Texas - December 2019

At the Pantomime

This year was a trip to Texas for our early Christmas event.

Keith flew in form Austin on the Thursday night as he was there for work.  Dick picked Keith up at the airport and had Indian at Nanglo where they had the exact same dish of lamb vindaloo (to the chagrin of the waiter who wanted them to have different items) before going to the house.  Jean was not home yet so Keith went to bed as he had an early morning for work.

Keith's Friday was conference calls all day.  He then picked up Shawna, who was flying in from Louisiana, at the airport and brought her back to the house.  We all had a glass of wine before driving to Fort Worth to enjoy a wonderful dinner at Saint-Emilion.

Grimaldi's

On Saturday, we both worked in the morning and went for a walk.  We then just relaxed around the house before all meeting Margaret, Owen, Josie, and two of Josie's friends at Grimaldis pizza for dinner - we were able to get a table for 9 without a reservation.  After dinner, we walked downtown Grapevine (known as the Christmas Capital of Texas!) where the lights on the main street actually were quite impressive.  The evening was capped off with the Grapevine Pantomime at the Runway Theater which was based on Cinderella.

King and Queen Dodds!

On Sunday, we did some more work before meeting Graham and Margaret at Breadwinners.  Our flight was in the afternoon and we made it safely home - Shawna was excited to be back at her home!

Louisiana - Thanksgiving - November 2019

This year we were back in Louisiana to see Shawna's mom for Thanksgiving.  Honny had a minor surgery on the Tuesday so Shawna flew in on the Monday night before and also stayed the week after Thanksgiving to help her out before flying to Texas.  The surgery went well - she had to stay one night in the hospital - and after she was quite sore for a couple of weeks.

Keith arrived on Wednesday evening.  On Thanksgiving, Nicole, Hunter, Harmony and Hayden joined us for lunch - Mom had catered a few items and Chet made the yummy turkey and stuffing for us.  The rest of the weekend was low key since we couldn't go anywhere - we got some work done, watched lots of Hallmark Christmas movies and the Crown and cooked at home.  Keith left on Sunday to return to Chicago.

For the rest of the week, Shawna worked during the day, cooked meals and ran errands for her mom.  It was nice to spend some additional quality time with her mom.  She flew out on Friday to Texas to join Keith for a weekend with Keith's family before returning to Chicago.

Arizona - October 2019

Singh/Mehta/Dodds Clan at Phoenix Botanic Gardens

We debated over whether this blog post was to go in our local or travel folder....we chose travel as we were no longer in our house!  After the weekend in Sedona, we checked in to an AirBnB for a week, with Simran joining us for the week and Rakesh/Ria joining us the last weekend to celebrate our last hoorah in Scottsdale before we officially moved to Chicago! 

Stylish!

Keith picked up Simran at the airport on the Monday and met Shawna at the house - she had arrived just a few minutes earlier.  The house was near the intersection of Chaparral and North Granite Reef.  It was a nice three bedroom with a big living/family room and a nice outdoor fire pit.  Shawna and Sim headed out for some grocery shopping while Keith Ubered back to the JW Marriott Desert Ridge for his conference. 

Butterflies at the Botanic Garden

We used the house as a base for work and fun, but while we were there we:

• Had dinner out at Fat Ox (so yummy) and Cornish Pasty (our favorite in Scottsdale)
• Had takeout from Soi 4 Bankok Eatery, Cornish Pasty (again), and Diego Pops
• Ate dinner at home cooked by Rakesh (yummy fish, steak, potatoes and greens)
• Had lunch at Ghost Ranch and finally made it to the southern part of  Tempe
• Walked around the Desert Botanic Gardens and went to the butterfly garden
• Made coffee runs to Cartel Coffee Lab (a new favorite of Ria's!)
• Walked around the neighborhood, Chaparral Park, Camelback Park, and Old Town/Waterfront
• Lots of hanging out and chatting

Ria at Botanic Gardens

It was a nice relaxing farewell to Arizona, and the departure on Sunday was bittersweet.  But...we are now Illinois locals!

Sedona - October 2019

Broken Arrow Trail

As part of the last hurrah in Arizona, we opted to have a final weekend getaway in Sedona.  The movers had loaded up the truck and driven away on Wednesday so Shawna was staying at the Courtyard Marriott when Keith arrived from NYC on the Friday night.

Mariposa

On Saturday, we left the hotel at about 9 to drive to Sedona.  On the way, we stopped by the house and saw that the person who bought it was moving in already! While the room at the Arabella was not yet ready, we left our luggage there so that the wine would not get hot and the laptops not stolen!  We did the 2.25 hour Soldier Pass / Brins Mesa loop hike and then went back to the hotel for a nap but we never quite got to sleep. Instead, we went to Mariposa for dinner early and had a few drinks on the patio, which meant we were able to see the sun on the rocks which, as always, was stunning.  Dinner was delicious: tuna tartar, chopped salad, meat trio, mushrooms, and roasted cauliflower.  It was a perfect dinner. 

Soldier Pass / Brins Mesa Hike

On Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked the Broken Arrow trail to Chicken Point and then back via Submarine Rock before having lunch at The Hudson where we had our favorite steak and blue salad - one each.  It was then a couple of hour drive back to Scottsdale where we checked in to the JW Marriott Desert Ridge, where Keith's conference was to be held the following three days. 

Texas - October 2019

Outstanding in the Field

Keith's brother was selected to host another Outstanding in the Field so of course we decided to make a weekend of it.  Keith was flying in from Chicago - he arrived the Thursday night late and stayed at the Hyatt Place in The Colony as he arrived late and was up early to tour properties in Dallas.  Shawna arrived at DFW airport just after 5pm on the Friday from San Francisco where she had a meeting and then spent a couple of days with Simran.  Keith Ubered to Colleyville after wrapping up the property tours so we both were at the house at about 6pm.  After a couple of glasses of wine we headed to Nanglo Indian with Keith's parents for dinner.

We both slept in Saturday morning.  After breakfast at the house and some clearing of work emails we went to see Jenn, Jordan, and Michael for an hour or so (Peter was not home).  It was a brief visit but good to see them.  We had to go back to the house as we needed to shower and head to the event at 1:30pm to be there by 3 as the event was north of McKinney at Pure Land Farm.  We picked up Margaret along the way.  There was a couple of hour reception followed by 220 people at a single table for dinner.  It was a fun night - lots of great food and wine.

Keith and Graham

On Sunday, we got up a bit earlier and had enough time to go for a walk.  Margaret dropped off her kids at the house so we got to see them for an hour or so - before we drove to Dallas to pick up Lily who was visiting for a couple of days.  We then went to the Arboretum, but traffic was so bad that as soon as we arrived Shawna jumped in an Uber to head back to Love Field for her flight.  Graham met us at the gardens so we were able to walk around for an hour to see the pumpkin festival.  On the way home we dropped Lily off at Margaret's so she could spend the night at their house.  Dinner was at Bonefish Grill, and then an early night for Keith so he could get up early to fly to Houston Monday morning.

Chicago - September 2019

Our New House in Chicago

We were in Chicago for the weekend to close on our house.  Keith was already there for work while Shawna flew in on Thursday evening, in time to have dinner with Keith at the hotel where we shared a salad and an entree - both were surprisingly good.  We stayed at the W Hotel City Center which is a nice hotel that is conveniently located on the west side of downtown close to Keith's office.

We closed on Friday morning, taking only 45 minutes to sign all of the documents.  Our agent, Violet, met us there and gave us a bottle of Dom to celebrate the occasion.  We then went over to the house where Shawna took a quick look before meeting up with the designer, Karin, to go shopping for kitchen island stone.  Keith stayed at the house, meeting with ADT and taking work calls.  Our mortgage broker bought us pizza for lunch which she had delivered to the house.  Shawna and Karin arrived back at the house early afternoon and met with one of the construction guys to walk through all the changes - needless to say there was some scope creep involved!  Tired from a long day, we returned to the hotel and ordered room service - soup and salad!

On Saturday, we worked out and then had Starbucks for breakfast.  We went to the house again to take measurements of rooms and grabbed a quick lunch on the way to the house at Goddess and Grocer, one of our new neighborhood cafes.  We then walked the 606 (a high-line walk way connecting Bucktown to the neighborhoods West) all the way to the end, about 2.5 miles and then walked back part of the way, exiting to walk North to Logan Square to check out that area.  We were not as impressed, despite the fact that there are supposed to be good restaurants there.  We took the train back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner.  That evening, we had a yummy meal at Proxi, a cool restaurant in West Loop that services global cuisine.  We started with a gin and tonic (which was great) and then shared several small plates (melon & cucumber chaat, crispy Vietnamese crepe and black pepper port), a bottle of wine and tres leches for dessert with port.

Dinner at Proxi

On Sunday, we worked out and had Starbucks again for breakfast.  We hung out in the room most of the morning catching up on personal items.  We then went to Ramen-San for ramen which was very good and saw Ad Astra which was quite slow!  We walked back to the hotel where we picked up our luggage and went our separate ways - Shawna going to O'Hare to fly to Hartford for work and Keith to Midway to fly to Atlanta.

Europe - September 2019

Keith was able to get a couple of weeks between jobs at Wolff and LivCor so he opted to use that time to book a trip similar to four years ago, visiting friends in Scandinavia and the UK.

Sweden

The first leg was getting from Phoenix to Chicago on Labor Day Monday - using Southwest on points and then connecting to Iceland Air through Reykjavik to Stockholm.  Since SWA uses Midway, Keith used this opportunity to get between Midway and O'Hare on the Chicago metro - it took almost two hours but only cost $3, so hard to beat the price.  He only got about three hours sleep total on Iceland Air.  

The flight landed about noon on Tuesday - so after clearing customs and getting the express train to Stockholm Central Station he was able to meet Kerstin at the Starbucks in the main station at about 2pm.  After a coffee to wake up we headed back to Kerstin's house so Keith could shower and wake up a bit more.  We then went back into central Stockholm, doing a bit of walking around before going to dinner at Restaurang AG, famous for being meat-centric.  We shared a Swedish and Finnish steak for our entree - Kerstin declared the tie going to Finland.

Keith and Kerstin

Wednesday morning we went for a walk before both going into the city together - with Keith getting the Arlanda Express back to the airport for his internal flight to Ostersund.  The flight landed at noon but Mia did not get off work until 3pm so Keith took the bus to the university and just read in the student union until Mia wrapped up work.  We first had a coffee at Wayne's Coffee - a knockoff of Starbucks with even the font and color of the logo the same.  We then walked back to the house until the kids and Byron came home.  We had an adult-only dinner at Restaurant Vineri Ripan where we shared three entrees and a bottle of wine.

Keith, Mia, Sally, Byron, and Kaj

On Thursday Byron and the kids headed to work/school, so Keith walked Mia to the school to get a bit of exercise.  He then walked back to the house to shower and pack before getting a cab to the airport and a flight back to Stockholm.  Starbucks Central Station was used again as a meeting spot - this time arranging to meet Heidi there after she got out of school.  Keith had not seen Heidi since 1990 so there was a lot of catching up to do.  So we could walk around easily Keith put his luggage in one of the storage lockers in the station.  We took a bus to near where dinner was and then walked to Fotografiska, a photography museum with the "best museum restaurant in the world".  We walked around the museum first and then went to the restaurant - we were early so they comped us a glass of champagne each which was worth it!  Dinner was delicious - it is primarily vegetarian though we were able to add a fish selection with one of the courses.  Since we were early we also got a super table with a great view of the ocean and city.  After dinner we walked along the waters edge and used a bench to call Hanna in Finland - chatted for 15 minutes, though Peter was in Australia so missed him.  We went back to the central station to meet Helena who had just flown in form a work trip in Amsterdam.  We said farewell to Heidi and Keith went with Helena to her house for some cheese and a couple of bottles of wine with her and Hakan.  It was a great to catch up with both of them, albeit for a short evening.

Keith and Heidi

The Friday morning Keith and Helena went for a walk before he had a shower and headed to the airport yet again, this time to fly to Bergen!

Keith, Hakan, and Helena

Norway

As luck would have it, Patrick had just moved to Bergen three weeks earlier and Lauren had flown in the same Labor Day Monday as Keith flew out.  So he was lucky to be able to spend a long weekend with both of them as their first house guest.  It was an easy flight from Stockholm to Bergen, with a 45 minute train ride on the Bybanen light rail into the city from the airport where Patrick was waiting.  Because jet lag was not solved yet, the first stop was Kaffelade  for a coffee.  After that we took a bus to the house, getting the first taste of the walk up the hill every time we went to the house.  Being up on the hillside the house had super views of the city and bay - with fantastic windows to present the view.  After giving Lauren a quick hug Keith and Patrick went for a walk up Stolzekleiven, a steep 722 stair trail up to the ridge. Dinner was at Pinvinen, a gastropub where Keith ate a reindeer stew. We stopped for drinks at two places that night: Henrik øl- og vinstove and Kråken.

Patrick, Lauren and Keith

On Saturday we all woke up at 7am and left the house at 8 to get the Ulriksbanen cable car up to the plateau where we hiked the Vidden Trail for 14 kilometers to Floyen.   It took about 6 hours with some rocky trails, but we successfully made it to Floyen where we had beers, calzones, and shared a cinnamon roll before walking back to the house.  The weather was stunning all day so the views were spectacular.  We were all quite sore after the walk but showered and rallied for a big night out.  The first stop was Bien Basar for dinner.  The evening included Bibliteket Bar, Bar 3, and BarBarista.  Keith and Lauren started the dancing at one of the bars, and we wrapped up the evening dancing again at Bibliteket.  A fantastic night out.

Fjord Cruise

We were all pooped so slept in until about 10am which was way more Patrick's style than the 7am alarm the previous morning!  We took the bus into town and grabbed some fish and chips for breakfast/lunch before boarding the Rodne Cruise for a Fjord trip to Mostraumen Fujitsu.  It was stunning scenery and again fantastic weather.  Also much more low key after the previous day!  After the three hour cruise we grabbed a coffee at Kaffemisjonen.  It was then over to dinner at Fjellskal for some seafood: fish soup, sashimi, a fish entree, and "veiled peasant girl" for dessert.  We opted for a final cocktail at No Stress Bar before going home.  

The Monday morning required getting up at 6am to get the light rail back to the airport for a Norwegian Air flight to Gatwick for the next leg of the trip.  

England

The flight landed at Gatwick at 10:15am.  After quickly picking up the Sixt car rental Keith drove to Guildford where he met Rachel and Quintin at Positano where they had been several times.  Keith arrived a bit early so walked the high street before lunch.  It was great catch up with both of them for a few hours until Keith had to drive into London to check in at the Hyatt Churchill just off Hyde Park.  The front desk clerk noted that Keith was last at the hotel in 2009 for the UK/Ireland trip.  Keith was able to shower again and then walk over to Sabor where he met Melissa for a wonderful dinner of catching up.

Keith, Quentin, and Rachel

Keith and Melissa

The Tuesday morning was not quite as rushed, so Keith was able to go for an hour walk around Hyde Park as well as use the business center computer to crank through some work email.  It was then a two hour drive to Rachel's, past Colchester.  Rachel had left a key by the door so Keith could let himself in - though she was home shortly after his arrival.  The first agenda item was taking Lola for a walk along the Orwell river followed by a beer and a camembert plate at the Butt and Oyster pub in Pin Mill, Suffolk.  We then met Emma and Amy after school and then Oliver arrived home from work.  Oliver prepared our pasta dinner and we just chatted before bed.

Keith, Amy, Rachel, and Emma

Wednesday we saw the girls and Oliver off to school/work before Keith embarked on the next leg - a drive to Aston Clinton to have lunch with John, Peggy, and Nicola.  Peggy made a wonderful salmon lunch and Keith was able to chat a lot with Nicola who he had not seen in almost 20 years.  Then at 2pm it was back on the road for the two hour drive to Birmingham to see Charlie, Lena, Lena's aunt Thuraya, and of course two-week-old baby Felix.  Lena was nursing and needed a nap when Keith arrived so after a quick gin and tonic Keith and Charlie went to the store to pick up a couple of bottles of wine to tide us through the evening.  The rest of the night was chatting, snacking, eating, and drinking with some time with the baby whenever he was awake.  With the new baby and Thuraya in the house Keith got a hotel on points at the Hampton Inn Jewellery Quarter just a quick walk down the road.

Charlie, Felix, Keith, and Lena

On Thursday Keith was up, showered, and back at Charlie and Lena's house for coffee and breakfast before heading back on the road.  The first stop was Luton Airport to drop of the rental car, then an Uber to Ewan and Sharon's house in Hertford.  While we had seen the Parrys only a few weeks earlier in Switzerland, Ewan had open heart surgery the week before so it was good to see him and the family.  Keith and Ewan went for a 15 minute walk - one of the first times Keith could walk faster than Ewan!  Sharon came home and we had lunch, then Kirsty arrived as she had come down for the weekend.  Kirsty and Keith went to The Old Barge pub for a drink as Ewan napped and Sharon ran some errands, then we walked home to see the kids when they got home from school. We chatted with them, had some ice cream, and then Sharon dropped Keith off at the station to head to Liverpool Street and then the Docklands Light Rail to Canary Wharf, where Keith had booked an overnight at the Marriott Canary Wharf on points.  It was Keith's first time to visit the area - it was a hive of activity at all the restaurants and bars after work.  It required a quick check in and shower before immediately leaving to meet Susie for dinner at The Ivy  it was a great dinner and fun to catch up after four years since he had seen her and Mike.  

Lewis, Sharon, Ewan, Kirsty, Keith, and Madeline

Friday was pretty easy - just shower, pack up, and take the trains to Gatwick to catch the West Jet flight to Phoenix via Calgary.  Keith bought a popcorn-priced upgrade for the first leg so was able to get a bit of sleep on that flight as well as do some reading for the new job.  The departing flight left 1.5 hours late but fortunately the connecting flight was just a late (or they held the plane) so Keith made it home to Phoenix the Friday night.

It was a fantastic whirlwind trip catching up with old friends.  

Chicago - Aug 2019

Dinner at Pacific Standard Time

Like true house hunting champs, we again proved that we can find a house in one weekend!  Before the weekend, we contacted an agent and let her know what we were looking for and then she lined up a bunch of appointments for us to power through!

We flew into Chicago on Thursday night, arriving late, and stayed at the Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.  On Friday, we both worked out of the hotel and that evening, we had dinner with Keith's new boss, Luke, and his wife, Chantel, at Pacific Standard Time restaurant where we shared several plates - the food was yummy.

On Saturday, Keith grabbed coffee from the cafe downstairs and then we knocked out an hour workout.  Keith then got breakfast at the cafe and we got ready for our first day of the house search.  We had identified 12 houses in Humboldt Park, Ukranian Village, Wicker Park, and Bucktown.  It was a power tour of each, and we wrapped the day at a Starbucks to eliminate the contenders.  We knocked out all but two and selected 9 for the following day as well as two re-visits from the Saturday.  The agent was surprised at how quickly we made decisions!  After the agent left, we decided to walk back past every house to really get a better idea of streets, neighborhoods, and retail in each area.  That walk took about three hours but was successful - not only did we knock off two houses but we also decided to exclusively focus on Bucktown.  We Ubered back to the hotel to freshen up and then went back to Bucktown for dinner - we selected The Bristol and made an OpenTable reservation while in the car - we were pleased that we could get a reservation at the last minute even though it was packed when we arrived.  Dinner was delicious - we shared the endive salad, watermelon salad, mussels, and the cacio e pepe.  Following dinner, we walked a couple of blocks to 6 Degrees Bar where Keith's brother Graham was at a party - he had driven to Chicago for his friend Patrick's 50th birthday weekend.  It was only 30 minutes with Graham before we went back to the hotel wrecked after a successful day.

Met Graham at 6 Degrees Bar

Sunday morning repeated Saturday except we Ubered to Bucktown to meet the agent.  We were allocated 20 minutes per house today vs the 12 minutes the day before so we really got to know the houses better.  The last two of the day were the re-visits from the day before, then went back to Starbucks for a final review.  Shawna led the process of elimination discussion and we landed on a house - and funny enough it was the first house we saw the first day!  We aligned on price conceptually but the agent needed to go back to the office to do some comp analysis.  We were going to grab dinner but Shawna checked out the club lounge and realized that the soup and other items were enough - so we made that our dinner and stayed in the room the rest of the evening, signing the offer.  A counter arrived overnight, so on Monday we were under contract.

Our Soon to be New Home

Shawna worked from the hotel all day Monday while Keith went to his new office to meet some of the team - with each of us Ubering separately to Midway to catch a 7pm flight back to Phoenix.  A successful weekend!

Switzerland - August 2019

The Dodds and Parry Clans at Ruedihus for Dinner

After a successful family vacation to Scotland in 2017 for Jean and Dick's 50th anniversary, we decided to plan another family trip two years later to Switzerland - which also coincided with Keith's 50th birthday and the 20th anniversary of our engagement.  We asked the Parry family to join us to make a merry crew of 15 people: Jean/Dick, Graham/Margaret, Lily/Boone/Owen/Josie, Ewan/Sharon, Madeline/Lewis, and Kirsty plus the two of us.  

Accommodation:

Sheraton Suites Philadelphia Airport - we stayed here the couple of nights before the flight out.  Room was average.

Hotel Schonegg (Wengen) - the hotel is nice and the room was small but clean.  Had a balcony with a couple of chairs and a table where we ate lunch the first day.  The hotel is immediately next to the Palace Hotel, now the Club Med.  This was sentimental for Keith as it is where Charles Finance, the Swiss chef friend of the Dodds family, worked in the 1950s.  Breakfast was included each day and was substantial and delicious.

Hotel Schonegg

AirBnB - Shawna found a great place for three nights on Renggliweg 11, a central part of Interlaken.  While the décor was "uncool granny" style, the rooms were clean and comfortable and the living room and kitchen table were large enough for all of us.

Kandersteg International Scout Center - The kids plus Margaret all stayed in the Dutch room on the second room of the Old Chalet while the adults stayed in the first rooms on the right of the Kanderlodge.  The kids loved having a room with 12 bunks, plus a table in the middle they could all sit at.  Margaret stayed in the kids room every night to make sure no one got in too much trouble!  The Kanderlodge accommodation was basic (2 beds per room with 2 rooms sharing a toilet/shower), but great value for the cost.

International Scout Center

Activities:

Our main flight was round trip from Philly to Zurich.  Both of us bought separate one-way flights to Philly to give ourselves flexibility - which worked out well because Shawna had a work trip to Indianapolis the week before the trip.  Keith also opted to get to Philly early so as not to miss the outbound flight, so we were both on the east coast with a couple of days to spare.  The upside it that we both mitigated flight delays to the East coast so had confidence we'd make our Zurich flights.  We had bough the trip on points so no upgrades came our way - but with a 2-3-2 configuration on the 767 we had the two seats to ourselves.  We both slept OK on the flight out, while also watching a few shows on Shawna's iPad.  

Wengen

We cleared Zurich airport quickly on the Saturday morning - within an hour of landing we were in our Land Rover Discovery rental car and on our way to the first destination.  It was a bit misty on the way, taking about 2 hours to get to Lauterbrunnen where we parked the car and got the train up to Wengen.  Wengen, like Murren across the valley, is mostly a carless resort - the few vehicles they do have are electric golf cart style.  The hotel had a cart waiting for us at the train station for the four minute drive to the hotel. Tim and Jodi had arrived the day before - and saw us as we approached the hotel. We checked in to our hotel and then ran out to the store to get bread and cheese for a quick lunch as we were ravenous. After lunch, we went for a walk with Tim and Jodi to Staubbachbankli, then had a beer on the patio at the hotel before heading out for dinner.  After dinner, we bought a bottle of wine and drank it on the deck of our hotel.

Keith, Jodi and Tim

The Sunday was to be quite rainy so after breakfast at the hotel, we took the train down to our rental car and drove a couple of miles up the road to Trummelbach Falls. These are pretty cool water falls inside a mountain - we took a funicular rail up and then walked the falls. They were quite impressive, and a great rainy day thing to do. We took the train back to Wengen, had lunch near the station, and said goodbye to Tim who had to go back to Prague. In the afternoon, we did a 1.25 hour hike to Leiterhorn, though with the rain there was little to see.  After a beer with Jodi at the hotel, we headed to dinner.

Trummelbach Falls

After breakfast at the hotel on Monday, we hiked about three hours to Wengernalp.  It was mostly roads, though there were some great views from the trail.  We bought carrot cake from a café at Wengernalp and said goodbye to Jodi who had to go home - while we took the train to Kleine Scheidegg to try to get the train to the Jungfraujoch.  However, we could not get guaranteed seats so with some extra caution we took the train back to our hotel to have lunch and relax.  We grabbed lunch next door to the hotel and then hiked for an hour to Monchblick which overlooks Lauterbrunnen.  This hike was mostly on roads.

Hike to Wengernalp with Jodi

Tuesday was the best weather of our time in Wengen.  To take advantage, we took the train back to Kleine Scheidegg and hiked the Eiger trail, immediately below the north face of the Eiger, from Alpiglen to Kleine Scheidegg.  It took three hours and was an amazing hike - Shawna puts this as one of her favorites ever.  To wrap up the hike, we had beers and rosti/brats while looking up at the Eiger/Monch/Jungfrau range - just stunning.  We were able to get reserved tickets to the Jungfraujoch, so spent the afternoon doing that.  Most of the exhibits were a bit cheesy except for the carved ice cave but the views were amazing.  We did sit outside in lounge chairs drinking a beer in our shorts while at 11,371 feet - really cool.  After the train back to the hotel, we had a shower and then had dinner next door.  

Eiger Trail

Best Beer and Brat/Rosti of the Trip

View from Jungfraujoch

Keith's family was to arrive on Wednesday morning, so we took advantage of another great weather day by checking out early, taking the train with our luggage down to Lauterbrunnen, and loading up the car.  We then walked toward the back of the valley, seeing all the waterfalls in full glory with the recent rains.  When we got near the back of the valley we took the gondola up to Murren, now Shawna's new benchmark for "cutesiest village on the planet".  We took the train and gondola back to Lauterbrunnen.

Lauterbrunnen Valley

Interlaken

It was only a 30 minute drive back to Interlaken.  Since we were a bit ahead of time, we drove by the VRBO to ensure we knew where it was, then arrived at our planned lunch spot.  We were still about 30 minutes ahead of the Dodds clan, so asked for a table of ten and then went for a 20 minute walk along the rivers through town.  Once the family arrived, we had a great pizza lunch before checking in to the AirBnB.  The owner was out of town so a caretaker met with us - and while the model of Swiss efficiency was not the warmest person in the world!  We then all walked to the center of Interlaken along the river and all the way down to Weissenau Castle, a ruin on the bank of Thunersee.  We climbed the castle and then walked back to town to grab some shopping.  Since no one was really hungry after a large lunch we just had bread, cheese, and beers for dinner in the house.

Cliff Walk

On the Thursday, we spent the day in and around Grindewald.  We all squeezed into the van - it was a short trip and parked at the bottom of the gondola.  We went all the way to the top, with the first activity being a walk up to Bachalpsee, a two hour walk.  It is a beautiful mountain lake with superb views.  The next stop was the famous Cliff Walk, then over to the restaurant for a surprisingly good lunch.  The next activity was the "glider" - a zipline that looked like a flying bird and held four people at the same time.  We all did this, even Keith's parents!  The glider pulled you back up the mountain slowly and then you jutted forward like a normal biplane.  Needless to say, this was not Shawna's favorite activity with steep drops below! The last event was the "Trotti Bike" - which is riding a souped-up scooter down the mountain.  Both Graham and Owen took spills, but nothing too serious.  Once at the bottom, we met Jean and Dick who were with another family - they also did the Trotti bike and had Jean and Dick take care of their 6-year-old while the parents did the activity.

Hike to Bachalpsee

The Glider

The last activity for this leg of the trip was along the lake.  We started off with a boat ride on Brienzersee to Giessbach falls.  The oldest tram in Switzerland took us up to the Grand Hotel where Keith's parents had stayed the year before.  We then hiked the short distance to the falls, where a path led us behind the falls and then back to the hotel for coffees to warm us up.  We then walked the path along the lake for two hours to Iseltwald where we had lunch, then got the last boat back to Borgen before going out for dinner.

Path along Brienzersee to Iseltwald

Saturday was to be a beautiful day and the Parrys were arriving around 4pm, so we made a last-minute decision to take the train up to Schynige Platte which is at 6,811 feet overlooking Interlaken.  It is a 50 minute journey on a cog railway and the views at the top are breathtaking - we did the 2.5 hour hike that overlooked the lake as well as the Eiger range - complete with beautiful wildflowers and cows with cowbells clanging.  Dick said that it is the most beautiful hike he has ever done.  We ate lunch at the cafe at the top, using the downstairs area which was self-service rather than table service on the top level.  It was then another 50 minute train back down to the car so we could make it to the last destination of the trip!

Schynige Platte

Kandersteg

Kandersteg has a very special place in our heart - for Keith it is the two summers he worked at the International Scout Center and all the friendships he made there, and for Shawna it was the last leg of the summer trip after we graduated and where we got engaged.  We had been back twice since the engagement: once for the 5th anniversary of the engagement and the other for Keith's 25th reunion.  While we were there for the week, we did a variety of in-camp activities and hiking:

• Beers at The Crystal - We started a few of the evenings at the Crystal with Doris.

Beer at the Crystal

• Mountain Coaster - At the top of the Oeschininsee chairlift, this was a huge hit with kids and adults alike.  A ticket allowed five rides - and as long as we were the first in line we could get a lot of rounds in until the crowd came.  We had a couple of accidents, the only major one was when Boone tried to overtake Lily which is impossible so Boone took a bit of a spill.  Lewis hit a family best of 1 minute and 20 seconds.  

Mountain Coaster

• Rowing on Oeschininsee - To partially re-live our proposal, 12 of us rented three boats on the lake.  The kids and Kirsty all went in the freezing cold lake, with Madeline, Lewis, and Josie staying in the longest.  

Rowing on Lake Oeschinensee

• International Friendship Night - Jean and Dick bought a hundred bandanas to give away just as Keith did 30 years ago.  The bandanas went like hotcakes and the kids were able to meet a lot of people that night - and we saw bandanas worn all over the center for the next few days.  

International Friendship Night

• Contests - Keith made a few bets with the kids, including who could meet the most number of people (Owen) and who could meet people from the most number of countries (Madeline).  Ewan hosted a poetry contest of either Haiku or Limericks - with Lily taking home the prize for this contest.

• Monopoly Deal - We played more than our fair share of monopoly deal with the kids winning many more times than adults.  

Monopoly Deal

• Zipline - There was a single zipline that went a couple of hundred feet.  This was the least exciting of the in-camp activities.  

Zipline

• Crate Stacking - This was a new activity for all of us, and super-cool.  The concept is that the "stacker" is harnessed and top-roped, and then has to climb a stack of crates while building the stack.  It required a person at the bottom to use a pully to bring the next crate up.  Owen and Josie tied for a massive 28 crates - over 30 feet high!  Keith was weak sauce with only 12 crates before he collapsed.  

Crate Stacking

• Jacobs Ladder - Another top-roped activity, this one was also about 40 feet high with wooden bars further and further apart.  The activity was done as a team with a goal to climb to the top.  The winner of this one was Owen and Keith doing it in just under nine minutes.  But the camp record was 17 seconds so their score was not super impressive - and Keith was totally wrecked by the end of his!

Jacob's Ladder

• Doldenhorn Hut Hike - This hike starts at the Doldenhorn hotel and climbs to the hut overlooking Oeschinisee.  We had lunch at the hut and then walked down the Oeschininsee side and back to KISC.  It was steeper than we had remembered but still a great hike!

Doldenhorn Hut Hike

• Almenalp and First Hike - Part of the group hiked from KISC to the Uschintal Valley and then up to the Almenalp gondola where others of the group just took the gondola.  We then hiked our way up to First - while we did not make it to the top we came within about an hour or so from the top before needing to turn around.  We had a light lunch of soup and cheese/meats at the cafe near the gondola.  The descent down the old gondola is really dramatic - super steep.  

Almenalp Hike

• Blumilisalp Hut Hike - This was a stunning walk with Sharon, Kirsty, Graham, Margaret, Shawna, and Keith.  We took the gondola to Oeschninsee and hiked the high trail on the left side of the lake.  We made it about 1.5 hours before the hut and then went back via the lower route.  We all stopped for a beer before the main decent.  

Blumilisalp Hike

• Trampoline - The Ermitage hotel at the base of the Oeschinisee chairlift has a trampoline in front.  The kids bounced on it every time.

• Gfalalp Overnight Hut Hike - One of Margaret's fondest memories of her trip to Kandersteg in 1990 was an overnight at a mountain hut with homemade hot chocolate - so we decided to repeat.  It was supposed to be a guided hike, but since only two of us had "ankle boots" we had to cancel the guide and make our own way.  We took the bus from KISC to Selden which starts on a crazy winding road that can only handle cars in one direction.  Graham was convinced the driver was going to kill us all.  In Selden we stopped at a cafe for a beer before making the one hour hike up to the hut which overlooks the valley.  The scout center has partial ownership of the hut so we were locked out until the guide showed up at 5:30pm (~2 hours after we arrived).  But, we did find a way to sneak into the hut to poke around.  While we waited for the guide, some played Monopoly deal with the girls went on a hike further up.  Once the guide showed up, she let us in, we all set up our beds in the single bunkroom, and Graham prepared the dinner.  It was quite delicious - starting with mushy peas on toast (way better than it sounds!) and then a pasta dish.  The guide did say that there were a wide variety of executions of the pasta dinner - not shockingly, Graham excelled.  Desert was a pudding followed by the amazing homemade hot chocolate.  We were joined by four KISC kitchen staff members so we chatted with them around the fire before going to bed.  The next morning we hiked back down, originally with the intention of hiking the whole way back to the center.  However, a van was in Selden so 100 SFR later 9 of the 12 went back - with Kirsty, Sharon, and Keith making the 2 hour hike back in a bit of rain. 

Gfalalp Overnight Hut Hike

In all, it was a fabulous time at the center and pretty good value for the (little) money.  We had to leave at 6:30am the Sunday morning to get to Zurich - so the Parry's did the final check out of the chalet.  Marisa and Jared met us at the airport so they could be on the same flight.  It was seamless boarding the flight and easily made our connection again in Philly to get to Phoenix.  It took a bit longer to get home than usual as we had checked our luggage - but we made it home by 8:30pm to wrap up the trip and get back to work on Monday!

Restaurants:

Wengen

• Baren Hotel - shared salad, cheese, and very tasty lamb.  
• Eiger - had lunch at this hotel by the station - just a simple soup and salad.
• Sunstar - shared a salad, cheese fondue, and rosti.  All good but a bit touristy.  
• Da Sina Pizzaria - Tim and Jodi went here a couple of times without us and loved it.  We had a pizza and salad - quite good.
• Hotel Schonegg - best dinner in Wengen - we shared salad, soup, and rack of lamb, accompanied by a bottle of Sancere.  
• Golden India - Shared samosa and lamb curry - food was OK.

Interlaken

• Arcobaleno - pizza restaurant in central Interlaken, listed as best in area, quite good.  
• <Grindewald top of mountain restaurant> - shared brats and rosti.
• Laterne - walking distance from house. Shared a tomato mozzarella salad and veal with rosti and mushroom sauce. Food was OK. 
• Hotel Chalet du Lac (Iseltwald) - lunch here; shared tomato soup and cold cuts.
• Kashmir - everyone was excited about Indian; however, found out it was a Halal restaurant which meant no beers.  Food was just OK - shared a lamb curry.  

Kandersteg

• KISC - we ate every breakfast here.  We had dinner the first night (Filipi's pasta which was pasta with pepperoni- Graham said that does not go) and the family quickly decided that this was not our cup of tea, so we went out every other night other than the International Bar-b-que where we had steak and sausage.  
• <Oeschininsee restaurant> - shared a brat and rosti. Great place overlooking the lake.
• Doldenhorn Hut - had lunch here of spaetzli, a cheese/meat plate, and apricot tarts for desert. Very good.
• Des Alps - shared a tomato soup and veal with mushroom sauce and rosti. Very tasty.
• Almenalp - shared potato soup and cheese/meat plate.
• Blausee - We bought the kids pizza from Des Alps that they had in their room so only the adults drove to Blausee.  Restaurant located in  a park along a lake.  We shared salmon tartar and grilled trout (their specialty) and then a creme brulee for dessert - food was good but dessert was not great.  
• Ruedihus - The dinner this evening was nominally to celebrate Keith's 50th birthday (for the 5th time),  The kids came along and we got some great pictures in front of this very old, traditional Swiss restaurant.  We started off with fondues and raclette for everyone at the table, and we discovered that we should have ordered more - the kids liked it!  For our main course, we shared scalloped pork and pasta and for desert we had ice cream for the table and a special carrot cake with a candle the kids ordered for Keith. Food was great!
• Bernerhof - The kids had pizza again while the adults went here (and Jean/Dick/Ewan returned another night).  We sat on the front patio with stunning views of the mountain range.  We shared a salad and a mixed grill with rosti and an ice cream meringue for desert.  Fantastic evening.  
• Ermitage - we felt guilty that the kids used the trampoline for free so many times so we opted for dinner here the last night - which also allowed the kids to have one more bounce.  We shared the smoked trout and veal in mushroom sauce.  Food was tasty!