Laowai

After our first few days in the mountains the sun came out. 

We went to the Cheese museum in Gruyere. They had a really great mural at the museum’s restaurant. And I discovered my new favorite dessert. It’s a local speciality – meringues dipped in double cream. 

After the museum we climbed up to the the Gruyere walled city castle area. It was a pretty touristy and busy spot, but I was happy because the sun finally came out.

Here are some photos of the castle in Gruyere. 

The interior of the castle had decoration from lots of different eras. And one room had the prettiest flowers and butterflies painted on the wall panels.

We finally woke up to sunshine and I took some photos of our apartment – we had the lower floor of the chalet.

There was a stream just down the hill from our apartment. At night it was so nice to open the windows and hear the rushing water. Brian went for a long ride one day and the girls and I spent some time along that stream.

Stones in Switzerland have stripes.

We went swimming one day in a town next to Gstaad called Saanen. The water was coooooold, but the view was beautiful.

For our Swiss vacation we stayed in a town called Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland region. 

The thing about Gstaad is it’s fancy with a capital F. Famous people go there. We saw more than one Bentley around town. The little shopping street has stores like Hermes, Cartier and Louis Vuiton. We obviously didn’t choose it because it was fancy – we just wanted to go to that mountain area that we hadn’t visited and we liked the apartment that was available. 

The town was lovely. Everything down to the smallest detail is curated into a perfectly homogenous alpine wonderland. It’s a little unbelievable, a little like Disney. They only build this type of wooden chalet building.

Here’s our little chalet – I took more photos when the sun came out.

Here we are taking a rainy walk to a nearby town Lauenen. I’m so proud that our girls are good little hikers. They go and go and hardly every complain.

The girls kept begging for Kinder Eggs – they are chocolate eggs with a toy inside. And Claire was overjoyed to find that they were selling My Little Pony Kinder Eggs!!!

One more photo – at the train station there are sheep grazing right by the tracks. So as soon as you step off the train you hear the sweet tinkle of little sheep bells. You can see the sheep in the far background in this photo. So charming.

I’m interrupting my huge number of Switzerland photos to post a couple first day of school shots.

Aaaah – school has started. I just dropped Claire off at her first full (half) day and I am getting what I have been craving so much this summer. I am getting some time to myself. I feel bad saying that because one, some people have jobs and they can’t have so much control over their afternoons and two, it’s not so nice for a mom to be thinking “man I wish these kids would just leave me alone”. But you know how it is. The summer days are great, but they are long and when Brian is traveling so much it can by trying. I sometimes just want to have more that 3 minutes to string some thoughts together before someone says “mom, can I have some lemonade?”

Anyway – the girls are off to a good start. They both had a good first day, but I could tell it stressed them out a little too. They reacted to the pressure in their own very different ways. Claire has been so eager to go to kindergarten. She was counting the moments until it was time to go. Bea seems to have a really good teacher. And it feels nice to ride our bikes to school – we’ve had some suitably chilly mornings.

Here they are – so big!

There seemed to be a vein of cheese running through our vacation days. We had raclette three times and fondue twice. The girls and I had a running joke about keeping Daddy from going overboard buying cheese every time we went to the grocery store.

Here we are on the first night in our little chalet. How many rental places come with raclette grills and fondue pots – well probably lots in Switzerland I guess.

A couple days later we had fondue at a restaurant:

We noticed that you can buy cheese and other dairy products in a vending machine at the train station:

More cheese – cute package:

One day we went for a completely cheese themed hike. You can borrow a backpack in the town where we stayed and in the backpack is everything you need to have a fondue feast at the top of a mountain – inside a wooden fondue pot! So we started off with a gondola ride. 

We had crummy weather but it didn’t slow us down. We just couldn’t see the big mountains in the distance.

When we stepped off the gondola cows were there to greet us.

When we’re in Switzerland I get very excited about cows. Look at those fuzzy ears. They were very animated that day.

There’s our destination – a wooden fondue pot.

That was fun! Even the girls loved the cheese. 

With our bellies full of cheese we headed back.

More cows – you hear the tinkle gong sound of the cow bells as you walk along. Most of the cows are sweet and some just look up at you when you walk by. The girls thought it was funny that one of the cows threatened to charge us. She was just a bit grouchy so we gave her some space.

Another day on the cheese trail we went to the town of Gruyere and saw their cheese making museum. You get a free sample of cheese with your ticket. 

I’m going to start documenting our trip to Switzerland with the last day – a full day in Zurich. We traveled to the town where we lived and visited with Bea’s kindergarten teacher, Frau Rutishauser. We met at the swimming area along Lake Zurich and some of Bea’s classmates came too. It was sweet to see Bea’s reaction, they all made her feel special.

After that we rode across the lake to see a Chilbi – a fair. We were ready to eat Swiss fair food and try some rides just like we used to. 

Here’s Bea and I on a fast round and round ride. The kind that goes so fast I can’t hold my head up. 

See how happy Brian is – he’s about to have some Raclette cheeeeeese.

A Ferris Wheel on the edge of Lake Zurich has the best views.

Everything was going great – the girls begged to go on two more rides – the swings and then these bubble things that were new. We knew we had to get up super early the next morning to catch our plane home, but we gave in because we were having so much fun. First we went on the swings and then the girls got in line to go in a bubble together. I love to see them holding hands.

For the first ten seconds Claire was all smiles and then there was a drastic change and she was in complete terror. She was crying and looking panicked and Brian and I were watching helplessly. Poor Bea was so excited to go in a bubble and she couldn’t get her sister to calm down. It was such a strange moment. We were the parents of that kid – the one who DID NOT like the ride. On one hand I was laughing a little because of the look of terror on her face. On the other hand I was in a panic to get the fair dude’s attention so he could drag their ball to the start and let her out. Finally they did get her out and I was so relieved that they let Bea have a turn on her own. I’ll never forget that roller coaster of emotions that we all experienced. There’s Bea having her bubble fun below:

After that drama Claire just wanted to rest her head on Brian’s shoulder. We were all tired and ready to get on the train back to our hotel. It was just starting to get dark and the rides looked so pretty from the train platform.

We returned from our Switzerland vacation yesterday and just like that Summer is at its end. Here’s a photo of Bea and Claire and a cow sculpture. I’ve got lots more photos to sort through and post, but I also need to get two girls ready to start school on Wednesday. School already! Wow!

I’ve been watching goldfinches eating seeds from my coneflowers and that means the end of summer is upon us. We have a trip to Switzerland coming up and then right after that school will start. It has been a really good summer. The girls have been smiling. I feel blessed to be able to fill our summer days with lots of fun and good memories.

Our backyard wildlife charms me – there are more caterpillars on my dill plant.

I picked my first tomato – is there anything better than picking a tomato and feeling it warm and heavy in your palm? 

I went to a big antique market in Wisconsin and got a new bench that fits by our back door. I think the geraniums like it.

We went to the botanic garden to hear a carillon concert last night. 

Summer is for best friends.

So I should go and start packing for our trip. I feel sad to see the summer go and yet I’m a little eager to be back to a regular schedule. Sigh.

Stay tuned for pictures of trains and mountains and all things Swiss.

Over the years we’ve spent a few fun vacations in South Haven with Grandma and Grandpa C. The last time we were there Claire’s legs looked like this:

And a few years before that Bea looked like this:

This time I arranged a quick vacation with Grandma J. and Jenna. South Haven is about half way between my house and mom’s house – so we met for a girls trip. And I have a bunch of photos.

The apartment I rented was a little shabby, beachy, kitschy. It had bookshelves lined with old National Geographics. I read the one from the month and year I was born (whenever that was).

Mom planned all the meals – yummy. We had BLT’s on the Spatz’s bread that she brought. It’s such a Mid-Michigan thing and I love the retro graphic bag.

The main thing we did was hang out at the beach – lots of swimming – the water was warm! 

South Haven was having their Blueberry festival so we got to listen to a band one night and the girls jumped in a bounce house and got some freebies the next day. It’s a pleasant little town. We enjoyed walking along the river to the lighthouse and watching boats and dogs and people. 

We had to pick blueberries – just a few

We ended each night on the beach – the girls played in the sand and on the playground. Mom and I remarked how nice the air felt and we were happy that the girls were good and tired. 

I couldn’t get a very good picture, but our butterfly emerged and we let him go in the backyard. Unfortunately we didn’t get to watch him coming out of his chrysalis. We totally missed it – he was sitting still getting some strength into his limp wings when we noticed him.

It was really cool to watch the amazing butterfly life cycle on our kitchen table and I hope we can find another little caterpillar or egg again someday.

I picked my first potatoes today. I planted them back in April and I have been wondering if they were ready? Yes, they are! I can’t wait to make some potato salad.