go back like 15 years, met at the UU church in Orlando (BE = before Erik). Long story short, we are really good friends. The kind that can make you laugh like no other, the kind that you can cry with like no other and the kind that I really, really miss. So I was super excited when they mentioned back in January about coming to visit us over the summer. Erik immediately started scoping out the bikes rides he would take J on. However, I didn't factor in that we had visitors (family) for six weeks prior, so afraid I wasn't on my A game. My apologies. Plus having two kids not in school, in addition to the crazy weather here did put a bit of a damper on the schedule at times. But needless to say we trudged on. Here are the highlights.

Zurich

We played tourist in Zurich on a beautiful day (except for the 2pm downpour after lunch). Walked along the gorgeous river and lake. Taught them early on about Swiss sticker shock by having coffee and treats at Hanold's - yummy but nicht billig. Ate a delicious lunch at Tibits, which claims to be the first vegetarian restaurant in the universe. And to top off our adventure, we drove there. For us taking the train is easy and relatively inexpensive as we have half fare cards but for tourists it's insanely expensive. Luckily I had TomTom and J in the front seat to assist.

A trip to Switzerland is not complete without a hike in the Alps in my opinion. And this one did not disappoint. It may have been one the scariest and most beautiful bus rides up a twisty mountain road, over amazing waterfalls and across rickety bridges. But then we arrived at a little slice of heaven in the Alps. The views were just breathtaking. It is so surreal to me how lush and gorgeous it is at every turn. We pinch ourselves every time we get to go, so it was fun to share it with others who were equally impressed. This place had waterfalls and cows everywhere you looked. We stopped at a little mountain house/store for a picnic lunch and indulged in some amazing mountain cheese. J got in a little extra endurance training, pushing the loaded Bob stroller (and Miles), up the mountain.

Lucerne

We picked another gorgeous day for some touristy sightseeing in Lucerne, complete with a leisurely boat ride, and gorgeous views of Pilatus. We saw the covered bridges, ate a yummy lunch and made it home in time for the boys to take a short evening bike ride.

We also showed them the highlights of our town. The schloss, the playgrounds, the prison store, the strawberries. We tried our best to expose them to everyday life in our little medieval village, complete with trips to the market and our favorite coffee shops. When Erik and J were off bike riding, L and I would drink coffee, laugh, or visit with friends. I'm pretty sure they got a good taste of why we like it here. Again such a treat to have friends over. Honestly it was just nice to hang out, doesn't matter where you are. Just wish we had more time to play games and watch bad movies. Maybe next time. Thanks again for visiting, we really enjoyed it.

Who doesn't love strawberry season

How many waterfalls can you see?

Incredible

Hiking in the Alps

Boat ride on Lake Lucerne

Lion of Lucern

Reward for taking the long way home

Kids in Zurich

Downpour in Zurich

Ready to eat, I mean pick

Nutty strawberry helpers

yummy

Boys pushing and carrying kids

awesome little alp store with yummy help yourself cheese

Prison pies that made J go "Wow"

Awesome 1st and last meal together with friends and family

Prize for all the rain

Jamie reading Good Night Construction Site - so cute

Airport playground makes saying goodbye a bit easier

Baseball anyone

So once again it's been a long time since I blogged. Three months apparently, my how time flies. In my defense, we've had company for approximately 8 of the last 12 weeks. And since my office is also the guest room, I didn't have lots of opportunity, or time to blog. We were too busy having fun. I will try and recap.

First I'll start with the most recent events, since it is fresh on my mind and that is 4th of July. We celebrated, kinda sorta. It wasn't quite the same. There were no hot dogs but cervelats instead (just picture a really fat hotdog but 10 times better tasting). There were awesome fireworks over the Schloss July 3rd. Erik and I commented that it was nice of them to set those off just for us. Erik worked on Friday (not a holiday here), but we did have a lovely cookout in the garden on Saturday complete with sausages, smores and baseball playing. On Sunday, we attended this incredible brunch at a local farm with a group of our friends. It was sort of like a family gathering but with rosti, birchermuesli and zopf. That day we also biked, played in the river and ate watermelon. It did sort of feel like the 4th of July minus the tons of friends and family, minus the baked beans and corn on the cob, minus the red, white and blue. It probably wasn't as patriotic as my Swiss friend Tamara's 4th of July, but it was our own quaint weekend of fun.

We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July. We miss you.