Moving out of the Dark Age

Today, I made one giant leap for mankind. Well, more likely for myself and Rob too. It's still pretty huge. I upgraded my phone today from one that is apparently worth $19 in the Verizon store to a Smart Phone. I got the new HTC Droid. That's right, I will no longer get angry when someone sends me a text message!

So far, I don't know how to do much with it, but I am pretty happy that I am able to check my Gmail account from work and check silly things throughout the day that the company has blocked. Not to mention that I can get directions on the fly now from google maps and I am sure get all kinds of gadgets and gizmos which I will be waiting on Rob to help me with. :) My favorite feature so far is the green robot that pops about and the snowflakes that appear on the weather report. Oh and some fun backgrounds. :) Did I mention WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE???

Preparing for Winter

Winter is upon us here in the great state NY and Rob and I are trying to get prepared. Last week I finally broke down and made a few essential purchases. First was the snow brush. This was a little more intimidating that I thought it would be with the 15 different choices they had. I just wanted one that removed the snow from my car. Thankfully I picked a good one. I got to put it to use this morning finally. Score one for me.

Secondly, I made a purchase from REI Outlet for a pair of boots. Apparently last years models are worth only 60% of their value. Like I care. I picked out a nice fuzzy pair and rolled the dice on if they would fit or not. To my absolute delight, they fit and are warm. Score another!

Now I need a hat and an cocoa dispenser for my car. I hope Santa has something up his sleeve.

Meetings - The Practical Alternative To Work

Work is full of meetings. I have been pretty fortunate to avoid a lot of them. I have one morning meeting every day that lasts all of 15 minutes and it's nothing more than a game plan for the day. Not too bad. However, I find there are a large number of meetings that aren't so short and sweet.

I was invited to a meeting this week with various customers to discuss delivery time line and installation issues of our product via teleconference. It being a teleconference should tip you off that this will not be a short meeting and in fact, we will probably struggle to stay within our time limits. This meeting was scheduled for an hour with an agenda of 22 points with about 4-5 groups dialed in (another red flag). At the thirty minute mark, we were on point number 4. I found this quite funny. Shortly after that thirty minutes, the people on the other end of the phone were having some nonsense conversation that didn't pertain to us so we had our own mini meeting, which I am sorry to say happens ALL the time with teleconferences. You can't see your attendees faces or their body language to signal to you that's not ok. So after about 10 minutes, we notice the phone has gone silent and someone says, "Hello?" This is where you have to make a graceful recovery to tell the people on the other end they were boring you, so you decided to talk about something else. Meeting fail.

At the end of our one hour, they had made it to point 6, but by the grace of gods, the conference room we had was only booked for an hour and we got kicked out. The main meeting people went to an office to finish what was probably another hour or two conversation and my boss and I left to go do "real work".

So why does this happen? I think it happens for a few reasons. One - Meetings are a chance for people to vent in an open forum. To bring up points they think are huge because it's eating away at them. Then you need to spend 5 minutes explaining they are smoking crack in a nice way and move on. Two - no one really wants to go back to work. If they are in a meeting, they can't possible be doing other things or meeting with OTHER people. The invention of the blackberry has kind of lessened this, but still, I think for people like us underlings, it's still valid. And finally, I believe that people running meetings have some phenomenon happen where time stops for them and they haven't the foggiest clue that life is happening around them back in normal land. Those who run meetings often determine their outcome and sad to say, many people are not good at it.

I am not saying, the meetings I run are perfect because they aren't. I just thought it was a funny observation that I could share with you. :) It's kind of like Office Space, probably a little to close to home. ;)

It's Christmas Time...

We have officially decorated our house for the holidays. It takes a while because we have about 8 boxes of Christmas stuff to sort out and put up, but it looks nice when we are done. So I will let the pictures do the talking. :)


Our pretty Christmas tree. We have an eclectic tree with all kinds of different ornaments that we each have collected over the years. Our favorite additions this year are the personalized engaged ornament and the ornament from Rothenburg, Germany.


The holly lights are my favorite non-tree decoration because I think they are classic Christmas.


We didn't want our entry way to feel left out, so we put a small tree down there. This particular one has a set of lights on there that blink, so really this is an action shot. :)

Rob and I aren't the only ones in this household that enjoy the Christmas decorations. Both Dory and Sparky think that we have done this house up as some sort of playland for them. They take turns sitting at the extra lights from the holly.


And they both like to camp out under the tree. In this case only one cat was being cooperative so Dory gets all the limelight on this go around. :)


Of course, they also like batting at the ornaments which means strategic placement of all fluffy/non breakable ornaments so if they bat at something, they bat at those.

Here's to the Christmas season!!

IT SNOWED!

Like an excited 5 year old, I was thrilled at the sight of snow this morning and even woke up Rob to share this news. I am sure he was just as excited as I was, but wasn't awake enough to relay that enthusiasm. It's the first real snowfall of the season and how appropriate to be on December 1st. Anywho, it was worth a photo before work because it's already melted, just like it used to in Atlanta.

10 Years Later

Last night Rob and I attended my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go, but I felt that I would feel regret if I didn't attend. Like I had missed out. So Rob and I got ready and headed into the metropolis known as Phoenix with our two stop lights and our one local bar where my reunion was happening.

We got there a little after it started and I immediately spotted Ryan who I haven't seen in about a year and was truly looking forward to seeing. I greeted him with a hug and he pointed out the "sign in location" where I was to get a name tag and my bracelet for the night. Our name tags had our senior picture on them which brought back some memories. Shortly after we greeted Shawn and Bonita. They finally got to meet Rob which was super nice. Then Megan showed up and joined us which was great. She and I were roommates briefly in college, but haven't seen each other since.

Throughout the night I got to meet and greet with some people who I wanted to catch up with, but most of them are mentioned above. I did get to talk with a few people that I was curious about how things were going with them, but largely, there were a number of people I didn't talk to in high school and it just felt bizzare to ask those people, "So, how have things been? What are you up to these days?!" I don't say this to be mean, but what do you say to someone that you never really knew? I got a lot of those kind of head nods and recognition, but that's about where it ended.

Everyone fell back into their own clicks, but I think it's only natural. Those were the people who you spent a lot of time with during our younger years. I wasn't really that surprised. There were some people who were really nice and some people who were still big snots, but hey, we all can't change for the better. :) There was a lot of awkward moments that were like, ummm ok, moving on. I wished there were a lot more people there that I wanted to see. Overall it was kind of a small turn out, although more people showed up after our event "ended". We left shortly after that because we were pretty much ready to go and thought we wouldn't get much more out of staying. We came back to our house and hung out playing the Wii and flipping through the yearbook. Honesstly, between all of us, I got more information on where people were than if I had stayed chatting with people.

I thought about what has changed with me since high school. There are some things that haven't changed like my hair color, my ability to laugh at silly things, and my parents home address. But there's lots that has. So I thought I would compile a small list of things that I thought of.

- I like sushi
- I have lived in big cities and survived (Washington, DC and Atlanta)
- I have moved more than a dozen times
- I have a pretty good career
- I have been skiing out West
- I made my first international trip
- I dated a few losers
- I found the man I will marry and whom I am very much in love with
- One of my most fun jobs was in college scrubbing dishes and mopping floors
- I have officially watched the all of the Star Wars movies
- I own a guitar I can't play
- I have two cats who provide much entertainment and comfort
- I have great friends
- I enjoy a dinner party and game night more than being at a bar and at the movies
- I don't dress like a dork anymore :)
- I wear make up
- I donated my hair to Locks of Love and will donate it again to Pantene after my wedding
- I practice yoga

I am sure this list could go on, but I have a house to decorate for the Christmas season. :) I had a good time, but I don't know if I am interested in going again. I probably will for the same reasons I went to this one. The hopes of seeing people I really would love to see. Let's just hope next time we don't plan on in the middle of the worst economic downturn/recession ever. :) That might help.

Kitty Cuteness

Since I don't have kids, occasionally I subject people to pictures of my kitties. Technically they are cats, but they will always be my kitties and sometimes are referred to as my fat fuzzies. Anywho, after Rob's nap the other day, my fuzz butts curled up on the blankets and didn't move after I grabbed my camera so I was able to snap a photo.

Where Did You Go?

I'll have to admit, since moving to NY, I haven't been very good at keeping up the blog. I am not counting the Germany posts because those were like a gimme. And even still, took a month to post properly. For everyone's knowledge, no I am not dead, just having a bit of writer's block lately. Mostly this stems from a number of things we are working on that we aren't telling people about. These things include some of the wedding decisions and some of the things we are doing for Christmas gifts. However, these things seem to take up a bunch of our time so that I have no easy topics left to pick from. :P

I suppose I could mention I have a new job. After 4 months of wanting to rip my hair out every day, I have been relocated to work in building 6 in production control. I basically release parts for sub assembly builds and then put them back into stock once they are built until the whole unit is made. In the meantime I track where the parts go, who has them and their status. So far I still like it. It's a lot more engaging than my last assignment. I wouldn't mind doing this work off program. We will see what the future holds.

I have been volunteering a lot lately too. Last Friday I raked leaves and trimmed hedges at the CNYSPCA for a few hours and then today I spent 3 hours after work hanging clothes at the Rescue Mission. This is on top of the extra time I have been putting in at work to coordinate people to volunteer for the Salvation Army events Lockheed Martin is hosting. It takes way longer to answer emails than I ever thought it would. But the good news is, all the events are being covered and we have a good turn out of volunteers.

So I have been keeping busy, but I am looking forward to a break. That's what the holidays are for right? :)

B&B Party

I figured it was probably time for the official B&B Party post. Everyone has had a chance to recover from their party escapades and to make it home safely. :) This year was a little different for Rob and I because it didn't involve getting on a plane and therefore we didn't have to figure out our costumes based on airport security rules. We were only restricted based on the size of the car. Also, we actually finished out Halloween costumes two days before the party. We are pretty sure that's a first. I have been known to sew leaves on a costume on a plane before or glue things on the day of.

And since we could drive, we were able to bring a pumpkin to the carving table this year. I haven't had as much practice as other pumpkin carvers (I haven't carved a pumpkin in probably 10 years), so I decided to kick it old school. This picture isn't the best, but I blame the bad lighting and a few drinks.

Our costumes this year required some creativity. We needed something that people haven't done before (getting harder every year) and something that wasn't going to take forever or cost $$$. All of this combined put our thinking caps to the test, but we found a pretty fun solution. We decided on costumes that "go together like". So we settled on Bees and Honey. I went as a giant bumble bee and Rob went as a pot of honey. Now, the added layer of fun is that all of Rob's friends call me Sarah B and Rob's my honey. Yup, just over the top sweet.

In the picture of Rob and I, you can't see it too well, but I have an extra pair of arms attached on string (left over costume part from years past) to make the 6 legs necessary for a bee. It shows up better in the picture of Melissa (flapper) and I as well as my butt. That was probably the hardest part of my costume this year, trying to figure out how to make that part proportioned properly to the rest of me and then how to get the shape. One of these years, I am going to get back to making a costume from a pattern. Rob's costume is constructed out of two wreath hoops and a large quilting hoop about the middle covered in fabric. My cats enjoyed laying in and on his costume as he made it. :)

We even got to make a few side errands (thanks to having our own car) while we were in town as well. We were able to meet up with Meredith and discuss wedding ceremony plans (it's going to be AWESOME) and also hit up Total Wine. It's nothing like the Total Wine in GA and yeah, I probably sound like a wino, but if I know I can buy wine at a 50% discount, you better believe I will. Also, to boot, I got free dress socks out of the trip by using a gift card from Banana Republic on the day it expired. Nothing like cashing in free money for a much needed clothing item.

All in all though, it was another great weekend spent with friends. We even got to see Rummy, although we are pretty sure he doesn't remember who we are anymore. That part was really sad. :( We must visit more often to make him remember.

Until next year, Happy Halloween!

Life in Syracuse

It took much longer to post all of the Germany/Austria properly than I originally thought (going through some 800 photos and getting the stories right was a huge effort), and therefore the rest of my normal posts have taken a back seat. I hope to catch you up a little bit with some highlights.

In the second half of September, we spent some time hanging out in the orchard picking apples and getting cider with my sister and brother in law. I forgot how delicious the apples were in NY. There are a lot of varieties that are not available in GA because they wouldn't survive the trip which explains why I could never find them. Candid shots are always so nice. :)

I also briefly started grad school and then decided that would be the worst idea of the year with all that's been going on. I would rather plan my wedding and enjoy the holidays without worrying about having passing grades. So my trip down psycho lane was cut short and I returned to the land of "normal".

In October, we made it out to an SU Football game with people from work. The game wasn't too great, but they dedicated the field as the Legends Field. Jim Brown was there and if I knew more about football history, I am sure I would have been more excited. As it was, they took so long that the marching band half time show was pushed until after the game was over, which was sad because all but a handful of people were left and it was the best part of the game! They did music from Michael Jackson including Thriller, which they actually did the dance for. It was fantastic! We don't own any SU gear, so we just wore the colors. :) Notice the UVA hat.

We spent a few weekends with family hanging out and enjoying meals. It's still weird they are all so close, but I like it. They feed us good. :)

Last Friday I got free tickets to the SU basketball game. It was only an exhibition game but they creamed Cal State. It was my first basketball game I have attended since high school. We even phoned a friend to find out how long the game was going to be. I sort of get the excitement of March Madness now.

I have also been enjoying watching the leaves change, although I know as the fall from the trees, winter is on it's way. Fall is probably my favorite season and I hate to see it go by so quickly. And of course if it's fall, it means that Halloween is right around the corner. Which reminds me, I still have so much to do!

Goodbye Germany!

The next morning we packed up and loaded the car for our final leg. Our host at the pension wished us well and even stood outside to wave at us as we drove away. On our way back to Munich we decided to stop in our arch nemesis town we were never able to navigate through - Mittenwald. Surprisingly, we didn't have much trouble in the car that day, just on foot. The Post was ever ellusive to us. We went back to the car and put it in as a point of interest to see where the heck it was. I think I take for granted knowing where these things are at home because they are not usually in obvious spots.

Anywho, Mittenwald is know for their history with violins. I think they make them here, although I am not positive.


The buildings in their town were painted with all kinds of things; flowers, people, decorated windows. The remarkable thing was how well the were upkept.


After spending our morning in the little town getting the last of our souvenirs and other memorabilia from our trip, we got back on the road to Munich.

Upon arrival into Munich, it felt familiar to be there after our prior visit just days before, but there was still so much we didn't see. We made the choice to try St. Peter's church again and were happy to see that the church was not in service so we could walk around.


This church was by far one of the more decorated churches that we visited on this trip. I am pretty sure this is the "main" church of Munich. Even with two other Catholic churches within a 10 minute walk of this one, I believe this one is the most popular. It could be because of their 3rd century martyr they keep locked in a box on the left side of the church. I wasn't entirely prepared to see a full skeleton hanging out in a glass box when we were reading the Rick Steve's description, but there you have it. I never knew how close relics and religion were until this trip.


From here we went in search of food for dinner. We walked around for quite a while trying to find food that interested in eating. We finally settled on an Irish pub off the beaten path. They did had some delicious food and of course good beer for our last meal. The picture of Mike below is capturing Mike in Germany, at an Irish pub, eating Mexican food. We thought it was quite funny.


The next morning we were up early and to the airport in plenty of time for everyone's flights. We were so early for our flight that our ticket windows weren't even open yet. That was interesting in trying to form a quasi line while waiting for the real line to open. Not much different than being in the states. We got our passport stamped one more time as we went through their customs check point and went on to meet the Pennock's who were already on the other side. I was quite proud of the fact that even without cell phones we managed not to loose one another during the course of the trip. We used up the last of our Euros on breakfast, Kinder Eggs, and a book. My Kinder Egg prize was pretty kick ass. The little dude on top of the turtle turns blue in the sunlight. :)


We settled into our seats and buckled down for a 9 hour plane ride back to the states. We at least got to watch The Proposal which was a good use of an hour and a half. :) We filled out our little cards for customs and managed to mke it through the Philly airport without much trouble. After a 3 hour layover and dinner, we were on our final leg to Syracuse.

We really had an amazing trip and saw a LOT. I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything and was glad to share it with friends. I know that if Mike and Amanda hadn't been with us, we wouldn't have seen half of what we did and their knowledge and experience with the German culture was a huge help in making the trip a success. Especially when we got to the pension and our host didn't speak a lot of English. :) A lot of great memories were made. But even after such a wonderful trip, it never felt so good to be home.

The Final Days

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

With two days left in our journey, the clouds rolled in and we all admitted we were pretty worn out. Not for nothing, but climbing a mountain probably contributed quite a bit. :) We went down for breakfast that morning and pondered our choices. We settled on popping into the nearby town of Seefield for some shopping followed by lunch and then came back for reading, town meandering and other such things.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

I really enjoyed having a day to kind of relax even though we were hoping to go to Salzburg for a day. I have come to the conclusion that Europe has way to many cool places way to close to one another. Italy was only 2 hours away and the same with Switzerland. I wanted to see it all! But we recognized being popped and it raining wasn't really the time to go on another lengthy adventure so we hung around the pension and read and played cards and such.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

I was enjoying watching the clouds. Normally you don't get to see how they hang in the mountains. You are usually in the thick of it or can't see the whole mountain to get the full picture.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

This was our tiny road to our pension. Again, supposedly a 2 lane road, but not really. I have no idea what they do when the snow falls. The domed building is a tiny church. It had room for about 12 people. The Pennock's told us we should have just gotten married there. :P

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

At the pension we found a pretty good map of the area and where we hiked to. We hiked the red line that goes through the R in the upper left corner from Lehner. In fact, I think we got to the dot to the left of the R before you reach the I and then turned around. I think we figured we did about 10km. The Pennocks made it to the ridge where the red trail goes to a Y and then a little bit further from there.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

We ended the night with happy hour and dinner on the porch. It was a little chilly, but still nice. Tomorrow we head to Munich for a night before hoping on the airplane back to the US.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria

"Mad" Ludwig's Castles

After our monstrous hike in the Alps, we decided to take things a little easier and start the morning in Oberammergau. This town is known for their wood carvings and made for a nice morning poking around into the shops before heading off to see some more castles.

The castles on our hit list that day were the castles of "Mad King Ludwig". He became King of Bavaria at the young age of 18. Of course with the title of King he inherited access to the treasury (money) but since he was so young, no real responsibility. Sounds like the Germanic dream doesn't it? Of course all that power and wealth can go to ones head and make them a little... eccentric to say the least.

We started our castle viewing tour at Linderhof, otherwise referred to as Ludwig's "hunting cabin". He had plans for 7 castles and began work on 4 with this one to be the only to be completed. Remember, The Residenz - the opulent family palace, wasn't enough of a home and so he commissioned these others to expand his portfolio.

This castle was the smallest of the ones he had commissioned (and hence why it was finished) paid homage to King Luis the Fourteenth. All of the family portraits on the inside were of the French noble lineage and King Luis's family. The castle is surrounded by fabulous scenery and lavish gardens with fountains and surrounding buildings.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

My favorite part of the tour was our guide explaining Ludwig's trip to Versailles for inspiration in building his own castles (modeling after Luis XIV). Upon arrival, he found the Versailles had been turned into a museum and thought that was the most appalling thing to see King Luis XIV's home being toured by the public. His visit would have been different being of noble lineage. Upon his return he made a special note in his will and made it known that if he were to pass, his servants were ordered to fill the castles with dynamite and blow all of his castles to high heaven. As we can see, this did not happen. He died a mysterious death at the age of 41 and 3 months following his death, the castles were opened to the public to help repay the money he has spent building them because he had basically bankrupted the country.

The craziest thing on the grounds is the grotto he decided he wanted to have. Apparently he wanted a cave to host operas (for an audience of one - himself) and so he commissioned one to be built out of plaster and mesh and wood framing in the side of the mountain behind his castle. I guess when you have that much money, you can do whatever you want.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

After we had wandered the grounds for a bit, we said goodbye to Linderhof and got on the road for a little while before making a pit stop for lunch along a creek. We got pretty familiar with the grocery store in the Leutasch Valley and had packed a picnic lunch of meat and cheese and bread which was pretty much our staple foods in Germany.


After being fully recharged, we were on our way to Neuschwanstein! The castle that inspired Walt Disney in creating his own. It's really a must see stop if you are in Germany.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

When we arrived, it was still blue sky, but about 300 yards from the car Mike and Rob noticed the sky up ahead was pretty splotchy with dark clouds. They ran back to the car for rain coats and umbrellas. This was quite possibly the best idea of the day.

Neuschwanstein is located on the opposite hill from his family's castle Hohenschwangau, which we didn't have time to visit, but spotted it in the distance on our way to Neuschwanstein.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

This is quite possibly the hottest toursit spot in our whole trip. About every 15 feet there was a little stand trying to sell you something. Our favorite scene was of the Asian tourists taking pictures of the pictures on the calendars. Classic. The view from the top were pretty nice though.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

While we were waiting for our timed entrance, we had some picture ops we took advantage of.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

When our time came, we were shuffled into the lines and zipped right through the castle on their fast paced tour. They have it down to a science to get you through the castle as fast as possible (the whole tour took 15 minutes, maybe 20 at most) only to hurry you on to their two gift shops on the way out of the castles. Not one, but two!! Disney has some more lessons to learn from this place.

Upon exiting, the rain started. It was more annoying than really troubling and made taking pictures a little more interesting. I still managed ok though.

From Linderhof & Neuschwanstein Castles

We were pretty well pooped at this point and decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. We found a tasty Italian restaurant the night before and liked it enough (and we were tired enough) to go back again. We didn't realize how delicious the Italian food would be there because we had forgotten we were only 2 hours from the Italian border. It was marvelous and a lovely way to end the day.

A Hiking We Will Go!

The following morning, the weather was nice and we decided we wanted to hike while we were there (how could we not hike in the Alps?) and so that was our chosen activity for the day. Mike's blog really covers the day in great detail and so I will post a link to his blog here for people to read. Here I will add my commentary on "our hike" which was pretty close to the Pennock's, but as he points out, they move much faster than Rob and I. Some "excuses" for this lag include Rob and I are not in the shape that Mike and Amanda are and in conjunction my heart acts up if the physical activity is intense. With those disclaimers, this is my tale.

We spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what hike we should go and on what map would actually have the information we needed (length, difficulty, etc). It would have been easier if we could read fluent German, but alas, it is a skill that we didn't have. We headed out with backpacks loaded for a jaunt around the valley. Like the Pennock's mentioned, we thought we would not be able to hike into the mountains there so we planned for what we thought we could do. Even given our ultimate route, we faired a little better on planning than the Pennock's, but kicked ourselves for forgetting things like sunscreen which we packed in our big suitacses, but didn't make it to the hiking bag. We had a camel back with water, another full water bottle, a granola bar, and 7 crackers.

After spending some time wondering if we could really hike through a farmers gated cow posse 5 minutes into our adventure, we were off! Shortly after that we found this sign which we were trying to decipher when the nice German came up and explained in good English what to expect.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Mike wanted to know, in not so many words, if we would die trying to hike this and so he asked the nice German man if it was difficult to do. "Difficult dangerous or difficult hard?" "Difficult dangerous." "Oh, not really, only a few small narrow spots, but kids hike here without a problem." I think we collectively all shared the same thought, if kids can do it, we are so going to do this and kick this mountain's ass. This is what the "difficult" trail looked like to start:

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Feeling positive, we set out. For about the first hour, it was like hiking stairs on loose gravel. I had to stop every so often and let my heart wind back down, but we slowly made our way up and enjoyed some of the views through clearing in the trees.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

We finally made it to the clearing where the Pennock's were enjoying the views and resting. Right up until that moment, I was questioning my sanity, but the moment you pop out up there, it is 150% worth it. I know that pictures will never do it justice, but it was just breath taking.

Gorillapod was handy to have so we could get a nice group shot. :)

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Our view from the bench:

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

The trail onward:

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

We continued to poke along lagging the Pennock's by a decent distance, but still within radio range. As we moved along, we started to theororize about what the hut in the far off distance contained. The hut is in the middle of this photo to the left of the dip in the mountain.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

We were starting to feel the toll that the hike was taking on us. Even though we still had enough energy to get back down the mountain, it was getting questionable how much more up we could go and still go back down ok. We radioed up to Mike and made a deal, we would poke along and they would venture on to see what the hut contained. If it really was a hut with food, Rob and I would continue upward, get lunch, rest, and head back down. If it was empty, we would just call it a day and go back. Mike accomplished his task and gave us the disappointing news that it was just a cow hut. Then he went on to say that he was being attacked by a cow. That crazy Mike.

So we started to head back down and just enjoy the views.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Gorillapod really came in handy! I am glad I brought it with me.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

It wasn't too long before the Pennock's caught back up to us and passed us.

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

Mike also wasn't kidding about the heart stopping moments on the hike back down after leaving that meadow. It was treacherous!

From Leutasch Valley, Austria - Hiking

It was the best hike I have ever done and I am sorry we didn't have more time to recover and hike some more. Of course if we were in better shape, that would have been nice too. :) The weather turned to rain the next few days, so we were lucky to do our hike when we did. Truly an amazing experience.