Day 353 - Red Light

Thought of the day: It had been cold and raining today. It even snowed a little bit at some point. Of course, with such a warm ground temperature, the snow melted as soon as it reached the ground. We mostly stayed inside the house, played games and enjoyed the last few days of company of our house guests. It was a relaxing day and the kids loved having so many adults around to play with.

Photo of the day: 

Dinner at Carelli's.  The restaurant always has a nice ambiance. With its warm interior lighting and large fire places, it feels especially cozy and welcoming in a cold day like today.

Day 264 - Pikes Peak

Thought of the day: We spent a lazy morning at the hotel pools.  Lila was still too young for the water slides, but she had fun hanging onto the edge of the infinity pool and looking out onto the neighboring lake.  The sight of swans, ducks, and large fish in the lake was very amusing for her.  At a blissful moment when I was sitting on the lounge chair, drinking a cold Pina Colada and watching the kids playing merrily in the water, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of joy as intense as the bright Colorado sun that's surrounding us.  On a day like this, in a setting like this, there's no room for any dark or murky feelings.  No matter where we are and who we are with, spending time at the pools never fails to bring about a sense of happiness and well-being for me.  Yes, pools and summer are inseparable - one wouldn't have made sense without the other.

Photo of the day:

We took a cog train up to the summit of Pikes Peak this afternoon. At the elevation of over 14,000 feet, the view  on top was pretty amazing.  Katharine Bates wrote the song "America the Beautiful" after taking in the views here. It was a cloudy afternoon so the view was not as spectacular as it could have been on a sunny day, but the rain clouds made some pretty interesting images nevertheless. On the way down, we ran into some rain and soon afterward everybody on the train was elated to see double rainbows rising above the railway. The weather in the morning and in the afternoon couldn't have been any more different, as a typical Coloradan summer day should be.

Day 238 - Drink

Thought of the day: I can't believe that the Greek trip is over and we are already back in Switzerland. If life is but a dream, the Greek trip is a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. It's a lot of layering but we'll eventually wake up from all our dreams, layer by layer, and return to eternity. Thankfully, in the same way that a bright moment makes a day special, a trip like this makes the dream of life worthwhile.

Photo of the day:

We had a late flight but had to check out at noon.  Luckily, we were able to spend the rest of the day at the hotel pool.  It was another warm day - perfect for a frozen strawberry daiquiri at the pool!

Day 227 - Wine Glasses

Thought of the day: On Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse this afternoon, I couldn't help noticing that most people dressed elegantly and smartly and there seemed to be a wide variety of styles on display.  Occasionally I saw men walk by wearing simple t-shirts and blue jeans but that was certainly not ubiquitous as in the US.  It looked like people here had the time and means to shop and pay for good clothes and they liked to dress up nicely just for the sake of it. To my surprise, in Coop's Men's clothing section, I saw some very fresh tones of red, orange, purple and even pink.  I would definitely consider the colors of some of the men's scarfs too fresh for myself. Both in the store and on the streets, I saw a number of otherwise ordinary looking men wrapped in some of these very gay colors.  Is this a new fashion?  It may not be a bad thing for men to break the women's dominance in fresh colors in clothing.  Indeed, it seems totally unfair for women to have choices of clothes in all conceivable colors and patterns while the men are confined to the palette of gray, blue, black, occasionally red and yellow and almost always dull patterns.  After all, just like a ponytail can sometimes make a man look more masculine, fresh color clothes have the potential of making a man look more interesting.

Photo of the day:

Two wine glasses inside a restaurant on Bahnhofstrasse.  The restaurant looked interesting from outside because the interior decorations were done predominantly in a deep, rich red color.