Brad, Megan, Brecken, and Ashley in the Science Museum in Milano.

Kindra, Me, Ian, and Mitzi in front of the castle we found on the way to France.

Here's where I got my ticket for speeding in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
7-3-10 Saturday
Today was BUSY!! We had to clean and pack for 8 people! Fortunately the kids help A LOT! That is good because they are the reason for the mess! We got out of there in record time and had left the house sparkling, we received an email from the Italian lady we traded houses with and she was very sweet. She wants to keep in touch which we would enjoy. I feel like these people are “my European family”. They go out of their way to leave us gifts and treats, the kids usually get a bottle of Coke and they give us a bottle of wine or a couple of beers. I don’t think they know we are LDS and don’t drink alcohol, but that is ok, we were still thankful for the thought that was involved. We feel so lucky to have this experience! Well anyway we started the long drive for Lac Annecy. On the way we stopped in Milan to see the Leonardo Di Vinci Science Museum. I didn’t go in because Mitzi was asleep and she was so tired we thought we would let her sleep. Apparently I didn’t miss much, the kids said very little was about Leonardo Di Vinci and that is what took us to the museum in the first place. It was hot inside with a lot of people. So we were on the road again. We drove a couple more hours and stopped at the border between Italy and France. We saw a castle that was pretty neat and I needed to stretch my legs so we stopped and it was interesting looking, but because it was a small town, they didn’t have any English tour guides. We missed out on all of the info on the castle. Although at the end as we were looking at the outside of the castle we saw these faces that had been added to the top of the castle in the middle ages. A lady who could apparently was bilingual turned to us and said, “The guide just said that they used to believe that those faces would ward off evil”. The faces were not scary like gargoyles, they were just very simple faces. It was interesting to learn. It does amaze me when I see the measures that were taken to fortify the castle (the 3 meter thick walls, arrow slits, draw bridge, moat etc.) how violent these people were! They didn’t live very long lives and most of it was spent just surviving! Anyway we had to meet our next family; we were staying at their house and we told them we would be there between 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The French family was going to be here for a couple of days before leaving France for our house in Utah. It was a house swap. They said something about having dinner with them and I was hoping I could remember enough French to get us by! They were a super nice family, mom, dad,22 yr old girl and a 16 yr old boy and a 13 yr old boy. They had made us dinner! I remembered enough French to get us by. Thank goodness! They showed us around and then left. I loved the way the woman had decorated her house! She was originally from Paris and had a very vogue modern, whimsical taste. I would just walk around admiring her style. The girl was in an internship in engineering and was also an artist. Brecken of course wanted her room. They had left us mountain bikes to use and the lake was maybe 2 minutes ride away. It was beautiful, kind of an aquamarine green. We were excited for our stay here! It was going to be nice to have internet again and the kids were going to love swimming, boating and the bikes. It was a very long day but it was going to be a fun 2 weeks in Annecy!!!