Weekend in Leysin, Switzerland January 21-23, 2011

Pat and I spent a weekend in the Vaudois Alps above Lac Leman before his week-long GOLT meeting for Coty in Montreux. We flew from Barcelona in the afternoon to Geneva, then took the train directly from the airport to Aigle, via Morges and Lausanne, changing to the cog mountain railway up to Leysin. We checked into the Hotel Tour d'Ai where I had stayed with Jen, Steph and Lou in June 2009. A wonderful cheese fondue at La Fromagerie completed the evening!
The Alps from 30,000 feet














The Dents du Midi from our hotel room, first morning-very little snow in Leysin village!














We were joined on Saturday by our longtime friends, Cathy (from 1968-69 in Lausanne) and her husband, Jean-Pierre and their family along with a group of acquaintances. Each year at this time, they meet here for a weekend in the snow to ski, snow-shoe, enjoy fondue and party! As we were in the neighbourhood, we were invited to come along! Here we are on our first hike Saturday afternoon, but were unable to use snowshoes as many of the trails were quite bare. The warm sunshine and blue skies made up for it, as did a "Gluehwein" and snack in a restaurant along the way!
Jean-Pierre is in yellow, beside Pat in the red hat, Kathie in blue jacket and Cathy in brown














The village of Leysin is below us on our hike-where's the snow?














A typical scene in the Swiss Alps...the only thing missing is Heidi!














Finally some snow along our trail!














Old friends for 43 years: Cathy and Kathie














A new canine driver in town (look carefully), parked outside the bakery!














Some other new drivers in go-carts on the rink! Pat leads the pack in #11!














After Sunday's hike, a game of curling...it's been a long time since those bonspiel days in Grande Prairie! Here's Pat getting ready to throw...














Apres-ski in the hotel lounge/restaurant with some good Swiss wine!














"Une fondue chinoise" the first night and "une fondue au fromage" the second night...yum! The Swiss do it right! Sante!

































And after dinner, some dancing! Jean-Pierre and his sister, Yvette take to the floor!



















Cathy in the middle (jeans and gray T-shirt)














Jean-Pierre and daughter Jessica on the bar!














A good time was had by all! We hated to leave the mountains but Pat's work and company meetings were calling from the posh hotel, Le Fairmont Montreux Palace overlooking the Lake. Cathy and Jean-Pierre kindly drove us right to the hotel front door., with promises to see each other again in a few days!

Hasta luego!

Christmas Holidays at Grand Lake (Part II)

For much of the week after Pat's birthday and the first big snowfall, the sunrises each morning were awesome! The days dawned bright and clear and the sun streaming in the dining room windows warmed up the house in no time! I even took to wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt many mornings when working inside the house!

Here's Steph and Lou cooking breakfast one sunny morning!














Pat got a new N.B. flag for Christmas!














Looking down our driveway towards Route 690

















































The gang's all here: Steph. Ben, Pat, Lou and Jen enjoying the cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing in the woods across from our house!














Same shot taken by Pat but this time with Kathie on the left!














New Year's Eve appetizers at the bar: Lou, Ben, his brother Luke and dad, Gary visiting from Nova Scotia


































Lou perfected the art of shucking oysters from PEI!














Laura Lee (Ben's mother) and our friend, Ann ready to bring in the New Year














Fondue chinoise at that end of the table: Steph, Luke, Ann, Gary, Lou, Ben and Jen














Swiss cheese fondue at the other end: Ben, Jen, Laura Lee, Pat, Ann and Steph














After dinner another round of "Settlers of Catan" in the sun room














New Year's Day 2011-more snow! A view from our sun room back door.










































































"De-Christmasing" to quote our sister-in-law, Julianne! Pat figured out the best way to remove our enormous tree from the dining room: snip off the branches then throw them out the window!














What a mess to tidy up for next year!














Our first Christmas at The Lake was a resounding success and we are already working on plans for next year! Happy New Year to all our friends and family! Pat and I are now back in Spain (mid-afternoon on Sunday, January 9th) where it is a balmy 12C and sunny. The 1 p.m. sailboat race went on as per usual on the Med whereas Grand Lake is now just about frozen over!

Hasta luego...

Christmas at The Lake 2010

Our first Christmas at Grand Lake in New Brunswick was GREEN but sunny! Pat and I arrived at the end of November to open up the house. There were some glitches in our heating system which required a couple of visits from the heating sub-contractor to rectify. On November 29th, we drove to Bangor, Maine as Pat was to fly out via Detroit to Coty business meetings near Raleigh-Durham, NC. We met back again in Bangor on the night of December 2nd, returning to the lakehouse the following day via St. Stephen (before the flooding) and a visit to Ganong Chocolates and Ovenhouse Smoked Salmon in St. George.

On December 7th, Pat had to head back to Spain to return to work. He was severely delayed in both Montreal and Paris due to weather conditions, and finally reached our home on the Med some 30 hours after he set out! (He could have travelled to Malaysia in that time frame!) I spent a week in a very cold and snowy Montreal with Jen and Ben and was able to visit The Farm one day to have lunch with my aunt and uncle and cousin, Beth. Ben returned home to NS to help out with the family's Christmas tree farm for a week. I returned to NB the day after some 200+ mm of rain fell which led to some terrible floods and high water on the Saint John River and at Grand Lake. Fortunately our new home is situated on a bluff some 25+ ft. overlooking the lake, so no danger of flooding here! Some of the roads leading to the lake experienced high water and flooding which made travel interesting! It was sort of like driving along a causeway for part of the way!

Steph and Lou were the first on December 21st to arrive after her interview for Paediatrics residency in the Portland, ME children's hospital. Jen and Ben arrived from Montreal the following day and Pat got in late on Lou's birthday, December 23rd, having changed his flight plan to go through JFK airport and on to Bangor, where he rented a car to drive to the lake. It didn't look like his original flight via Paris and Montreal were going to work out what with the snowy weather in Europe.

Luckily for all of us, the weather on this end was mild and there were no issues with the driving. The snow only fell on Pat's birthday, December 27th and now "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"!

The gang over the cheese fondue pot on Christmas Eve: Lou, Ben, Jen, Pat and Steph














Steph and Jen sharing a chuckle














The sun came out on Christmas Day














Santa came and filled stockings...and boxes and bags below on the hearth!






































Lou put up the 8-9 ft. tree in the corner of the dining room: with 6 strings of lights and lots of decorations, it looked great!



















Lou and Steph, Ben and Jen



















Opening presents in the Sunroom: Lou and Steph (wearing her new hat!)




















Jen and Ben befopre heading to Nova Scotia to spend time with the Seamone family














Christmas afternoon walk along Grand Lake, the ice was starting to form and making noises like a huge flock of birds chirping!





























Steph and Lou-their first Christmas Day together!




















Snow and gray skies on Pat's birthday, December 27th










































Route 690 through The Pines near our driveway














The causeway at Sypher Cove














Sypher Cove














The Back Lake at Sypher Cove...not ready for skating yet!














Along the causeway at Sypher Cove...














Wave action and ice along the shore



















Pat's birthday cheesecake



















WOW-that's some smoke signal! How old is he anyway?!?



















December 28th -walking in a winter wonderland...



















or rather, cross-country skiing! Steph and Lou on a great trail just across from our driveway in the woods!



















Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody! Hasta luego...