staycation

This week the kids had neither school nor summer activities, Daniel took the week off, and I was home. Time for some quality family bonding through enriching day trips!

That was the idea, anyway. Our ambitious plans and optimistic moods were tempered by the summer heat. But a couple of somewhat-enriching day trips did happen. And we acquired three new Ikea bookcases. So, there.

On Monday we drove to Bad Ragaz and took a hike through the Tamina Gorge to the source of hot springs that have made this a spa destination since the middle ages. The gorge itself was beautifully cool - such a nice break from the heat - but not to pass up an opportunity to torture our children, after a nice lunch we hiked up, up, up to the monastery at Pfäfers and then back down to Bad Ragaz via some cool castle ruins. On the way home we cooled off again at the "beach" at the south end of the Walensee.

Kids. Ruins. View.

On Tuesday we couldn't agree on a destination and ended up doing a Foxtrail scavenger hunt through downtown Baden, eating lunch at a Filipino restaurant, shopping a bit, and then going to the pool(s) there. Undoubtedly there are less commercial things we could have done, but all in all it was a pretty good day. I don't think I'll ever get over being impressed by Swiss Badis. In the evening Daniel went to Ikea and picked up the bookcases (yay for click-and-collect service!).

"Sweet Memories of Cebu"

On Wednesday, Caroline had an appointment at the children's hospital to get an H. pylori test because of the bad stomachaches she had when school re-started after the lockdown. I had forgotten what a stressful place the children's hospital is and we were glad when we could get out of there. 

On Thursday, I introduced Caroline to the joys of building Ikea furniture ("like Kiwi Crates for grownups!") and we rearranged her room to incorporate one of the new bookcases. Then, feeling ambitious, I kept going in Christopher's room. Did you ever order three new bookcases thinking they would give you lots of new storage room, only to realize that you had three bookcases' worth of extra books stuffed into existing bookcases and/or lying in piles around the house? Asking for a friend.

Looks like it's time to go book shopping.

Friday was the last vacation day in which we had nothing scheduled and could go adventuring one last time and...we didn't. We built another bookcase and broke a little plastic bit, then decided to go to Ikea to pick up the little plastic bit, which of course was free but somehow we also walked out with $80 worth of stuff...hmm... Then we came home, put the plastic bit in, and I promptly stepped on the skirting board at the bottom of the bookcase and snapped it in two. Ugh. Moving on, we had fish stick tacos (a house specialty) for dinner and they were yummy. After bedtime I was chatting with my brother and thinking about the group lunch for the volunteers who work on the kids' services at church (which I didn't particularly want to go to) and starting work again next week (which I'm dreading) and my stomach started getting tight and I thought oooh, ok, I should get to bed - but apparently too late, because half an hour later and six more times during the night I was in the bathroom living fish stick tacos in reverse. It was kind of a relief to have an excuse to skip the group lunch, but I was petrified that I'd caught some intestinal version of the coronavirus and was about to give it to my family and I'd have to get tested and we'd all be in quarantine and the kids wouldn't be able to start school and and and...in the end I spent most of Saturday in bed and didn't eat all day, but today I felt fine, so I guess it was just some extra fun psychosomatic thing which I hope NOT to repeat this week when I have to go to work (though also I hope to take this not-subtle message from my stomach seriously and find a way to gracefully back out of work, the sooner the better).

Just like in Baja, only different.

Both kids are nervous about starting school tomorrow and I hope it goes well, especially on the corona front. It's supposed to storm all night and be cooler tomorrow, so that's something.