Luck of the Irish: June 2018

Saturday, June 30, 2018

End of June

June 30th~

Molly -

Molly kept asking me for an all sparkly pink dress. I tried looking online but couldn't find one like she was asking for so I finally decided to check out the consignment store. Jackpot!

Sam -

Sam has been loving up on his puppies lately.

Kids

This was Molly's last day of Kindergarten and Sam I met her for lunch on the grass.

Pool party at Nick & Kelly's

Eating donuts at the Farmer's Market with Daddy.

Dogs -

If it is not the kids it is the dogs

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

We were anxious to see the kids again, but did not get them back until a few days after we got back home. In retrospect it worked out well so we could recover from jet lag and settle back into the house.

Kerry drove back from Montana with all 5 kids, 2 dogs, and mom :)

Chris and I were so excited to see the kids...and all they really cared about was seeing the pets, especially Piper again :)

Friday, June 22, 2018

Day 13 - Iceland

June 22nd~

We flew back into Iceland at 3:15 pm. For our End of the Wilderness Party (as Chris calls it) we decided to go to the Blue Lagoon. We had heard mixed reviews on if the price was worth the trip but didn't want to miss out on Iceland's main claim to fame. I love hot springs so this did not disappoint in that area. It was a good relaxing end to our trips but I do have to say for the price, I don't think I would ever need to go back. Iceland has too many natural wonders to see that a commercialized one was almost disappointing.

This was the towel area. You could hang up your towel and get straight into the water so you didn't have to walk outside in the cold.

When the dad in this family saw I had my phone in a water proof case he asked if I would take a picture of his family to email to him. His daughter was quite upset that he wouldn't let them bring their phones because "if there is no picture then it didn't happen." I think afterwords she was fairly delighted with her dad for asking us.

The water was very tasty.

The area around the airport and the Blue Lagoon is densely populated with lava rock. You can see how tall the lava fields can be by how low the walkway looks.

We then went out to dinner before calling it a night. Andrea and I shared a salad and pasta which became another favorite meal of the trip.

Day 12 - Switzerland/Germany/France/Luxemburg/Belgium

June 22st~

According to google maps, our drive from Switzerland to Belgium was 6 hours. We debated driving part way and staying somewhere new but in the end decided we wanted to stay that night in Belgium so we wouldn't have stress the next day when we were scheduled to fly out of Belgium. Well that 8 hours turned into 11 hours and 5 countries. On our way we went from Switzerland to Germany to France to Luxemburg to Belgium. Unfortunately (to me) we were never stopped when crossing country lines and therefore never accrued more stamps in our passports.

What more do you need when traveling then a sign letting you know where the fries are?!

Since we only really needed a place to sleep that night we got a room in a hostel. The hostel was quite nice, but I did feel really old when walking through the lobby with all the high school groups and college kids.

Once we got checked into our room, Andrea and Chris decided we needed to drink all the alcohol we previously bought since we could not take it with us on the plane the next day.

We then headed to the square to walk around and find a place to grab some dinner.

Since we were back in the square, I couldn't help but go visit Mannequin Pis to see what he wearing. This time he was in his true naked form.

We then walked all over trying to find a restuarant where we could watch more of the World Cup. Everything was so packed we finally settled on a llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. We were not that excited at first, but they did have a TV. Chris and I ordered the muscles and they were fantastic, another favorite meal. I had to take pictures to send to dad, who then tried to uninhert us.

Dessert

Chris spotted a foosball table in the hostel and made a bee line for it once we were back. I headed up to bed but Chris said he had a blast playing and met a kid from India.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Day 11 - Switzerland

June 20th~

Chris woke before everyone and headed into town to find a bakery. Outside our condo Chris found a plethora of snails enjoying the early morning.

Chris was successful on his outing and brought back yummy pastries to add to our home cooked breakfast.

This how my coffee poured that morning and it made me smile.

Over breakfast we had a conversation about what to do on our last full day in Switzerland and still have time for some walking/shopping in Interlaken.

Everyone was pretty excited about doing a high ropes course, Seilpark. that we passed on our first day in town. While I love high rope courses, I didn't feel this was scenic enough for me. Instead, I got dropped off at St. Beatus Caves before the rest of crew hit the ropes course.

ST. BEATUS CAVES

The walk up to the cave entrance was amazing. Apparently Tolkien visited the caves in 1911 when he was 19 and it inspired his vision for Rivendell (which was published 40 years later).

The legend that surrounds this cave are from around 100 AD. It is said that a dragon lived in the cave and terrorized the locals. When a monk, St. Beatus, arrived to preach Christianity the towns people begged him to help with the dragon. St. Beatus went into the cave and held his cross up to the beast and exorcised the dragon. This then caused the dragon to fly out of the cave and into the lake, causing him to drown. Thanks to St. Beatus' success, Christianity spreed throughout Switzerland. .

The caves were amazing and I had a great guide who spoke excellent English. She told us geological history of the caves as well as the legend.

Once she was done we got to explore on our own and take pictures. I even took some video to show how loud the underground waterfalls were.

There was also plenty of signs giving great detail about the caves. For example: "The caves stay between 8-10 degrees Celsius all year." and "During periods of high water the main watercourse always flows trough the developed section of the St. Beatus Caves. In the depressions, the water level can be chest high. The St. Beatus Caves must close one to two days a season due to flooding.

The entrance to the cave with a dragon standing guard.

The cell of St. Beatus.

Mirror Grotto

Snake Grotto

SILEX NODULES

According to a sign: "they were formed when the lime mud turned to stone about 100,100,1000 years ago. These are flint. The clay deposits at the top of the wall are under water, but formed close to the surface of the water."

KOH-l-NOOR

"The Koh-I-Noor is a large diamond and part of the British crown jewels. The route was christened Koh-l-Noor becasue of the large stalagmite."

PLANTS

"These are algae, mosses and ferns that can also grow in the dark areas of the forest. The spores where introduced here naturally. The direct lighting from the lamps is sufficient for the plants to turn green and grow."

THREE SISTERS GROTTO

"You will see the small lake mirroring the stalactites, which gives the effect of a grotto beneath the grotto. Stalagmites grow from the bottom up. Stalactites grow from the top to bottom.

The water was crystal clear.

This stalactite was knocked over 100 years ago as the caves were being explored/developed. It took that hundred years for the stalactite to grow 3 cm high.

Once outside of the caves I walked through the museum and bought the kids fools gold.

A drawing of the legend.

This shows all the tunnels and caves inside the mountain.

I texted Chris once I was done with the tour and found out they would not be done at the park for awhile longer. The weather and Lake Thun were so beautiful I decided to start walking towards town instead of waiting for them to pick me up. I even ran 0.5 miles so I could say I ran while in Europe :) The streets were lined with signs showing which direction and how far different towns were. This allowed me to use some of the side trails and not worry about getting lost.

Once I got hot I jumped into the lake for a swim. When Chris and Co. finally met up with me, Chris decided to join me for a swim.

LAKE THUN

Lake Thun

Martin fanning Chris off.

SEILPARK

We then got beer and nachos in Interlaken and did some touristy shopping. Then we checked out the shopping in Grindenwald as well.

Back at our condo we had a huge fondue dinner.

While eating dinner we kept hearing a noise we could not identify but kept getting closer. I finally realized it was bells.... Cow Bells! They were walking a group of bulls down the street and into town. I took off running in my socks in hopes of catching them to get pictures. However, I never thought I would have to run as far as I did or jump over cow dung. But I made it into town and was able to cut through a parking lot in order to get my pictures.