One of my hopes for our travels was to be able to see my siblings, nieces and nephew more often. My brother lives in Switzerland with his wife and two daughters. My sister lives in England with her husband and son. Coordinating schedules across two continents and three countries has proven difficult. As a result, until this year, the three of us have not been in the same place at the same time for 3 years.
This summer, we were incredibly fortunate to vacation together at Lake Garda, Italy. The time was spent applying copious amounts of sunscreen, napping on the beach and sampling gelato.Â
The best part was being able to see the young cousins play together. Â With only a few hiccups, they were close friends who enjoyed swimming, throwing rocks in the water, and conquering the playground together. Â
On the tail of a European heat wave, the weather was still hot and muggy. This was one of the few times during our travels when we desperately wished we had air conditioning.  Instead, in an effort to keep cool, we spent the majority of the time at the beach. Â
The hot temperatures, were the hardest on the dog who wasn’t allowed at the preferred swimming beaches. He spent the majority of the trip with Rich and essentially remained on a constant rotation of cold water plunges in the dog-friendly area of the river. At night we were serenaded by roaring scooters (that sounded as though they were speeding directly through our bedroom) and a wet dog panting in our ears. Â
There was an exceptionally close competition between Züri and Caleb to determine who could retrieve the most sticks from the water.Â
Lake Garda is a popular location for wind surfing. Although we didn’t participate in any windsurfing, we did enjoy stand up paddle boarding on the lake and river. It was the first time on a paddle board for a few and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Even Züri got to SUP for the first time! He was slightly confused at first and seemed to view it more as a diving board (jump on, jump off!). But after providing a few soggy treats for remaining on the board, he got the hang of it. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that he enjoyed it, after all it involves water and being close to his human.
Another highlight was an adventure to Forte Garda, a Austro-Hungarian concrete fortress on Mount Brione. On the only rainy day, we took the oldest two kids to explore the fort. It was a short walk up and they were able to run around the maze-like fort for hours. The fort was filled with narrow hallways, tunnels and intriguing dead-ends. It vaguely reminded me of playing at Fort Worden in Washington State as a child (without the aroma of urine). It was impossible to suppress a smile listening to giggles echoing through the fort as they chased one another in the halls.
The short and soggy hike back to the bottom was rewarded with hot chocolate.
This entire trip was about creating memories. Â And memories shared with both of my siblings and their children will be at the top of this list!
