Lasting in Time

Our second day in Innsbruck was amazing!

After trying to get to the top of one mountain and several epic fails at getting a tram to the top Thomas came up with the idea of going up to Stubai Glacier.

There was a tram that went up there too.

This was one of those days and experiences that will for ever last in time for me.

Apparently up at Stubai, there was still enough snow to ski.

So there is a lot of snow.

There are people all decked out for winter sport.

I...

I am in my flats, crops and a light jacket.

I got a lot of strange looks.

I'm going let the photos do most of the talking here:

Thomas was confused why I wanted a shot with this big guy...

We were all pretty excited to finally have some lunch!!

I'm quite impressed with my knodel soup and fries.

mmmmm... sausage

Can you believe how high up we were?! This is about a fourth of the way down the tram!

This is about half way.

 These two shots go to show you how much the angle of a shot can change your face...

After our glacier adventure we went back to our hotel in Igls to change and get ready for an evening at Thomas' friends house in Innsbruck.

This was something we were really looking forward to. Leo (Thomas' friend) was going to be barbecuing for us at his place! We were having the lasting moments being with people who live there and not just going on a guided tour.

This is the view from the balcony that Leo was BBQ-ing on.

And let me tell you! Leo can cook! He can BBQ! Did you know you can BBQ cheese? Ya! So awesome! It's a certain kind of cheese, but mmm mmm it is delish!

Marc's awesome selfie from the awesome window at Leo's

Leo can also entertain! Leo's friend Judith came to join us too! The 5 of us had such a great time talking and laughing and being goofy! I truly felt like we left Leo's home with 2 new friends!

We gave Leo and Judith quite a shock when we announced something about ourselves. No, it wasn't us being Mormon that shocked them, it was the fact that we have been married for 18 years and have 3 kids. They said we just looked so young.

Best. Compliment. Ever.

I love being young.

I love feeling young.

But to hear that I still look young is a great one to hear sometimes.

We did, however, end up clarifying some things about being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). It was really neat for me to feel like I could enlighten someone who wasn't a member of the LDS church. It strengthened my own testimony and reminded me of why I love being a member of this church.

After many hardy laughs, great jokes, hilarious stories and quirky comments we had to pause to take a photo to remember the night.

Our "selfie" didn't turn out too well so Leo sent me the one from his camera—that I helped him learn how to use. I hope you remember that Leo. (wink)

Then we had dessert! Mmmmmm! Chocolate, berries and ice-cream!

We didn't leave Leo's place until 11:30 that night.

 I hope that one day we will be able to cook great food for Judith and Leo if they can every come out to Utah to visit! (hint, hint)

So back to the present, I have been having fun making YouTube videos of Our Life. It's nothing huge but I do hope it brings awareness of Fragile X Syndrome and hopefully cheer people up and make them laugh.

Without further adieu, here is Episode 3

When We Went to Innsbruck

So getting back to journaling our amazing vacation...

After Salzburg we drove to Innsbruck and then just above there to Igls where our hotel was. We had a few issues with our room... well, let me clarify, Thomas had problems with his room and with parking his car. It all worked out but made for some interesting parking maneuvers once we had a spot. After that we figured we should at least get a snack before heading down into Innsbruck.

So we went to one spot that looked kind of cute and waited... and waited... and took come pictures...


Then we got tired of waiting around...

So we decided to take a bus down to Innsbruck because we didn't want to have to try parking Thomas' car again.

While we were waiting for the bus,  Thomas spotted a small bakery.



Of course he had to go get something. We had waited and waited at the other spot and never got something to eat so he was still hungry. We went into the bakery and there was a sweet, small, old lady who was doing the serving and she was having a very hard time hearing Thomas. We kind of gave each other the "O-Kaaaayyy" look and then just went about our business. He bought us some fun looking pastries and then we ran to catch the bus. Thomas and I were so excited to eat our treats... mine didn't taste that great though... but I didn't want to say anything and I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like anyway. Then Thomas took a bite of his... he almost spit it out and continued to inform me that they were old and tasted nasty, so I felt better about not liking it so much, it sure looked tasty. I think the pastries may have been as old as the lady working there... just sayin'.

Disappointed in wasting money on stale food we rode down to Innsbruck looking forward to dinner in a few hours.

We knew we only had a short time in Innsbruck that night and would be coming back tomorrow, so we just went through it all quick.

What are these tourists all looking at?

Oh just a roof made out of solid gold... no biggy...

OK, OK, it was pretty awesome!

We walked the streets and took in the sights of the building and the people as we roamed and took pictures.

This is one thing that was crazy to us was to see the rail lines run through the streets along with the cars driving.
People really know how to maneuver in Europe... or we just didn't hear about any accidents.

We decided since we didn't have much time that we should look for some souvenirs to bring back for our parents. I had been seeing this little replicas of old coo coo clocks that looked like one we had in our house as a kid. I saw some cute magnets and was able to get some for a good deal in on of the shops. The lady was quite happy to have us there and talked Thomas' ear off as Marc and I looked around. She didn't speak English so Thomas was kind enough to keep her happy while we were there.

Then were very ready for dinner.

We decided to go to a chain restaurant called VaPiano. It was an Italian restaurant that seemed like it had quite a bit of flair and some hip diners there. The atmosphere was good and so was the food. I really wouldn't have minded eating there again.

This is Marc waiting for the food to be cooked that he had ordered. They cook the food while you watch and wait. Pretty cool.

We sat outside after dinner to enjoy our desserts and we stayed and talked till it was dark.

After we left I had realized that we forgot to take a picture so we had to sneak one after we had already crossed the street to leave.

Hee hee! Marc's cheeser grin!

We got back to the hotel:

Got into our comfies and the three of us sat out on the patio and talked and made plans for the morrow, then we went back into the room because it was getting a bit cold, and we shared funny YouTube videos. We laughed until we were too tired to laugh and we all retired to bed.

In the morning we woke up bright and early, met downstairs for breakfast and headed out to take our bus back into Innsbruck with the intent to take a tram up the mountain there in Innsbruck. We rode there on the bus then got off to walk around the area again so I could capture some of what we saw the night before on my camera.

These things were everywhere. I thought they we just for decoration and until I read "Trinken Wasser" which means "Drinking Water in German. Now those are some cool drinking fountains, just a tad tricky to drink out of.

After our quick walk about we were off to find the tram station to take us up this mountain.

Thomas was trying to figure out what was going on at the station because there was not around and it looked like there was some sort of renovation or cleaning, we were informed that this station was closed, but the next station up was open.

...

So we took another bus to the next station.

...

Guess what...

It was closed too.

We were a bit frustrated with our multiple bus rides and fares spent so I tried to cheer us up, and what better way to cheer up but with a friends' vacation selfie.

This was the view from where we were standing. Pretty amazing. Oh, and Innsbruck has hosted the Olympics twice. If you look toward the back middle of the photo (above all the buildings and more in the trees) you can see the slide for the ski jumps.

Well, with our plans being foiled and not many other options, Thomas came up with something else we could shoot for.

Next time is about Stubai Glacier.