The Swiss version of Fourth of July is on August 1st. We took a quick trip up into the hills near us to a town called Einsiedeln. It was a hot day and I was a bit exhausted from building IKEA furniture – so we kept it low key and enjoyed a long lunch in the shade.
Later in the day we went down to our town’s little celebration – mostly we wanted to enjoy the food stands. We had raclette, baked potatoes with stroganoff type topping, sausages, clafoutis, churros with vanilla and chocolate sauce and beer. Yum!
We ended the day watching fireworks from our patio. We could see thousands, sparkling all around the lake – up close and in the far far distance. It was magical.
The last few days have been a blur. A blur of movers and unpacking and going to the grocery store everyday and building IKEA beds. It’s starting to feel slightly less chaotic around our apartment now. There are always those moments, when I move, when I feel so overwhelmed by the stuff. I just have to wander aimlessly from one unpacking task to the next. It feels endless sometimes and I have been so tired at the end of the day. I fell asleep in the bath tub the other evening!
The girls have been good. I think these days are hard on them – they have been waiting for everything. Waiting for their things to arrive, waiting to open boxes, waiting to have their new beds built, waiting to have a tv, waiting to do something fun, waiting for mom to stop wandering the house putting stuff away. And they can’t escape to their friend’s houses to have fun like they did in Wilmette. I’m looking forward to settling down so they can have a regular schedule.
Even though it has been a whirlwind few days I feel lucky as I go about making this place our home. How can I not feel lucky when I look out our windows and see the most beautiful view you can imagine.
Here are a bunch of snaps of our first few days here:
Hello new home:
The movers arrived about an hour after we got to our apartment. Here are the girls reunited with their toys – It’s almost as good as Christmas.
Our first meal together:
The next morning the girls watched the sun come up:
It’s hard to decide which items should go in which cabinets:
Claire fell asleep just before dinner:
Do you have a kitty right outside your grocery store? I do.
Dinner at our town’s brewery restaurant – I’m happy and tired:
I’ve had a lump in my throat for about a week now. Saying good-bye to familiar things and people – why is it so hard? The roadside flowers were so colorful, so pretty driving away from Midland. We leave tomorrow.
I can’t write anymore because it will just start me crying again and besides I have to go clean out my kitchen (arhg!).
We are wrapping up our time in Michigan. We’ll head back to Wilmette soon to finish up a few things and say a last good-bye to our friends and then we finally move to Zurich next week.
Here are a some photos from this nice week with Grandma C.:
We found out yesterday that our shipment of stuff won’t arrive until the day the girls and I arrive in Switzerland. The plan was for the stuff to be there before we got there, but I guess things don’t always work out. Poor Brian has been living in a very sparse apartment, he is ready to sleep on a proper bed – our bed.
I’m getting sick of the anticipation of moving – ready to get on with setting up our apartment. I daydream and wonder how our furniture will fit. I’ve been on Pinterest and Etsy dreaming of things I love and ways to make it homey.
I’d love to create some inexpensive, cheery artwork. Maybe something that emulates Damien Hirst’s circle paintings:
Or I could emulate this painting that I love love love:
I bought this round Girard and Eames La Fonda coffee table because I thought it would go with our sectional sofa nicely. And because it was in the window of a local antique shop and it wouldn’t stop taunting me until I bought it.
I’ll have lots of cardboard from our moving boxes so I could make some letters like this to go near our front door:
Just perennially lusting over Ercole furniture (don’t worry Brian, I didn’t buy any):
With all our windows – I’ll want to grow some plants. This canvas planter is nice – maybe I could DIY it:
This vintage wallpaper – gah – I love it:
A pretty vintage chenille bedspread like this might be nice.
I can’t stop looking at vintage Georges Briard items lately. Is it just me or is he having a moment?
This wall plaque:
And these little pots:
I’m lucky to be able to have fun decorating our new apartment – it’s what I like to do. I’m ready to head to Zurich.
We dug out the slide projector and the boxes of slides at mom’s house. The girls were really interested in loading the slides in the projector and pushing the button to advance the picture. Later mom and Jennifer and I kept the girls awake with our roaring laughter. So fun to see those old photos and trigger the memories! Here are some of my favorites – I just took a photo of the projected images on the wall.
Mom planned a wonderful road trip to upper Michigan for us. We saw all the sights and I renewed my appreciation for up North. We headed up on Monday, stopping in Mackinac City and Fort Michilimackinac. Then we drove over the Mackinac Bridge and stayed in St. Ignace. The next day we took a ferry to Mackinac Island. It rained the following day, but that didn’t stop me enjoying our drive to Sault Ste. Marie and seeing the Soo Locks. Then we went over to Tahquamenon Falls before spending our last night in the middle of the UP in Newberry. Mom was kind enough to arrange hotels with pools so the girls were happy and tired each night. Here are a bunch of photos that we took.
Yes, we had to buy some taffy in Mackinac City. No we did not eat at Wienerlicious.
Fort Michilimacinac:
Souvenir fish:
Mackinac Island:
The ferry ride back to St. Ignace might have been the best part of that day. After such a hot day on the island – we were refreshed.
UP cuisine: a fried Twinkie from an old fashioned drive-up restaurant.
A whole lot of mayflies hatched while we were in St. Ignace so Bea’s fish was happy.
The Soo locks. Soo fascinating!
The area of Sault Ste. Marie around the locks was very retro and charming.
Tahquamenon Falls:
The girls were happy back at the hotel pool and then snuggled in bed with souvenirs and fudge.
Time to have breakfast, shake hands paws with a bear and say goodbye to the UP.
The girls and I are enjoying some family time in Michigan before we head to Switzerland. We were lucky to be able to go to grandma’s 94th birthday party and see lots of cousins and aunts and uncles and so many of grandma’s beautiful great-grandchildren.
Here a few of my favorite photos:
Everybody line up behind the birthday girl.
It’s always feels so good to catch up with cousins.
Grandma has two cats – this one is very low maintenance and well behaved.
We must take a few minutes to admire grandma’s garden.
Grandma’s fridge door is filled with great photos.
Laowai 