Number 4: Hike.

After we finished the cruise with the whole family, the fierce-some four-some Patton clan got to spend another week exploring Switzerland. The whole week was so great, but it's easy to choose my favorite moment. Like I've mentioned earlier, we got to stay in this awesome village called Murren in Switzerland. It took Mapquest repeatedly leading us to a tram station for us to realize that Murren was a carless village that could only be reached by a 15 minute tram ride and then a 15 minute walk from the station to our hotel. We debated changing our plans and staying somewhere a little more accessible but because it was late in the day when we reached our destination and starting to rain, we decided the best idea was to stay for one night and then figure out our next move in the morning. Well, when morning rolled around, the storm had cleared a little bit, and we all knew it would be a major mistake to leave such an amazing place. Still partly hiding behind clouds, out of our windows we saw glimpses of breathtaking Alps completely surrounding the small city. We heard the weather was going to get progressively better throughout the week, so we went down the mountain for two days and did other mini driving trips throughout the country and by Thursday, the weather could really have only been described as perfect. The sky was a piercing blue and the air was crisp and fresh. We took a cog train even farther up the mountain to where a lot of major hiking trails began. I took one step off the train and suddenly I'm in the Sound of Music. Seriously, people. I have never seen anything more beautiful.

We spent about 4 or 5 hours just hiking through this trail that took us back down to Murren and with every twist and turn of the mountain, the scenery became more and more picturesque. After a while, we stopped and ate a tasty lunch of cheese, apples, sandwich meats, and bread while overlooking a valley. In this particular area, there were cows covering the hillside. Don't think a moment could get much more Swiss than that.


Between meeting a creepy old man from England, Kaitlin's love affair with the cows, Dad getting zapped by an electric fence (it may or may not have been mostly my fault...), and me dominating the scariest mountain of my life without passing out, the time spent together that day will not soon be forgotten.
And it made me realize how much I really love hiking. Probably 3 of the top 10 days of my life have been spent hiking. I've already gone once since I've been back at El Moro Canyon. So that's it for hiking-- look forward to another post tomorrow on something I've gained a whole new appreciation for.