The 4th of July is always an interesting holiday for us. We haven't spent it together at home in 4 years. This year we were in Geneva, the year before David was in Geneva, and the year before that we were living in the Philippines and the year before that i'm pretty sure he was working. Since the Swiss obviously don't celebrate America's Independence day, it was a normal day here for us! David went into work and I went about my normal daily activities. The weekend before the fourth a group of us went over to Annecy, France and rented boats out on the lake which was so much fun. The boats were super tiny and not very powerful but you have to have a Euoropean boating license to drive anything bigger and the test is in french so no one we know has tried to take it. It was a gorgeous day and the water in Annecy is just amazing!
All of us and our boats!
So the next week we kept hearing about the Lake parade in Geneva. We didn't have anything else going on so we went downtown to check it out. After a few minutes, we realized it was not what we thought it was going to be and decided to do a little shopping instead. If you have ever seen the movie Chasing Liberty, the part where she goes to the love parade...that's what it was like...oops!! Crazy costumes, techno music, and dancing on floats. We had no way of knowing that. Due to the nature of the parade and the short time we were there I only snapped a few pictures. Crazy costumes were a must. Some were funny i.e. Where's Waldo and the Smurfs...others a lot more wild and crazy. It was quite the experience...live and learn I suppose.
The smurfs on the left.
I bet these guys don't even realize they look like the Chik fil a cows!!
Then we found out David had to make a quick trip back to the U.S. for some business...yay!! We decided it was time to take the puppies back home. It was a tough decision since they are my company over here, but we were having a lot of problems with one of them and this just wasn't the place for him. He needed to be home with a yard to play in, and vets who understand his crazy medical history. We drove to Paris the following Friday and spent the night in a hotel so we could take a direct flight back to the states (leaving from Geneva means at least one connection). It's a long trip for them and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them and for us. We had numerous problems in Paris including; waiting in the Priority line to check in for over an hour, me catching a stomach bug and was sick the whole trip while trying to contain two dogs (one who likes to bark), fighting with Delta about the weight of our bags, them having to hold the plane due to the fact we waited in line for so long to check in and then still had to go to yet another line and pay for the dogs then go through security. Me sobbing my eyes out in Charles De Gaulle from the stress of it all and being incredibly sick and not able to keep anything down. Me about beating up a security guy (not really) when he wouldn't let me follow David into the platinum line.....(I won). I nicely told him that was my husband and I will be following behind him whether he liked it or not with crocodile tears in my eyes...all while David didn't see it happening and is already out of sight and around the corner (we also had plane full of people being held for us while this guy is arguing with me). We were the last ones on the plane but it took forever to take off so half of that stress was for nothing. We also got stuck in the middle of the plane. Not ideal when your traveling with a barking dog. I was really worried that the people around us would hate us but they thought the dogs were so cute. I mean how can you really get annoyed with such cute little faces.
They both did great on the flight. David did have to ride with his hand in Toby's crate the entire 8 1/2 hours to keep him from barking, but even when he did bark, there was a screaming baby somewhere behind us that was a lot louder and you could hardly hear Toby. When we landed, it was game over and they wanted to be out of there! Toby wouldn't stop barking but at that point we couldn't keep him quiet and everyone wanted to see them and were laughing at them barking ( praise the Lord). We even had several people come up to us afterwards and tell us how good they were! Whew.....i'm glad they thought that because it was the most stressful 8 1/2 hours of our lives. I wish I could have gotten pictures of the trip home and also while we were in the U.S. but it was such a whirlwind and I never even pulled out my camera...bummer. We were only at home for about 3 1/2 days before we had to leave for Kansas where David had some business to take care of. It was a great trip back to the U.S....way too short but we had a great time. Looking forward to heading back in several weeks.
August 1st marks Switzerland's Independence Day. David had the day off and we met up with a friend and headed to the Fete de Geneve which is a huge fair they put on for the first two weeks of August. The pre fete started around the time of the Lake parade that I talked about above! There were rides, and tents filled with goodies, and all the food you can imagine.
All the flags that surrounded the Mont Blanc bridge are of the different cantons (Swiss version of a state) of Switzerland.
Okay, I had to post the picture of the ride below because it's one of the many difference between the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S. we are definitely more concerned with safety than they are over here. During the ride people are allowed to stand in the middle....and a lot of people. No harness...nothing holding you in. Meanwhile it spins quickly and bounces up and down. If you are in the middle and you fall it throws you to the edge. You also might notice there is nothing holding the people sitting on the outside in....eeek! In the U.S. some crazy person would use this as a great way to sue someone lol.
David and Shawn getting ready to ride. At the end, the car spins depending on the weight that is in it. I felt bad for the guy on the other side who was sitting by himself. With David and Shawn on one side and only one person on the other it meant the weight wasn't equal which sent them into a spinning frenzy at the end while the other cars were only turning around slowly.
This ride costs 8 chf to ride! which is almost the same as $8.
Hopefully everyone is enjoying the Olympics back home. Since most of the channels we get are British channels it sure is interesting getting their perspective on it.
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