Rose and Aidan Visit

Rose and Aidan returned home with us after the cruise. We're having a lot of fun showing them Switzerland. It's been hot and sunny. We'd almost forgotten that there was such a thing as sun here. (Rumor has it that it came out as soon as we left -- go figure.) It's been a bit hazy, but they have actually caught glimpses of the Alps, which is more than our last few visitors can say.



Our first outing was to the town of Rapperswil. You've seen it on the blog before as it's an easy outing -- relatively close with some good scenery. We made Aidan climb the steps to the top of the old castle/monastery, but he agreed that the view was worth the effort! Phew. We didn't want to kill him off on one of the first outings!



We stopped for pizza, drinks, and ice cream and then headed over to explore the old wooden bridge. The kids complained that they had been on the bridge "a thousand times", until I reminded them that we'd actually only walked on it with Uncle Craig and Aunt Ginny. We've just mentioned it in passing to the other visitors. With all their complaints, I forgot to get a picture.

That night, we attended the End of Season BBQ for C.J.'s soccer (football) team. We learned that C.J. will have the same coach next year, which is very good news as we love this coach! John even talked to the coach about joining the "old men's" team for those players over 40.



John took Friday off so we headed over to Basel, a city near the France border on the Rhine River. Some of the buildings date back to the early 15th century. It was a pretty city, but it was hot and no one wanted to walk around too much. There were pleas to return to the air conditioned car! I tried to take a more scenic drive home which unintentionally doubled the time, but at least it was cool in the car.





Yesterday, we decided to show them the Swiss countryside. We headed back to Atzmaennig, where we had skied over the winter. The resort is open in the summer with summer some well marked trails. It was Lucky's first chair lift ride, and she did quite well.



It was also Aidan's first time on a chair lift. We're happy to report that neither Aidan nor Lucky tried to jump off halfway up the mountain, and they even managed to walk off the chair without any injury. I think the sound of the cowbells ringing helped calm them down.

We had drinks and some pomme-frites at the top of the mountain and then headed out for about a one hour hike back down to the bottom.











We were actually on the "kids" hike, so there were stops along the way to provide entertainment.







The kids said this last stop was an ear scratch-er!

We rewarded the kids at the end with a toboggan ride. We even talked Rose into riding with us.







We missed seeing it, but the resort was hosting a World Cup Grass Skiing event. It looked crazy! The actual event happened when we were off hiking.



The resort (?) opened a ropes course at the end of June, and the entire family wants to try it out. It seems like the type of place Uncle Craig would enjoy. (Hint. Hint.)

Today we did our traditional hike from our house to Lake Zurich with a boat ride on the water and then the train home.