Invasion of the relatives!

Mom & Squeeze invaded for a week and we all survived!  :)

Part 1: Zurich

We started the great European adventure with a tour of Zurich.  As luck would have it, we had the best weather we've seen all year.  Check out mom and Squeeze in front of lake Zurich:

We walked their butts all over Zurich.  They got to see the main train station (built in 1871) and the Grossmünster (construction started about 1100) where they got to see a giant gargoyle style statue of Charlemagne who is said to have commissioned the church.

and a shot of the view from the Lindenhof with the Grossmünster in the background:

Part 2:  The UK!

On Sunday, we headed to Weymouth (a seaside town in Dorset, UK) to visit my mom's cousin and her fiance'.  We had a fantastic dinner and took a nice stroll down to the beach.

View from the beach looking toward Portland

everybody (and their ghosts) trekking back to the house

on Monday, we got up and Squeeze and Colin headed out to run a quick errand.  I think this was Squeeze's first time on a bike in a few years - look at him go!

After Squeeze and Colin got back safely, we all headed over to Portland to check it out.  Portland is famous for its Portland stone and was the site of the 2012 Olympic sailing events.

a view of the harbor

adults misbehaving

ooo - so tell me, what's that there??

and of course, we had to stop and visit a pub for lunch!  The Cove House Inn has been around since the 18th century on Chesil Beach.

cheers!

we did some more wandering

this old dude stopped to give us a history lesson on this chain - thanks man!

Colin took us to see a fort!

contemplating life / napping

rock climbing  :)

made it!

and Andre made a new friend...

and now Colin's turn to try and lift the giant chain

 check it out - cannonball in the wall!

On Tuesday, Donna cooked up a fantastic British breakfast.  We ate too much and then headed back to Zurich.

Part 3:  Bellinzona and Lugano

On Wednesday, we got up and started our drive down to Lugano.  We drove down via San Bernardino and made a stop in Bellizona to check out the castles.

some views on our drive

some castle shots in Bellinzona

of course Sophie came!

don't do it!

a view of the other two castles and a really old church

now if you'll look over there, you'll see some more old shiznit...

Sophie LOVES castles!

finally, we made it to Lugano!  ahhhhhhh Lugano

check out the dorky tourists

look closely...find the tourist....

On Friday, we headed to Monte San Salvatore.  Once we got to the top, mom and Squeeze got to enjoy a short little snow shower.  Bwuhahahahaha.

check out how tiny we are in the lower right corner

Mom and Squeeze enjoying the weather  :)

We returned to Zurich via the Gotthard tunnel.  10 miles in a tunnel - that's enough to give someone some claustrophobia.  For your future travel plans, I would recommend this drive over the San Bernardino drive.  The views were amazing.  Too bad the camera was packed in the trunk!

We had a fantastic time!  It was so hard to say goodbye.  :(

Who's coming to visit next?!?!

guess what I haven't done in a while!?

post pictures of Sophie!

The sun was finally out on a weekend day today so we took advantage and spent our Cinco de Mayo drinking in the sun.  Then we took Sophie out for some frolicking!

if you zoom in on Sophie's face, you'll notice her tongue is
hanging out so far, she's almost licking her back

a man and his dog

Next weekend:  We clean!  Liza and Mike are coming to visit in 13 days!  YAY!!!!

Mother Nature can bite my @ss!

So this week, Mon - Thurs, while I was inside slaving away, it was sunny and about 70 degrees here.  It was absolutely beautiful.  And then, Friday the rain came.  And then Saturday, we woke up to this:

totally not cool

In other news, we went to LA!  We went for the baptism of our nephew.  He did not enjoy the experience....

LA was great.  I thoroughly enjoyed the weather and the FOOOOD!  Our first stop upon arrival was at an In-N-Out Burger.  We ordered two burgers, two fries and two drinks and the total was about $11.  We both started laughing and probably confused the heck out of the guy taking our order.  A burger alone would cost close to $20 here in Zurich.  Anyway, we devoured our dinner and then went to bed at 5:30pm LA time and slept for 12 hours straight.  :)  

We hit all the big spots while we were there: Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and Universal Studios.

Some observations:

Being an audience member at the Jimmy Kimmel Show = totally fun!  but quite a lot of work.  I was exhausted from all the happiness by the end.

I reeeeally miss Mexican food.  We had Mexican for breakfast the first day there and the second and for lunch on more than one occasion.  Yuuuuum!

Traffic in LA suuuuuuuucks.

And most shockingly....Hollywood is totally the same as Pigeon Forge.  Madame Toussands Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Hard Rock Cafe and rather disappointingly, no famous people!

Happy April 21st!  Here's hoping we see spring in Zurich sometime soon!  like tomorrow...really...not kidding Mother Nature....make it happen

oh my gah with the snow!

it's snowing here again today - i'm only surviving with the knowledge that in less than 12 hours, I will be on a plane headed toward Los Angeles, CA!!!   Mexican food - here we come!!!!!!

So we went skiing a couple of weeks ago - shocking I know

Here are a few pics:

why not?

i can't get over how big these places are

wooo - Jess and Andre tearing it up off piste!

a very Swiss looking town

aaaand the 50 year old radio in our hotel room

Snow, snow, go away, come again another day - like December.  Seriously.  I'm over the snow.  I may not come back from CA.  :)

That's it for now.  We've both been working like crazy so not much to report. 

Come visit!  Especially if you like snow!

I'm here all night folks!

Soooooooo, on Thursday night, I went online into my Swiss bank account to transfer some money bank home.  We still have some bills and such that get paid out of our BofA account so every once in a while, we send some money.  This time I managed to send a grand total of......wait for it.....10CHF which translates into $10.42.  Oh by the way, transferring money isn't free.

Summary:
Transfer to BofA Account = $10.42
Wire Transfer Fee = $12.00
Total Increase/(Decrease) = $(1.58)

Sigh.  And now, attempt #2!

remember when movies were only 90 minutes long?

We've been pretty boring around here lately.  We've done some skiing of course and then otherwise, we've just been hanging out around town running errands and doing our taxes.  We did get adventurous and go out and have brunch last weekend.  Watch out world!

This weekend, we had quite the cultural weekend.  We watched Life of Pi, Les Mis aaaaand Weekend at Bernie's.  :)

After we survived Les Mis, we had quite the lively discussion around the following topic:  Remember when movies were only 90 minutes long?  Or a really long movie was 2 hours?!  Can we bring those runtimes back?  Along with the $5 price?!

I think Les Mis would have been better in the theatre.  At home, it was too easy to do other things.  Check facebook, go get a beer, etc.

I was trying to hold out to watch Les Mis until after I finished reading the book.  However, I've been reading the book on my Kindle for three months and I'm still only about halfway.  Victor Hugo sure had a lot to say about some really off-topic topics...Waterloo, Convents, Paris street orphans, etc.  I blame the Kindle for suckering me into this book.  I think the Kindle should warn you when you start a book that's 8 bajillion pages long.  After about a month of reading, I found myself in a bookstore and I decided to check out how long this *%*^&ing book is.

ummm...holy crap

and that's about one month of reading

I think this will be the end of my "classics" kick.  It started with Pride and Prejudice (which to be honest, I only read because I wanted to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and thought I should read the original first).  I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the original.  So I thought, hey, maybe I would like some other classics.  It's all been downhill since.

Anna Karenina = whiny and waaaaaaaaay too many additional pages after the book should have ended

Wuthering Heights = full of horrid horrid people

I actually like the story parts of Les Mis.  It's the two hundred page diversions that I'm finding it difficult to muddle through.  But have no fear, I will not let Victor Hugo get the best of me!

And that's your random post for today!  Next weekend, we go skiing again!

we totally cheated on Sophie this weekend...

and went Hundeschlittenfahrten!  How's that typical German word for ya!?

Andre making some new friends

it's freaking 20 degrees out and this dog is curled up and sleeping all peacefully

every time a dog walked by, all 30+ Huskies were at attention and barking like crazy

let's go! let's go! let's go!

the dogs got super hyper once harnessed to the sleds

Andre getting some instructions

my dogs are having a short nap before the next run

and he is ready!

Andre's favorite part was watching me take a downhill curve too fast and totally flipping the sled.  The bruises on my legs do not agree....

Hundeschlittenfahrten was great but I'm ready for some warmer weather.  Bring it on mother nature!