But, I've been busy:
Friday and Saturday I worked 9-hour days (from 9am - 6pm).
Sunday, Mommy arrived from her meeting in Düsseldorf with Reudi and Brigitte (family friends who live in Zurich) and sat at a table directly in front of the buffet station which I was manning, looking at me until I finally noticed (perhaps not the best indication of my attentiveness to diners?).
I left work a bit early so we could drive to the Berner Oberland, home of famed alps like the Jungfrau, Eiger, Mönch, etc. Our plan was to conquer the 6-hour trail from First to Schynige Platte. Even the prior evening, as we briefly watched Federer trounce Djokovic (I fell asleep before the completion of the first set) on our hotel TV in Wilderswil, the weather looked uncooperative.
The following morning, the English-speaking guy at the train ticket counter was incredulous at our intentions; the clouds and drizzle in Wilderswil promised to intensify with the elevation of gain of 1500 meters to First. My mom and I looked at each other and shrugged, "We're here."
The view at the top of the First gondola looked like this, and with fog and sleet. Like true Portlanders, we had our Gore-Tex on hand (but unfortunately, no hat or gloves!).
As we continued hiking, the fog got thicker, our trail became more difficult to distinguish
because the Swiss put trails everywhere, and 20-minutes into our 6.5-hour hike, it started to snow.
Needless to say, the fabulous views of all the high alps were completely obstructed by extremely-stubborn clouds. We did manage to enjoy the lake views and the novelty of snow crystals forming around the remaining wildflowers.
And, to be honest, it probably only snowed for a total of 4-hours; so that's not so bad, right?
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