Feel the Pain and the Rain

Well, here I am again. It's our fourth day at Our Chalet, and it's rained every day. Luckily, we are mostly...prepared for it.

Our boots finally dried today from Wednesday's hail storm/flash flood/mudslide extravaganza. What a day that was! Seriously, it was a fabulous day, but a stressful one. My legs and butt still feel the pain of the extra uphill hike I took as part of the "search and rescue" party that went up to find the group left behind with the swollen ankle. Of course, we missed them and they beat us down by three minutes. Ah, well. No big injury.

Thursday we went to Ballinberg, an outdoor museum where you can see sample houses from all the different Cantons in Switzerland. The girls took obnoxious pictures with animals, sampled free cookies, and stayed mostly dry--except for rain in the morning. It was a beautiful museum through a big forest, and quite an education. We particularly liked the mustached man in the hair stylist room, where we posed our traveling gnome. (Each girl has the gnome for one day and gets to take pictures of him in goofy places all day.) Last night we had Sports night, and the girls played a plethora of games to expend their energy.

I have to say that one of the best parts of the day is the evening meeting with our group crammed into our room (the leader's room). We goof around and act silly. Last night one girl told me I was so serious in the meetings prior to the trip, but now I'm all "sassy." Duh. It's called stress planning :).

Today we walked to the wood carver and abseiling in more rain, but more spitting rain than "let's drench their boots, their socks, their ears, etc. Today's abseiling experience was scarier by far. Hey, want to drop down a gorge with a rushing river beneath you when you can't see the bottom? Oh, me! me! me! It was quite fun in the end, despite the wet rocks that the ole boots didn't want to grip with. By afternoon, the boots were dry and soaking up the sun as we ate by the river. Then, we went off to the wood carver for some sampling of local art. Fabulous. Then, the walk home. Oye. Four hours of walking today.

Tonight we had a man come out and play the Alpine Horn, think Ricola commercials. Wow, was he fabulous and funny. He just kept posing and posing and posing for pictures.

Tomorrow is Interlaken and chocolate tasting, followed by horseback riding. Then, because I am the only adult in the group really able to do the overnight hike, I get to do it with two girls who just HAVE to do it. Lord, all I want to do is sit with a glass of wine and soak my muscles. But no. I get to trudge up the mountain from 8pm to 11pm, sleep in a cheese makers hut for three hours, walk three hours to the summit for sunrise, then walk back for three hours. Oh, lord help me. At least the butt feels less pain today...

Okay, until after the hike...

Stay sane. Love life.