Clark's Birthday, Milan and Switzerland!

 We had fun celebrating Clark's birthday with Chloe. The actual birthday came and we celebrated with Darrell & Stacie & co and Grandma and Grandpa! 

Eric starts home MTC tomorrow I think, and then soon heads to Brazil!!! We're going to miss him!

Always fun celebrating with family!

Haha I didn't realize that Elden tried to make his hair look similar to Eric's. Well, that is what I am seeing anyway!

Since we were able to go to Eric's endowment on Saturday, we decided to stay Sunday up in PA as well.  Then we headed off to the airport for an overnight flight to Milan!

So excited for our trip!!!

We did some repacking and braiding waiting for our flight. We also met a couple from the UK. We had fun chatting with them. 

Nice! That's where Darrell works! 

Gotta say, airplace food is really fun!  Of course there are parts that aren't so great, but overall I really have liked the meals I've been served. And I'm always amazed at how much food you get in such a little tray. 

Stepping on London land! Headed to Milan!

Goodbye England!

We made it!

A bit tired, but on our way to downtown Milan. We took the subway there with our luggage. I think the subway was pretty easy to navigate and I don't remember it being a problem at all.

We arrived very close to the Duomo di Milano. Duomo means cathedral. This one is epic!  We took some pictures then found the restaurant Lee booked to store our luggage at.  

The Metro stop is literally right there. So nice. 

The blue Pizzeria sign is where we stored the luggage and then decided to eat dinner there too. 

We walked back to the Duomo di Milano. Here is the apostle Bartholomew, holding his skin since he was flayed to death. 

We then went to Santuario di San Bernardino alle Ossa. It has a room with skulls and bones in it.

Sheldon served his mission here and this was his frist area. He told us to eat here, but it was closed. 

Walking around Milan. In this mall there is an intersection, like a 4-way stop, but a 4-way intersection. On each corner: Prada, Gucci, Versace & Louis Vuitton. So lux!  Thought I had a picture.....

We then ate at the Pizzeria. They got Shanna's order wrong sadly... We grabbed our luggage and headed back to the airport where we picke up our rental. We must have set a small bag on the ground because we lost some cords and random stuff. Thankfully it wasn't super important. 

We drove about an hour out of Milan. We are all super tired. The rental was a small SUV. Normally in the states it would just be a 5 seater. But there were 7 seats in it and the trunk was literally a foot deep or smaller.  Ha, we were squished! 

We stayed at this random countryside hotel of sorts. We had the hardest time finding our room. It was up top, past an upper terrace. And it was late at night. We wasted a ton of time trying to find it. We found the boys' room just fine. Time to get a bit of sleep and head out early in the morning to hit the first part of our long road trip!

We stopped at an Aldi in Switzerland for breakfast. Today the goal was to drive through part of Switzerland and end up in France that night.

Of course we needed to stop in the Swiss Alps!

Haha, a Swiss Micky D's.

We stopped at a tourist attraction, Glacier 3000. There is a cable car that you ride to the top. We saw legit Swiss cows with cow bells!  Definitely wanted to watch Heidi and eat bread and cheese. 

I thought this stop was about $30ish a person. For some reason I was way off.  It was about $100 a person. Yelp! We drove all the way there, so went ahead. 

Wow, pretty gorgeous!  And it was cold of course!

There is a suspension bridge there where you can walk between one mountain peak to another...only bridge in the world like that!

Too bad it was cloudy. From here on a clear day you can see Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn and Jungfrau.

It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be at the top of the peak. Still cold, but bearable.

The main reason I wanted to come here was to ride the coaster. But the track was frozen. That's why I was thinking it was only $30 per person. I didn't know about the cable car to the top. We got to ride the ski lift as much as we wanted. 

There is a little "park" where you can sled. Cal, Elden and I went sledding in the Alps.

The awesome cows!

We left the Alps and kept traveling through Switzerland. It took awhile to drive because the toll roads seemed really expensive and difficult to even figure out. So I'm glad we skipped the tolls there. Trying to figure out the gas pumps was tricky for Lee. Loved seeing a nun pumping gas. 

France!  We got here mid-day I think. And we did do the toll roads in France. 

Here is our rental! At a French restarea.

I drove some on the "freeway" in France. I was a bit nervous, but it went great. The roadside stops were AMAZING. Best country to take a road trip. Free bathrooms at the gas stations!  And they had a lot of pulloffs and restareas. 

That evening we stayed in Versailles, or right next to the town of Versailles. We went to the correct hotel chain, wrong location. We found the right location, then headed out. We were looking for an easy place for dinner, but ended up stopping at a random convenience store and grabbing sandwhiches and such. It was a bit sketchy, but we found food. I'm a boring person to travel with if one wants amazing eats. Haha. I found a couple of places I wanted to eat, but when I travel I'm more focused on the experiences and sites...not the food. Though of course food can be an experience too. Just not my focus.