la dole

So today I woke and the weather was just perfect. I believe the high today was about 23C/73F. I decided then, I wanted to go a good long walk. My original plan was to take my iPod and walk a nearby trail and listen to a few more Summer of Love, Too sermons. But Andrea came up with some ideas of what she thought of for me to do, if I had no ideas. Her ideas were excellent, but I already had set my mind on a good long walk/hike. One of her ideas is something I am looking forward to trying when Britney comes for her visit in September. When I told her I really just wanted to go for a walk, she suggested La Dôle. She said the view was magnificent. So, I decided to go and Andrea suggested Raylen joining me. Since I had never been to this place, I can't speak French, and I have not spent any alone time with Raylen; her joining me was a welcomed idea.


When we were first dropped off, I looked at the view and I know I was going to enjoy this walk. We walked for a few minutes and we could see your goal, the little white ball at the top of this mountain.


Raylen had hiked up to the top of La Dole about 6 other times and was to be my mini-guide. She we finally got to the base of the Mountain, she showed me one path. But we quickly came to realize, that the path she thought she saw was not a path for people to walk. After, we finally found the proper path, she began to realize the walk was more them she had thought. Every 5-10 minutes, she would say, "Maybe we should start heading back now." I felt a little bad, because I was determined to make it to the top. As a compromise, I would let her stop and sit whenever she liked.

This gave me a chance to look around and capture the beauty of the walk. One of my favorite views was probably about one-third of the way up.


Our actual goal was to get to the top and eat our picnic Andrea had kindly prepared. But after about 40 minutes of hiking up some pretty steep paths, Raylen decided it was time to eat. We got out our lunches and ate out tomato-cheese sandwiches, some apples, and some German dessert thing; which I originally thought was cheese. Although it was not the taste I was expecting, it was a pleasant surprise. The picnic on top of "our world" was very wonderful.

After our 25-30 minute picnic, Raylen was ready to head on down, but I was able to talk her into continuing. She said she would do it for mommy, because she know her mother would ask us how was the view. She know Andrea would be disappointed to hear we did not make it to the top, so Raylen said we would make it for mommy. Once we got to the top, I was glad we had not turned around. The view was beautiful; the video does it no justice.

We could see everything; from La Mont Blanc[highest peak in Europe] to Lac Geneva/Lac Léman[the largest lake in Europe] to Nyon. It was amazingly peaceful and wonderful up there. I wanted to stay there for quite sometime, but Raylen was expecting guest and need to get back home. We took a few photos and club rachael videos and were on our way back down.


We got a bit turned around, because Andrea's directions for us to get down would have taken us through cow and Raylen did not want to go through the cows. We finally got back to the bottom where Rich pick us up and we returned home.

When we returned home, I fell asleep for a long nap and work for dinner. Anne, Tom, Jane, Tom and Jane's 3 kids, Estelle and the two dogs joined the Batch plus Jande for dinner. It was yet another wonderful day in Switzerland.

peace, love and applesauce