Jamis and Marcie were headed off to Salzburg for a few days, so before they left we took a stroll down memory lane by visiting the area where the Charles family lived in Switzerland when they were younger. Unfortunately it was a rather cloudy/foggy day, which really cut down on the blow-your-mind-beauty of the views, but the brightly painted houses and charming velvet green meadows were enough to keep Marcie impressed.
And do I even need to say it? We left much later than we planned, so the chocolate factory had just closed for the lunch break just as we pulled up to the parking lot. Not even the outlet store was still open. So we decided to continue on to Appenzell, and hit the factory on the way back. Our first stop was the cheese factory in Stein and lunch at the restaurant there. We ate there when Aunt Liz and Simon visited a year earlier, and the kids had not stopped talking about it since.
The kids made a big show of looking at the entire menu, discussing the pros and cons of each entree, but we all knew what we were going to get before we even left the house; Fondue made with Appenzeller cheese, and Rösti topped with melted Appenzeller. It was as delicious as we remembered. 
Sarah gets totally creeped out by the animal skulls hanging on the walls of the restaurant, and Chris would have loved to eat, but can’t because of his food allergies. So they ate the lunch I had packed them in the car. Sounds kind of sad, but trust me, they were happy as clams. Sarah loves one-on-one time with Papa as much as he loves a break from the crowd. 🙂
After we had watched the milk get stirred around in the giant cauldrons for a long enough, we drove to downtown Appenzell. The kids have been there so often lately, that they ran right to their favorite spots, ignoring everything else. They always have to go inside the tiny church right on the main road of the pedestrian zone. It’s just big enough for 3 small pews and a few candles, but it has a gorgeous painting and the kids love watching the light from the flames flicker on the darkened walls.
We also stopped at the bakery for a few treats. Yes, we had just eaten, but this was more dessert. 😉 Then we went to the toy store and played with the bubble station they have set up right out front while the adults took turns shopping. We are now the proud owners of a cow bell! I use it to call everyone to meals, works like a charm and is much easier than calling them all through the whole house.
We left town and drove over to the small village of Eichberg, to see the house they lived in as children. I could tell Jamis was really wrestling with ringing the bell and asking to see the inside, or not, but eventually decided seeing it from the outside was enough. We were out front so long that the neighbor across the street must have gotten nervous. She came out to ask us what was going on, and what we wanted. Jamis told her he used to live there as a child, and would be leaving soon. Then she got all excited, because she remembered him! Meanwhile, Chris was sitting in the car, getting more and more worried about the time. He knew we still wanted to hit the chocolate factory on the way home, and we were going to get caught in rush hour traffic if we didn’t get going. But some things just can’t be rushed, and so we ended up getting stuck right smack dab in the middle of it. But I think it was worth it in the end.
It ended up being a very full, very fun, very tiring day.