No ice caves, but we slid down a mountain on our butts

July 4, 2008

Happy BIrthday, Nicole! Happy Independence Day, everyone else (and Nicole too I guess)! Except no one here is celebrating. Go figure. We realized that we’re missing all the national holidays this year. We’re not in the US for the 4th; we’ll be home by the 14th so we won’t be able to celebrate Bastille Day in France, and the Swiss national holiday is August 1st so we won’t be around for that either. Maybe we should head down to Mexico for Cinco de Mayo next year (but that’s not really their Independence Day either). Can someone check on Canada for me?

Anyway, Liz had to work today so we slept in a little, and then we headed off to the Alps. When Becky and I were here eleven years ago, we visited a little town called Grindlewald that is in the middle of the Swiss Alps. We had gone to ice cave with a bunch of ice sculptures that had been carved into a glacier. It was awesome, and we were looking forward to taking the kids there. But when we got there, we learned that a lot of the glacier had melted, and they no longer had an ice cave. Darn Al Gore and his global warming.

So we took a little gondola up into the mountains and found an Alpine summer bobsled-type run for the kids. The pictures don’t do it justice because they’re from the beginning and end of the run, but the thing did move pretty fast with some crazy turns in it. I went once with Zac; Becky went with Alex, and then Alex and Zac went together. Katie was too young to go, and she was really upset about that. She was crying and screaming that she wanted to go. Two girls who were visiting from an Asian country got the biggest kick out of how much Katie wanted to go. They went over to the snack bar and bought her a popsicle to make her happy while she waited for Alex and Zac to finish their last run. It was very cute. There was also a trampoline and other play equipment for the kids at this little Alpine gondola station so even Katie had fun anyway.

That evening Liz had invited the local Mormon missionaries over for dinner so we got a chance to eat with them. It was cool to find out how the mission area has changed in the last fifteen years. And, of course, with Liz the conversation is always very lively.

A crazy Irish woman

July 3, 2008

We left Southern France today and spent most of the day driving back to Switzerland. We’ve had nice weather almost all of the trip, but today it rained pretty much all day. A few times we drove through some of the hardest thundershowers I have ever been in. A couple of times, I almost pulled over on the highway because the rain was so bad. But we made it safely through.

We didn’t go back to the same place in Switzerland this time. We have a friend a little farther north who had been on vacation, but now she’s back. So we went to the town of Bienne, and we’re spending the night with a crazy lady named Liz. She’s lived in Switzerland most of her life, but she was born in Ireland. She says whatever comes to her head, and she speaks a mile a minute regardless of whether it’s in English, French, German or Swiss German (even a little Italian as well). She has a big heart, and she’d give you the shirt off her back, but you might have to wait a half an hour until she lets you say a word to ask for it. The kids didn’t know what to make of her at first, but after a while they really warmed up to her. Becky and I agreed that Dee would do a great impersonation of her; we just have to work on getting them together.

Rocky beaches & wedding vows

July 2, 2008

What a full day. We started by going with Franco and Emily & kids to a relatively family-friendly beach on the Mediterranean Sea. Of course, after getting all the way to Southern France, I left the camera at the hotel. So Franco took a couple of pictures at the beach on his cell phone, and I’ll get one from the beach posted as soon as I can. The beach was a little rocky, but the water was warm and most all of the women kept their tops on (the ones that didn’t were old and portly anyway).

We grabbed lunch, and then we had to hurry back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. We were in such a rush when we left that I forgot the camera again. So we came half-way around the world for a wedding, and dummy me didn’t get any pictures. It worked out okay though because Maria and Memo asked me to video tape the wedding for them, and then I got pictures later at the fancy dinner party.

The civil wedding was held at the town hall (the religious ceremony at the Mormon temple will follow in a few days), and it was right in the middle of the old town complete with tiny little cobblestone streets and old fountains. The wedding was very nice, but it was fairly short. We took a bunch of pictures in the old town, and then we headed over to the first reception.

This reception was held at the Mormon Church in Vitrolles, and it lasted a few hours with a lot of people coming to congratulate the new couple. After that we swung by the hotel to grab the camera and then drove to the dinner party / reception. This was typically French with several courses of dinner in an old restored estate that had once been a pilgrimage destination in medieval times (or something like that; I was a little tired when I read the history), and it lasted until after three in the morning (although we turned in pumpkins and left around midnight). It was all very fancy and a new cultural experience. It was also very apparent that Fabio and Elodie are happy together.

I actually felt useful because I was able to trouble shoot some problems they were having with a slide show they were showing on a video projector – see that Masters Degree in Educational Technology is really paying off. Good thing we came, huh?

Caves, teepees & the bride-to-be

July 1, 2008

We left Jean-Paul and Martine’s house this morning, and we drove up to a cave called the Grottes de Choranches. I had been there many years ago as missionary, and I remember being very impressed. So we took the kids there, and it really was awesome. I think the kids just liked the idea of being inside of a huge cave, but some of the formations were amazing.

From there we drove the rest of the way down to the southern France. The wedding that we came for actually is taking place in a town called Vitrolles which is a right next to Marseille on the Mediterranean Sea. We checked into our hotel (another sardine can, but we do have a tiny bathroom (kind of, the toilet and shower are actually separate) in the room itself.

We met up with Franco and Memo, et al, and we went over to the bride’s parents’ villa-style Mediterranean house for a pre-wedding dinner / party. It is a very nice home with a swimming pool so, of course, the kids had a great time playing and swimming with Franco and Emily’s kids. Memo even got Katie to start kicking in the water; she’ll be swimming soon. The bride’s step-dad is really into American Indians so he has a full teepee with sleeping mats, etc. set up behind his house. We had a pretty good discussion because my grandmother was half Indian, and I told him that I’ll take him around when he comes to the US sometime because he really wants to see some of the Native American sites.

We met Fabio’s fiancé, Elodie, for the first time tonight, and she is very sweet. She was a missionary in Great Britain so Becky and the kids were able to talk with her in English. I think she and Fabio are a great match (like that need my approval or something).

Who needs a water park?

June 30, 2008

This morning we packed up all of our stuff since we won’t be back at the Maria’s and Memo’s for several days. Then we took off towards the south of France. The wedding is on Wednesday so we decided to head down a day before our friends. When I was a missionary, I had been in Grenoble, France for about five months, and I loved the city. A lot of the people I knew had moved away (I actually visited one of the families in Arizona on our RV trip last summer), or I had lost contact with them. There was one family that I wanted to see though so we stopped in Grenoble.

We stayed the night with our friends Jean-Paul and Martine and their family. There oldest daughter Diane and her family even came over to hang out and have dinner with us. Before dinner the family took us on a short hike in the Gorge du Furon. It was a hike that I had done before and loved. At first the kids were complaining a little because it was warm, but once you get into the little canyon, it really cools off and is beautiful.

Then at one point, we came to a place where we could wade in the river and play in the water, and the kids had a ball; I think it was one of the highlights of the trip for them. Both Alex and Zac were completely soaked by the time they were done, and we had to drag them out of the river.

On the way back to our friends’ house, we picked plums, and then we had a very nice dinner together. They were very kind to us, and we’re trying to talk them into a visit to California.

An ancient church and the Super Bowl of Soccer - now we're talking European

June 29, 2008

We went to church this morning, and then we had a great lunch of pasta and really tender beef seasoned with some kind of Italian herbs and rolled into a ho-ho shape before they’re cooked.

After lunch, we drove up to a little village and visited an old church that’s construction began in the 6th century AD. We went with Franco and Emily’s family and another American family who is living in Switzerland. It was really cool because the acoustics in the old church are amazing and the kids all sang I Am a Child of God in the nave of the church. There were a few other people visiting the church, and they just sat and listened. It was a pretty neat experience.

The kids played with Franco’s kids this evening and we just visited with Franco for a while. Then Memo and watched the final game of the Europe Cup. Memo is an avid soccer fan, and he has been following the whole tournament (it takes place every four years and is staggered two years apart from the World Cup). He even has a bracket he fills outs like many people do for March Madness. So I’ve been watching the games with him when I’ve been here, and he explains to me some of the nuances of soccer (or futball) that I wasn’t aware of. Spain beat Germany 1-0 in the final, but I didn’t think it was as exciting as some of the other games we had watched. It was fun, but I definitely think they need to create a flopping rule for soccer.

Just more R & R

June 28, 2008

We had planned to go to the Chateau de Chillion today, but when we woke up, Becky wasn’t feeling very well (just a stomach bug that lasted about a day). So we just hung out and played at Maria and Memo’s house. Franco and his family and Noemi and her family came over this afternoon so the kids were able to go swimming and play with other kids.

This evening the kids wanted to play petanque again; this was the third day in a row we’ve played a little. It funny because at first they wanted to be on my team, but now they fight to be on Memo’s team. Needless to say, I haven’t won a game since we’ve been here. But after the kids were done, Memo gave me a lesson on some of the strategies of the game. I think I’m starting to catch on a little better. I guess we’ll have to build a petanque court at our house.