A Day in the Dolomites (56/365a)

After driving till 1am, woke up to this view from my bed:

henry showing us the balcony

Of course, the windy roads through the italian alps are much much scarier at night when you don't know when the next curve is, the next car is, the next deer is, or what on earth the speed limit is than they are the next morning in broad daylight.

in daylight those windy streets are just gorgeous.

Found Danielle and Michael and Henry (yes, we have kids with the same name) at the playground, and headed out for our first hike. They had planned out routes with delightful things they wanted to see already. We just followed along, for the ride so to speak.

Principally, our rule has been to stay within Graz our first year, and within Austria the second year. We had not yet been to the alps, and we were not disappointed. It reminded us adults a bit of the Rockies, which is not surprising. But they are still somehow quite different, although that difference would be hard to put concisely into words.

SELFIE TIME! danielle and meeee!!!

This is Danielle who looks happy despite her 1000lb pack. I am so proud that I could carry it even 25 feet, and she's been carrying it for miles and miles each day.

the crew in action

It might rain a bit. I felt a drop. A drizzle. Should we stay and have lunch in this cave? Irma says no, let's carry on. We spend 10 minutes in an extreme downpour only to go back to the little cave and huddle there while the rain nearly immediately dies down. We were in the worst of it. Including my lens that I had accidentally left somewhere on a meadow, and hadn't found when I went back for it.

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After our yummy lunch the kids were wet and cold and wanted to go back to the car immediately. We convinced them (tricked them into) to continue, and it was totally worth it.

Danielle looking out halfway there

Sometimes our path was through some old WWI trenches.

Theodore is catching the photobug.

Felix running through the trenches

Us at the top feeling great!

Well, shall we go back to the car? Amazing how motivated the kids are to actually go down the same stretch we just came from.

Felix running downhill with flowers.

One of the many varieties of alpine flowers.

Brian getting ready to go for his daily run.

I would tell you how dinner was, but the combination of caffeine withdrawal, sudden onset migraine and/or altitude sickness sent me to bed by 7:30.