Sorrento and Capri

In October, I went to a conference in Sorrento. This town in Italy by Mount Vesuvius is a town that Katie and I stumbled upon when we were traveling through Italy and Greece as 20-year-olds back in our college days. We love Sorrento so much and going back, I feel like it hasn't changed. Obviously, it is still quite touristy but since it was October, it wasn't too bad. It was sunny, beautiful, and warm. The conference was super duper busy but I did get a chance to take a morning run around the town. On the one free day that we had a the end of the week, I went to the island of Capri. Due to our disappointing visit to Lake Como earlier in the summer, I was ready to be disappointed by the island of Capri. Like Lake Como, it seems to be a very American destination. However, probably due to it being October once again, I enjoyed it so much. With Olia and her family, we went all around the tiny island and saw some incredibly beautiful natural sights. The weather was perfect and it was such an enjoyable visit. 

Mount Vesuvius in the bottom right picture seen from the area by the hotel. 

The north side of the island was where we arrived and departed. Such cute streets and passageways! 

We found a cute place in the south where there was a swimming hole. And these cactuses in the lower left put me right back in San Diego climate!

Trips Around Switzerland (Part IV)

[Previous trips around Switzerland: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part3.5; and Activities Nearby]

We've had a few more trips and activities around Switzerland through the summer and fall. 

Church retreat in Leysin

Lab retreat in Zermatt
We had the most amazing weather and did a hike up around the Matterhorn area.

Day trip to Zurich & Zug
We walked around the Zurich and climbed up the Grossmunster, from where we got some nice city views. Then, we took the train to Zug and walked by the lake with some good friends who live in the area.

Scarecrow festival in the our and surrounding towns
This involved a parade that stopped in a town up the hill from us where there was a huge community dinner. Then, the floats continued down the hill and were handing out candy to kids and adult drinks to the parents. Finally, there was a grape harvest presenting ceremony to the town officials and a huge drum and fireworks show. It was an awesome afternoon/night, especially for the kids who obviously loved it (although fell asleep before the crazy fireworks show).

Trout Path Hike in the area a bit north of us

Chase actually walked the whole way and the kids loved finding the trout signs. 

Olympic Museum

I already posted about this before, but this summer with Chase a bit older and my mom in town, we went to the Olympic Museum for real. It's quite a good one for grown-ups and kids alike, and right next to the lake in Ouchy. 

UK work trip

In September, I went on a work trip to the UK to go to a conference in Brighton. Since there were a few of us going, we decided to go to London the weekend before. Our last trip to London was quite disappointing, but this time, I enjoyed London a lot more. The parks were greener and more welcoming, and we even saw real sun for a while! We obviously walked around a lot and ate a lot of good food, but also visited the Tate Modern Museum and a few fun markets and areas. 

Brighton, on the other hand, was more depressing. As it was September and it seems to be more of a summer destination, most places were bare-boned or just closed. It was nice to get views of the ocean right from the hotel and the idea of the boardwalk was cool, but the rain and wind made it overall a sad destination.  

The only picture of the Brighton I took as there wasn't much of anything else there picture-worthy. The sky was like this most of the time.