I am trying to work on my procrastination skills by writing a blog rather than cleaning, gardening, unpacking, doing homework, etc. Practice makes perfect.
We had a great extended weekend with my mom’s brother Todd, his wife Linda, and my cousins, Morgan and Julia. We met up with them in Zermatt, Switzerland on Saturday. Chad and I have planned to go see the Matterhorn (when I was little I always thought the Matterhorn was just a Disneyland ride) since our arrival in Switzerland and have been waiting for a Saturday with perfect weather to go. We knew when we planned to meet them there that we could very well not see the great peak after all since the weather has been so inconsistent. Wow! What a spectacular sight! We really could not have planned or hoped for a better day to visit!
We arrived around noon and checked into a great little place called Le Petit Hotel. Then we had lunch with the family. After lunch we road a cable car and gondola up to an area called Glacier Paradise. Poor Linda was not too fond of the rocky heights we were traveling over. We were super high, the air was thin and it was cold. We all had to breathe deep on the top. I get altitude sickness at 9500 feet and we were above 12500! On our way down we opted to hike the last third of the trip back down to Zermatt. It was steep but nice and shady most of the time. The only bad thing were the millions of ants climbing all over our sandaled feet. There were alpine photo ops all the way down.
We walked around town and got some great crepes and chocolate before the shops closed. We also ran into some enormous Saint Bernards at a tourist shop. I love BIG dogs. Before dinner we sat out on our hotel’s roof with a spectacular view of the Matterhorn. Chad taught the family (and retaught me) the card game Durak which became our mainstay for the rest of the trip. We had some typical Swiss food and then parted ways. It was a really wonderful day!
After leaving AFRICA we headed back on the cruise ship and docked later in the afternoon in Gibraltar. We had some options for how to spend our few hours there. We could either go up the rock and see monkeys or go out in the bay on a boat and search for dolphins. We chose the dolphins, but now that Elisa has heard about the monkey tour she wishes we saw that one. I had to promise we would go find monkeys some other trip. 🙂 We went out on the boat and found a whole group of dolphins after a lot of searching. I thought we might be the 4% group that didn’t find any for awhile. The weather was perfect and you could see Gibraltar, Spain and Morocco on our ride. I even got to see a few flying fish! I swear!
Chad and I have been pretty pleased with our easy adjustment back into Zürich time. It is nice to be back at home and to get back into the routine of things. Both work and school are going well. We had another doctor’s appointment on Monday. The baby looks healthy and is really starting to move. I had been anxious about weight gain and one of the nurses said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I have been a little obsessive since. Last night I looked up a bunch of stuff and found out I am still in the normal range–but I am afraid I have already been sensitive about the numbers climbing on the scale.
Tonight Chad and I went out–separately. He had dinner with a bunch of his co-workers to send off a fellow Gmailer. I got together with a few of the American girls. We had a whole room to ourselves (which is wonderful because it means you are not surrounded by smokers) at a great Fish and Chips place. It was so nice to see people and feel social again. I do not realize how much I need that time with the girls until I have it and then I wonder why I have been making so many other things the priority. It was especially nice to have some feminine affirmation that the stress I am having over my expanding body is normal and not to worry. I welcome all the positive feedback I can get at this point.
