Gruyeres, Switzerland

Well, we are back in Switzerland after 3 weeks in the U.S. over the holidays. Our overnight flight back was highlighted by a whopping one hour of sleep for Mason. He was so excited to be on the plane, all he did was talk at full volume until about 3:30 a.m. before finally crashing shortly before landing. Anyone on the plane considering having children have now probably chosen instead to employ additional forms of birth control.
It was great to get back home and see everyone, but we are also excited to be back in Switzerland - especially now that ski season is here...well, sort of. As luck (or global warming) would have it, we are having one of the warmest winters on record here, and many of the ski resorts are not even open yet. Luckily, we live close to some resorts with many runs at very high altitudes, so the ski season hasn't been a total loss so far. I have been going to Verbier the past few weekends, and the snow has been surprisingly pretty good. The temps are actually supposed to start dipping below freezing this week, so we hope that some better skiing conditions are on the way.
In the meantime, we continue to do some exploring around Switzerland. Last weekend, we visited the medieval village of Gruyeres, the home of the famous Gruyere cheese that is commonly used in fondue recipes. The village and its castle are protected by fortress walls and sits on top of a small hill, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Besides fondue restaurants, sweets shops and souvenir stands, Gruyere also has one surprising feature - a very spooky-looking museum dedicated to the Swiss artist who designed the aliens from the movie Alien. Across from the museum was a bar that was designed to look like the inside of the Alien spaceship from the original Alien movie. Actually, it was pretty cool. If it wasn't for Nicole and Mason having zero interest in the museum, I probably could have spent some time in there. If you look at the pictures on Shutterfly, you can see Mason holding onto the museum's railing, which is shaped like the Alien's tail. Of course the trip wouldn't have been complete (at least in Nicole's mind) without a fondue dinner, followed by another Gruyere specialty, meringue served with heavy cream. It is hard to believe the Swiss eat like this and don't look like the contestants on "The Biggest Loser".